We got brushed by a major storm, and we’d like to make a few comparisons with other storms which came close.  Matthew came by considerably closer in 2016, and absolutely devastated our beach, washing out pieces of A1A and rearranging the beach and dunes. Irma, in 2017, did more of the same.  Dorian was a different beast, and there are several reasons.  First, it was farther offshore.  That makes a lot of difference.  We lost shingles, power lines and a lot of beach in the two prior storms, and none of that with Dorian.  No power outage, either, which may be the most significant difference.

We probably need to thank FLP for replacing our power poles over the summer, and restringing the lines.  We had all new concrete poles set in all along A1A, and I think it made a difference.  This photo is a great representation of the last three storms.  Matthew bent everything it didn’t take down, the pole on the left; Irma is the middle one; with the new concrete pole on the right.  We laugh, now, at calling them telephone poles, because, of course, they’re not. But it seems to have worked, and we are grateful.

The second takeaway is our fence to the north, next to the condo, didn’t blow down for the first time ever.  That has always been a major issue, one requiring lots of post-storm effort.  Again, we are grateful.  But maybe the best takeaway is that the surge, such as it was, re-established our sand bar, which had been nonexistent for many months.  It carried enough sand out to build a bar, with a deep trough just offshore, allowing the waves to break a hundred yards out, like they used to.  Taking advantage, when I saw it, I paddled out yesterday afternoon and caught a couple great little peeling waves.

We were slow in getting to our feet, but the waves were forgiving, there were dolphins nearby, and it was beautiful. We have decided to maybe have a toe-tag or bracelet with our name, address and phone number in case we croak out there and end up at the end of Skinny Island at Ponce Inlet.  It’s all worth it.