Dancing with Debby

A little while ago (in years), I composed a story titled “Dancing with Florence.” Florence was the name of the hurricane that I was helping F.E.M.A. supply fuel for. It has been around five years since that “adventure” took place, but then, every named storm has differences, to which you must adjust your strategies and behaviors. (Maybe this was why the storm chasers named them after women!)
Since those crazy days of chasing storms with an 80,000-pound liquid bomb between my legs, I have had to learn to “do the dance” at home. We have had quite a few storms roll over our compound since 2019, and as most have similar tendencies that require certain skill sets (and special tools), each one presents itself with new challenges.

This last year, we had some work done on the bridge and had not really had a big storm come over this county to “put it to the test.” We have had a great many big storms dump massive rains on us, but (then) tropical storm Debby would be the one to put the bridge (and us) to the test! Now, if it were only water flowing down the 6-foot-deep creekway, it would be a more manageable scenario. The trick with each storm, and each deluge, is the large tree debris that comes down the culvertway with the water. This is similar to what anyone facing a hurricane has to deal with when doing their “pre-storm prep.” A trash can or metal lawn chair(s) always fit into aerodynamic laws (that go hand in hand with “Murphy’s Law”).

Back in the ’90s, when I hauled a modular office doublewide half to Homestead after Hurricane Andrew, I saw a 2×4 timber stuck in a Coconut Palm tree and a cement water tank with a 6-inch hole in it from airborne debris. The other thing that cemented itself into my memory, was a manufactured home “village” that was wiped so clean that residents returning from shelters could not even find the streets that their homes were located on! (But I digress!)

Debby came to town and dumped over 4 inches of the wet stuff before departing. As the water was doing “what water does” (go downhill in its most favorable path), it brought with it many palm branches, rotting tree branches and a whole lot of sand! Now these things don’t sound threatening, but I guarantee you, when you take a 6-foot-long and 5-inch diameter waterlogged tree section, and send it “down the watery gauntlet at 20 miles per hour, whatever it runs into, will be hit (as with a 50 pound battering ram).

Another thing about storms being different is that you can never “request” the storm come through your neck of the woods at a decent hour of daylight. The night before I took the picture (supplied), I was out at about 11:45 PM doing a structure check, and at that point in time, the waters were just to the point of “spanking” the underbelly of the bridge. By the time I got back out to do a systems check, it was daylight, and the water was running over the deck by at least a foot! Now, we have a 2nd entrance onto our “compound” that involves a 5-foot diameter corrugated pipe. That “earthen bridge” was also submerged as well! The wood structure goes to our rental, which has a tenant on constant oxygen, so we try our best to make sure that if the power goes out (and IT DID go out), they have portably generated power to their necessary medical equipment. I thank God that the power trucks were able to come in and fix the lines that one of the 80-foot tall trees damaged when it fell. I had a suitcase-sized generator across the driveway from the rental on standby, and when I did the morning check, it was in 8 inches of water. The one saving grace (about our place) is that the elevation of our property is about 105 feet above sea level and probably a good 50 to 60 feet above the main highway (3/4 of a mile away). Once the heavy rains subside (and given about 2 hours’ time), the roadway around our area is passable (and then the people coming into town on Highway 41 have to contend with it)!

One year, there were wood sheds for sale on the corner of our road, and after a heavy storm, the waters picked up two of the sheds and deposited them dead in the middle of the three lane highway! (Water will do, what water will do)! Our little “village” has some good neighbors, and we all try to help each other out if (and when) we can. You never know what you will have to contend with when storms like “Debby” come sashaying into town!

Steve Goodwin is a recently retired Christian conservative veteran (of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division), who still feels that “duty to country” did not end when the military uniform got hung up. He and his wife Cecelia live on the edge of a beautifully wooded tract of land just south of the bypass, and are involved in not only church activities, but also attend school board meetings and local community action events as well.