Interesting afternoon to the west of here with 's landfall.
(NOTE: Neither I, my employer, nor the condone any form of storm chasing. It is a potentially dangerous activity and should not be emulated by the general public. Always heed the warnings and advice of your local authorities and the Natl. Hurricane Center if a storm threatens. I've added this in on an edit and feel it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind when reading this account.)
Decided based upon progs to head to Gulf Shores, AL and decide where to go from there. Ultimately, we ended up along the beach by the water tower in Orange Beach, AL. For awhile, it looked like the center would end up making landfall very near our position, but a turn to the right at the end brought it in along the west side of Pensacola. The strongest wind we measured was 22mph along the shore, with all winds mainly out of the northeast. We could see the northern extent of the circulation overhead and the rainbands come in, but we didn't get in the center, there at least.
About 2:30-3p ET, we decided to start heading back east along the coast. We drove through Orange Beach and Perdido Key -- the areas hard hit by -- and the damage remains. Debris still lines the roadway, with the other remaining structures uninhabitable for the large part. Hotels & condos are going up on some of the vacant land, while in other locations shells of houses serve as a harsh reminder of the 2004 hurricane season. It's something you really have to see to believe. In any case, as we drove into western Pensacola, we crossed paths with the hurricanetrack.com truck & team heading east themselves. I think they ended up to the west of our position, perhaps near Gulf Shores (where a lot of other media were located). Just an interesting sidenote.
In Pensacola, I believe we passed through the center of the storm, as it calmed down and cleared out for us. Alas, the eastern side was still to come, as we found out in a harsh way near Navarre, Mary Esther, and Ft. Walton Beach. Some of the strongest winds and gusts were felt in that region along the immediate coastline, over tropical storm force but nowhere near 70mph. Heavy rain, like we saw at Orange Beach, marked the day...little damage, mainly tree limbs down but an occasional power failure or two. Rainfall was certainly the big story of the day, followed by high surf. As we crossed between Ft. Walton Beach and Destin, the sand dunes were drifting across the roadway. We didn't see any roads closed due to high water -- just the bridge to Navarre Beach closed for precautionary measures -- but this one had sand across it. Alas, coming into Destin for dinner, we grabbed something out of the trunk and realized my tag was gone! The wind was so strong in the band west of Ft. Walton Beach that it sheared the metal tops off of the tag and caused it to fly away. After waiting for guidance from the local sherrif's office, which basically said we can't help you, but show them your registration and all and you should be fine, we headed home (without further event, thankfully). The occasional rain band or three got in our way, but nothing major. The tag problem & late hour kept us from going to Panama City -- next time, Jason, next time -- but we were all water logged nonetheless.
Thankfully for those who felt 's wrath, this storm didn't do a whole lot to exacerbate the problem. The rainfall doesn't help the entire region, though -- many local areas between Pensacola and Crestview had several flooding events in the spring and are ~20-25" above normal year-to-date in rainfall -- but thankfully was not as bad as it could've been.
Now, as Jason mentioned earlier, we rest until our focus turns to the Caribbean Sea for a potential development in a few days' time. Hurricane Season 2005 is well underway, but thankfully not in a big way.
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