Our night with Francis

[hibiscushouse]

For anyone interested, here's our story and some more photo's.
Like so many other people, we lost power on Sunday around 3:00 pm. We own a condo right on the beach in Indian Shores, and found out that the condo never lost power or cable. Around 11:00 pm, the house had gotten pretty warm and the winds had died down. We were going to go over to the mainland to my parents house b/c they had power still. Found out the Belleair beach bridge was closed, so we decided to head to the condo for the night to sleep in the air conditioning.
We now are eligible for the idiot award for that move!
It was pretty calm when we arrived, but within an hour, things started to pick up. Looking at the radar on tv, we thought we were going to get some wind and rain, but should be fine. Slept about an hour total that night as conditions got worse with the constant wind and strong gusts. It was so dark that it was difficult to see what was happening with the Gulf, but every now and then, we got a glimpse of it and could still see that there wasn't any storm surge yet. Watched the news and saw the radar showing more and more yellow and orange with red in it, and wanted to be anywhere else but where we were. Kept hoping the thing would move on, but...well, you know the story. Felt the building swaying around 5:00 am.
Finally, around 7:30 in the morning, once we could see, we jumped in the car and drove back home. I know we didn't have near the wind the east coast did, but what we had coming right off the Gulf was scary enough! It felt a lot stronger than what they were saying the winds were.
Here's some pictures. Some are blurry b/c the wind was pretty strong as I was trying to take them:
Bay looking southeast:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 79_IMG.jpg

Roof shingles off and trampoline blown into back of house across the bay from us:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 81_IMG.jpg

A good friend of ours serving the public during the storm, fireman Jake:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 90_IMG.jpg


Tree down the street from us:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 86_IMG.jpg

Another tree:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 88_IMG.jpg

Early Sunday morning picture of the Gulf:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 98_IMG.jpg

An hour later right before we left. Our hobie still upright:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 94_IMG.jpg

Another picture of the GOM:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 00_IMG.jpg

Gulf Boulevard as we head home, area called 'the narrows':
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 01_IMG.jpg

Street flooding as we enter our neighborhood:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 02_IMG.jpg

Damage to high and dry on mainland across from the beach:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 05_IMG.jpg

The hobie goes down, taken yesterday afternoon as things were finally calming down (it was tied to a cinder block that was buried in the sand):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/ ... 07_IMG.jpg

One good thing that happened is my brother found an injuried adult Osprey. We were able to gather it up and we took it down to the Seabird Sanctuary in Redington. He looked as though he was in shock. All wet and wide eyed with what looked to be an injury to his wing and a leg.

[skysummit]

Wow! Thanks for sharing hibiscus!

[Possum Trot]

I used to live in Madeira Beach south of your condo on Gulf Blvd and I've been wondering how the barrier islands to the west of St. Pete fared. Thanks for the report and the pics. I know Frances shoved a surge up into Tampa Bay flooding downtown Tampa and Bay Shore Drive. Did the beaches ever get a significant surge?

[hibiscushouse]

Once home, we had a couple of phone calls from the people that were above us at the condo as they kept going back into our unit to mop up the wood floors. (the wind was pushing the rain water into the sliding glass door tracks and onto the floor of the condo). She kept us informed about the surge and apparently it got about as far as 15 ft. away from the hobie in the pictures. The hobie is kept right behind where the sea oats start on the beach, so I'd say that was probably 50 ft.- 60 ft. from the parking area underneath the condo.

[hibiscushouse]

I just called on the Osprey. He wasn't injured. He was underweight, and too wet to fly. She said they have a high metabolism and if he was having a hard time finding food for a couple of days then that would cause him to be underweight.
They are hand feeding him, and giving him some vitamins and he should be good to go shortly.