Boy oh boy did we ever have a big flood tide last evening here in the golden isles. People with fixed boat docks that are ten or twelve feet above the water's surface at a normal low tide found their deckboards almost under water about 8:45 PM.
And this without a big easterly wind, no less. Water was also up on the grass shoulder and concrete bike paths along the Torras Causeway in several places.
The thing about our only road connecting St. Simons Island with the mainland which I find rediculous is that the rocket scientists down at the the Georgia Department of Transportation have rebuilt the roadway twice in the past twenty years and there are still two sections of asphalt that hover only a couple of feet above high tide.
The most recent "reconstruction" that has just been completed this summer did nothing about the roadway elevation in the process of widening the median and shoulders of the paved areas.
I see trouble coming for us as a result the first time a real hurricane blows our way. We've been told that if you're inclined to wait too long after the voluntary evacuation order is issued, that by the time the manditory evacuation notification comes along you can't leave unless you own an airplane or helicopter because the causeway is closed and under water.
How stupid is that?
I've slowly been adding to my hurricane stockpile over the past few years, with this year's addition including a spanking new 2300 watt generator that is still sitting in the unopened box in our carport storage closet waiting to see it's first sip of gasoline.
I also spend much of my time tripping over gallon jugs of water and extra cases of bottled water found lurking in the bottom of the clothes closets here in the condo. I should own stock in Eveready Battery to take advantage of the boost in annual profits produced from me acquiring my inventory of D cell batteries for the radio and flashlights.
This Spring, in a moment of weakness I almost bought a 40' x 90' fabric tarp from Lowes, but then I had second thoughts about having to store something in a box the size of a small refrigerator.
The other day I noticed that our local Home Depot doesn't even carry tarps that size, nor do they have things like hurricane shutters or very many generators on display. I mention this fact because I was in a Home Depot down in St. Cloud, Florida last weekend and noticed that they had tarps and shutter components stacked up to the ceiling, along with a giant generator display with six or seven models to choose from.
I suppose that Home Depot's inventory is influenced by the fact that people here in the Golden Isles are either too smug or too stupid to realize that we're lucky because of the geography of the Georgia coast relative to the Gulf Stream and that we're DUE TO TAKE A DIRECT HIT any time now since the last storm hit here in the early 1960's and washed TWO ENTIRE RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS OF HOUSES (streets and all) off of the south end of the island.
If you look at a tax map of Glynn county you will see nearly fifty residential lots that are currently offshore in the Sound adjacent to the shipping channel. I suppose if you are a scuba diver you could get a good deal on the property.
If things get that bad here again so as to start significantly rearranging the real estate map I'll be sitting in the Waycross Georgia Holiday Inn sipping a beer and watching the proceedings on The Weather Channel.
Once the water subsides and the wind quits blowing, if we have anything left I can fire up my generator and wait the obligatory ten days for Georgia Power to get the lights turned back on.
Of course that assumes that the "government officials", police, and National Guard troops don't have the whole island cordoned off and refuse to let me return to my
Speaking of damage, we also purchased renters' contents insurance and FEMA flood insurance for the first time last week. I figure that we've tempted fate for three Hurricane seasons without incurring any real storm damage other than losing the roof to our carport a couple of years ago while we were out of town during a storm, so it was time to get serious about protecting our stuff--at least financially.
I'm brave, but not stupid like most of the idiots that suffered Katrina's wrath and saved two or three hundred bucks a year by not buying flood insurance on their houses when they lived ten feet below sea level (we're four feet ABOVE here.)
We tried unsuccessfully several times in the past to get someone to give us a quote and couldn't find a insurance company interested in our business. Matters are complicated by the fact that you can't buy windstorm insurance if there is anything tropical on the weather map in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico.
FEMA makes you wait for thirty days for the flood insurance to take effect to prevent people from seeing water coming when they look out their window, and placing a phone call to order their product.
As a result of this "30 day rule", our policy doesn't take effect until July 5th.
Keep your fingers crossed, if you will...
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