Welcome to my delayed #WednesdayWalk created by the wonderful 
By noon, the expected path had moved further south but still expecting the eyewall to hit Venice and arrive earlier than expected Wednesday afternoon. Many people were panicking on social media but far more were very calm. Historically, this area has never been devastated by a hurricane. Some attribute this to ancestral burial grounds of the Nokomis tribe that lived here centuries ago. Others attribute it to the geography of the gulf that would weaken any storm coming directly here.
The rain began Tuesday afternoon around 3pm local time here. The evacuation notice was extended to include all mobile homes and flood zones. Our location was not included and we decided to stay.
Throughout the night it was mostly just a drizzle with little wind. Wednesday came and we could feel the anxiety of those that chose to stay during the storm. The newest predictions showed landfall about 30 miles south of us and hitting land at about 2pm. We prayed and sent healing to everyone in the direct path of the eye of the storm. I recorded 2 short videos on Wednesday. The first one was taken at 8:45 am. The rain was picking up but the winds have yet to arrive. I filmed this one because of the frogs. They were on the walls and ledges of our building and making quite the ruckus.
Shortly after I filmed this our power went out. As you can see in the video, there was not much wind, so we weren't sure if the power was knocked out or turned off by the power company in anticipation of the storm.
The winds started escalating around noon and by 2pm we were experiencing the strongest winds which were sustained between 65 and 80 miles per hour with gusts recorded as high as 98. The storm was spinning counter clockwise so the winds we were getting were coming from the north east. Our balcony faces south so I could open the door to record this.
The winds and rain stayed at the level in the video until 8pm and I still had cell service through all of it. Somehow, the cell tower was knocked out about an hour later as I lost service. This wasn't restored until Saturday. The emergency electrical crews that have come here from all over the country have been phenomenal in getting power restored to the millions who lost electric service due to the storm. Ours came back late Friday afternoon which was not expected. Our neighbors across the street are still without power at the time of writing on Sunday at noon.
The #WednesdayWalk portion of this post took place on Thursday. There was no rain when we rose but the winds were still a little gusty and the sky was still cloudy.
We went outside to talk to the neighbors and make sure everyone was OK then we headed to our favorite beach to see if any sealife needed help back to the water. The water was a sandy brown and very choppy. There were quite a few people at the beach. The thick trees held up very well here and the dunes were still intact. I only took one picture here of the water.
There were lots of trees uprooted from this storm but many of the buildings had minimal damage. The ones we noticed to be damaged the worst were the wood and metal structures to protect cars from the rain. We saw a lot of these knocked down as we drove through town.
This tree was in the road on our way home from the beach.
The actual walk took place in the afternoon after all of the wind died down and the sun came out. The first picture is from the parking lot of our complex showing the debris from the pine branches knocked off and the palm tree that was uprooted.
This next picture is of the beautiful cactus that stands on the corner of the main road and entrance to our place. It had been blooming the past week and we didn't even notice that there were 2 main cacti here. The big one was already yellowing and the root that was pulled out did not look healthy. The smaller one that survived the storm is a rich green and very healthy looking.
We crossed the street to assess the damage of the area. There were a lot of shingles scattered on the ground and metal that came off of houses and fencing. Our building, on the right in the picture below, sustained minimal damage.
The view looking the other direction is much the same. Small branches down, fences damaged, and street signs leaning, but no major damage to any of the buildings.
We walked a little further up and found some more uprooted palms, but instead of being knocked over completely they were caught by the power lines that kept them standing.
The tree on this corner didn't fare as well.
Nor the one in this parking lot.
We headed back to the beach last evening to see how it has changed. The water is still murky but back to its blue-green color and the sunset was the most intense I've ever witnessed.
This was my delayed Wednesday Walk and plan on joining you on time this coming Wednesday with another walk. Hope you are all doing well.
