A Mighty Wind
I love the beach. My lifelong dream was to retire to the beach and I moved here to Delmarva six years ago to fulfil that dream.
Truly, there’s nothing I don’t love about the beach and ocean. Things that might annoy someone else just roll off my back. Sand tracked into the house? My vacuum will get that. Eventually. Rainy day? So what. The crowds will be smaller. Your foot gets cut by a shell? No big deal – saltwater heals!
But there’s one thing I truly love that you might not expect. I love the storms that come to the beach. Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t want anyone to be hurt or that there be serious property damage. But a good nor’easter or tropical storm gets my heart going pitter-pat.
And last week my heart was pitter-patting. On September 22 the National Weather Service designated Tropical Storm Ophelia. The storm moved north from the Carolinas and left our area on Sunday, September 24th.
My community was spared a lot of the rain, receiving only 2 – 4 inches. But we had winds of up to 60 MPH. We had a lot of beach erosion too.
Our area did suffer a bit, but there were no deaths or injuries reported and there was minimal property damage. Although I must say the planters at the front of my house got tossed around a bit.
But the wind! It howled all night.
Saturday morning, I made it to the boardwalk to join my stalwart mates from the 9:59 Club. A little rain and wind won’t deter us!
When I left my house three miles from the ocean, the wind was kinda calm. Yeah, my planters were knocked over and my American flag was ripped out of its holder, but the wind was maybe only 15 – 20 MPH. Not too bad.
When I got to Bethany, I could tell that the wind had really ramped up. My Jeep was buffeted by the winds. Walking up the ramp from the parking lot to the boardwalk was like going through a wind tunnel as I walked between two buildings. I had to lean into the wind to make it to the top.
When I got to the boardwalk the wind abated for a moment until I climbed the dune. It was screaming on the dune. I needed to hold onto the rope railing on the dune path to keep from getting knocked over. Blowing sand stung my face and bare legs. And I was surprised that it was raining on the dune. Except that it wasn’t rain – it was ocean spray from the breakers 50 yards away!
I’m guessing that at that time the wind was blowing around 40 MPH with higher gusts. I truly can’t imagine how a real category one hurricane with 75 MPH winds would feel, because the 40 MPH winds were brutal!
Here’s a short video of the beach that morning. It’s hard to get perspective, but these are 6-8 foot waves.
And a few pictures from around Delmarva:
So, for a couple of days we had exciting, exhilarating (for me at least) weather. But I don’t think I could manage much more than what we just had. And I’m sure my friends in Florida will say “what’s the big deal? This just a little rainstorm compared to what we get!”
But it’s what we get “up here” and I already can’t wait for the next storm.
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“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.”
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Animals Seeing Themselves for the First Time
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Wow! The awesome power of wind, water, and tides!