in the wake of the gale

In the Wake of the Gale

Since moving to Florida, I've faced two direct hits by hurricanes, two direct hits by tropical storms, and numerous close calls. Our last close call was Hurricane Floyd. Although Floyd caused much less damage here than it did in places north, If it had come much closer to the coast, it would have been devastating. The two hurricanes that I experienced first hand were Hurricane Erin, a cat. 1 storm that hit Vero Beach head on, and Hurricane Andrew, a devastating cat. 4 storm that hit the University of Miami campus, just before classes were to get underway my senior year. I have a little story of my Hurricane Andrew experience if you'd like to read it. Although Floyd missed us (barely!), I recorded some of its storm surge damage on film with my new camera.

		Here is a gatefold picture from my University of Miami senior yearbook. Anyone who has received recruitment materials from UM has seen this beautiful fountain prominently displayed as an example of tropical paradise. This is what our beautiful fountain looked like the day after Hurricane Andrew. All over campus, there was hardly a tree that wasn't either ripped out of the ground or stripped of all of or most of it's limbs.
		The pictures on the left show the storm surge and beach erosion damage at Humiston Beach after a direct hit from Hurricane Erin, a cat. 1 storm The pictures on the right show the same type of damage from Hurricane Floyd, a near miss cat. 4 storm. I shudder to think of what damage Floyd could have done if it had come just 50-100 miles closer, or worse yet, actually hit us.
		This picture is of Riomar Beach, one of the places I snorkel. The fallen tree is a great hangout/makeout spot that often finds itself on postcards or in the paper. On the left is a picture taken just a few hours before Erin's landfall. On the right is a picture from the day after Floyd. Notice the difference in the water levels with Floyd at this point hundreds of miles further offshore than Erin.
		After checking out Riomar Beach, I went to the shorefront near the Ocean Grill restaurant. This is a picture of a large wave at low(!) tide, pummeling the seawall protecting the Holiday Inn Oceanside.
		More pictures from Humiston Beach. These waves are rather calmly rolling in, compared to the waves that were rolling in before the storm.
		These pictures show two different shots of the Ocean Grill. The first was taken earlier this summer during a snorkeling trip. The second was taken the day after Floyd. This restaurant fell into the ocean during a powerful tropical storm that uprooted one of our palm trees when it hit in November in the mid-eighties. I remember standing in the eye of that storm...my first in Florida. The restaurant has withstood everything since.
		Driving home to Melbourne down A1A after the storm, I saw alot of flooding damage at the narrow point of the barrier island, just south of the Sebastian Inlet. I stopped to take some pictures of the damage. This dock was one of many that were submerged by the river. On the right is a picture off of Melbourne's boardwalk taken in the twilight hours before Floyd
		Finally, Erin had more powerful winds than Floyd could muster on the Florida coast. This is a picture of the type of damage Erin caused up and down the barrier island and even inland here in Melbourne.

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