After Ida, a local report

This morning, Blue Wave Weather reporter Laurel (and faithful scout Riley), bring you live (well almost live) coverage of: "After Ida" from Blue Mountain Beach. Bracing for the worst from this late season storm, the inhabitants of the house slept (as soundly as they ever do) through the night as IDA (or what we experienced of IDA) passed over South Walton County. An ever vigilant suspect of danger, this reporter woke up at her usual 3am. Hearing the wind blowing and the rain hitting the tin roof hard, I went back to sleep secure in the knowledge I had put all the container plants in a huddle on the veranda and picked up most the loose items around the perimeter of the house (except for, I would find out later, woops, the lounge chairs on the balcony's). This morning braving the remnants of the storms fury, we two intrepid reporters, went out to scout the area for damage. Well, the pictures tell the story: the mail box had fallen open, there were a lot of pine needles on the cars, some of the pine trees might be leaning a little more than yesterday, there was absolutely no flooding (although the neighbors pond looked a little higher than usual) and there was a double red flag at the beach access because the surf was strong (I really don't know what the surge did but the water was true to it's ominous self when the wind is up and so I will have to check later know if our beachfront neighbors fared as well as it looked).

Joking aside, as a Florida native I do not underestimate tropical storms and hurricanes. I've been through plenty of them. I'm grateful that we experienced no ill-effects and hope that as Ida moves North, she is kind. In our geographic favor, South Walton is the highest point on the gulf coast so while we are always preparee and duly cautious, we have less to worry about when Mother Nature sends us a stormy tropical curve ball. We have also come to take cable TV storm coverage with a hefty helping of salt rather than just a grain.

Anyhow, thanks for the calls and emails. Reporting from Blue Mountain Beach, we are just fine after IDA.