Tropical Storm Emily

July 31, 2017
Heavy rains hit us when we were getting off the cruise ship on Saturday morning and 29th and we drove through more rain twice on the way home.  Shortly after arriving home they hit again and again finally providing four more heavy rain storms before the day ended.

Then Sunday morning while we were at church thunder, lightning and heavy rains hit again.  We dodged rain drops to get out to the car and other than a few short periods of time it rained most of the day.

During the night we were again awakened by the heavy rain and winds and began to wonder if we were going to be washed away.  The ditch behind us filled way up and the "stream" began to get wider as the water spread out as Monday wore on with more and more rain.

I flipped on the local news station to see if I could learn more about why all the rain and how much longer it would last only to find a special report broadcasting calling the Tropical Storm Emily.  A storm the weather men had not expected and if it was to happen figured it would be several days to a week for it to get organized and become anything.  They were totally caught by surprise and the reason for this report was a tornado warning for the Bradenton area (south of us) and possible wind shears of 100 miles an hour.  Luckily none of that happened but there was flooding and some wind damage in that area.  We were actually on the northern edges of the storm.  And because it did "organize" and start moving quickly it was all over with by mid afternoon though the skies stayed cloudy for the remainder of the day.

Our friends Frank and Bette and their daughter Lisa had planned to go to the Japanese restaurant over at the mall and invited us to join them.  Unfortunately we got there around 2:00 right when they shut down the area where they cook at the table - the whole reason why we went.  So we left and ended up going to the Asian Buffet across the road where we could enjoy a meal and sit for a long period of time just chatting and catching up on their France riverboat trip, our cruise, Brigett's 80th birthday party and Lisa's week of fun here in Florida with her folks.

We returned home and since the rains had stopped and things were drying out, Ken mowed our grass and after I pulled weeds here, I set off on my bike to go to the Cook's to clean up their yard as they were returning home tomorrow.  On the way over, Christy, Hillcrest's manager, stopped me and told me she had just found out that 5 motor homes in the storage area had been broken in to including ours.  I returned home to get Ken and we went over to check it out.  The door was open and the window by the dinette area was smashed.  We knew we shouldn't touch anything but did go inside just to see what might have been done.  What a mess.  All of the cupboard doors were open, the bed had been lifted up to get at the storage areas and all of the dresser drawers and our strong box that had been bolted to the floor under the bed had been ripped out and was gone.

By the time the Sheriff arrived and later the forensics team, it was midnight and we were still waiting outside our vehicles to answer questions and finally make an attempt to at least cover the broken window area.  Because of all the rain the insides were quite wet including the carpet, soft dinette chairs, table, buffet and cupboards.  The damage is done and we'll deal with it but just not today --- it is dark, we're tired and it can wait for the moment.  Just a very sad commentary on what a criminal can do to truly upset your life.

Tomorrow is another day.....