When work expects you to be in during a storm...

 ... and the whole area the building is in, floods easily, what do you do?

As of this post, Idalia is not hitting us (Fort Myers area) as a hurricane, only a tropical storm. She's making her way into the Gulf and up the west coast of the state, where she will stroll through areas like Tallahassee as a Category 2 (maybe a 3 by tomorrow morning), reaching the Georgia boarder as a hurricane rather than tropical storm. If she continues on that easterly path going north, she'll hit the Outer Banks / Carolinas and maybe a little bit of Virginia before turning right and going to the Bahamas. 

Everyone is going to get loads of water - by either storm surges or by the clouds emptying. It'll be a matter of what comes first, since the hippies and science people say it's tidal and full moon on top of everything else. So things are going to pop off. Plus, the wind shear will bring out the toys that were just put away. 

There will be a point where the wind hits 40mph and becomes unsafe to travel on the bridges. So once that happens, there will be no police around, no barricades, no one to stop you from traveling, so traverse the area carefully. You're on your own if you get blown into the water as you were warned. 

People were talking today, wondering what would happen to the local bridges here with this storm. The Sanibel Causeway is finally getting rebuilt; will it survive the night? The water might rise and flood it out, potentially. What about the little bridges going to Pine Island and Matlacha? Will they last? 

All these water questions are why, knowing how the area I work in floods at a dime, I'm not looking forward to potentially going in to work tomorrow. 

Credit: Wink News

                                                                           Credit: Fox4 News

The above picture was taken last fall by Wink News, while the Youtube video was taken by one of the Fox affiliates in 2021. Both are around the area I work in. 

Even though the picture and video were taken on separate days, they both happened to be days when a really hard, really fast band of rain came through, so the water had no where to go. 

Being built on sand and shells, the saturation level some days is bad because the water starts pooling quickly. I did have to drive through that level of water that day, so I am slightly worried what tonight will bring for the area. Especially when the parking lot my building is in, has no proper runoff and starts to puddle quick. 

With no option to work remotely, I'm going to have to chance it to get downtown and in the building. They're going to be open tomorrow, as we're just getting a breeze through storm... even though everyone has put their shutters up, my mom and I have filled a bucket of water, and we know we'll be fine. It's just that they said that about the last two "I" storms we had... You just never know here. It's bad enough a lot of people have PTSD from the last sucker who rolled in on us... he can go eff himself. 

Considering around 2:30 today, a tornado landed by one of the connecting Fort Myers / Cape Coral bridges. It decided to travel the route I take, and stopped at another bridge. I don't think there was any damage, but I heard Marco Island got themselves a funnel as well. 

When you get tornado alerts on your phone and the sky is black but sending large drops of cloud cry to the ground at rapid succession, you really shouldn't be at work, let alone out and about. But there were were, in a building that already has roof problems (and active leaks), wondering if we'd all get home safely. 

I did, as I had been able to work my weekly hours by 3:30. Our work week is an odd one: We start on Wednesday and end on Tuesday. So my ending 90 minutes before I typically have been going home, was because my 40 hours were up for the week. Which is a good thing, as I missed the funnel clouds and I was in a band of sunshine. It sprinkled at the time I left, which is just the calm before the storm, I know. 

We are probably going to start getting more rain soon, so it's a good thing we are shuttered in. Maybe I can sleep a little better tonight, knowing the house is dark. 

I think I'm starting to go off on so many topics, I'm rambling. So off I go for the night and I'll check in when I can. Don't expect pictures; this isn't that type of storm. I can't see out of my house anyway with the shutters closed. LOL. 

Cheers;