Tropical Storm Debby – Second to Hit this Season

Debby’s Rainfall in the last 48hrs

Tropical weather is not abnormal around here. We moved to Florida, we expect these things to happen. It is inevitable.

We lived in Hampton Roads, Virginia many years. That area had been prone to direct hits by tropical storms/hurricanes, even the effects of those hitting the US coast line further south. We are used to this type of weather.

However, when we moved to the Jacksonville area back in 2003, we became familiar with the fact Jacksonville is usually not in the direct path of tropical storms/hurricanes. In fact, the last direct hit had been in 1964 when Hurricane Dora came through.

Until this year.

TS Beryl came through on Memorial Day. A direct hit. She was quick and left with very little damage. (You can see my previous post on this here.)

TS Debby formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, June 23rd, 2012. Her projected track was all over the place. She was so undecided she hung out in the Gulf for days. She began creeping towards the Florida coast, but because her bands were so far-reaching, it started raining on Saturday. It wasn’t much, at first. But Sunday brought heavier rain. And all through the night is dumped on us.

Monday’s drive into work took double the time because of the heavy rain and the flooding in the streets. I should have taken the truck. 😛

Monday Debby barely moved. The deluge of rain continued. The rivers and creeks rose. And the streets flooded. Not just the streets. Houses. Businesses. They even closed off parts of the Interstate. Now we have sinkholes forming and people are stuck in their neighborhoods.

The last time we had a slew of tropical storms/hurricanes come over top of us in one season was back in 2004. The eye did not come directly over Jacksonville, but the effects are far-reaching. Bonnie, Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne all came through that year. We had lots of rain, a bit of flooding and lots of downed trees. People went without power for days, sometimes weeks in some parts of the area.

My 2004 Hurricane Tracker

If these two storms (one BEFORE the official start of Hurricane Season, and this one so early in the season) is any indication of what’s to come, we’ve got our year cut out for us.

Here’s some other pictures from around the area.

Our local Mall photo by Chris Mack	I-10 and Cassat Avenue DOT camera
The rains bring out all kinds of critters photo by Lisa Cruse	17th Green at TPC Sawgrass
US-218 just west of Middleburg photo by Don Shaver	Waterfalls are beautiful, but not when they aren’t supposed to be there!

We had been suffering a severe drought with loads of wildfires. Now, I think we’ve fixed that problem. And then some.

Wish we could take some of that 20 inches of rainfall and give it to our friends out in Colorado!

The skies finally cleared!