An Angry Sky

   Usually when you think of bad weather in Florida, you think of hurricanes. Well, Monday was a day of tornadoes. Two of them came a little too close to the island to suit me.

    At 4:00 p.m. there was one spotted thirteen miles west of Apalachicola and headed our way. The wind picked up, and the sky started changing by the second. The lightning flashed continually and put on a spectacular show and you could hear the waves on the gulf side of the island crashing onto the shore.
   Standing on the top deck of the house gave us a great view of the changing sky with small funnels trying to form. The main funnel cloud had formed behind the houses and as much as the weather fascinates me, I've never boasted being a storm chaser. This was close enough.

   The second tornado formed at 3:30 a.m.. John woke me up and said St. George Island was in the direct path of another tornado. But, honestly, I was too tired to care. With the heavy rain that wasn't letting up during the day, I found myself up late into the night, doing whatever it took to keep the water out of my house. Before it was all over, we received nine inches of rain in less than 24 hours. (Good thing I'd just built a boat!)
   Fortunately, both tornadoes broke up over the bay and the island was spared. And any damage that occurred was due to flooding along the Apalachicola River. And anyone living along side of it was advised to evacuate. 
   The time I spent in the middle of the night, protecting the house, proved to be time well spent. The water stayed outside where it belongs. Now the skies are blue again and the shelling ought to be great!

    *  I wrote this early in the day, and through the day I was informed that the tornadoes didn't break up over the bay like I thought. They actually came across the island. One of them cut across 6th street on the east end. (I'm located around 6th street on the west end). And the other cut across the State Park, on the east end. As far as I know, their paths were such that luckily there wasn't any damage.