Nicole, the Tropical Storm that Wasn't

Nicole was officially named as a tropical storm in the Caribbean, and fizzled out soon after.  So much more harmless than a Category 4 Hurricane Earl, right?  Wrong.  The fundamental difference between the storms was that Earl caused northern winds, which drove our water out.  Nicole cause south winds on top of four days straight of rain.  Water has been in places this week where water has never been seen before.

Nothing illustrates this better than photos, and lucky for you, there is nothing I love more than taking photos.  The first thing to go was the community dock.  It was underwater before the water made it near any other dock that I saw.

The wind was blowing all the pine needles in by our dock early Thursday morning.

Right before I left for work I noticed that a present had blown in from the main canal.  A log about half the size of a telephone pole.

Southern Cross was loving it.  Compare the Nicole photo to the Earl photo.  Look at the difference in water level!  

Then I had to leave for work.  I had a school bus testing the waters for me for a while.  The road I work on was about 2' under water when I left at 11pm (I found an alternate route).

The water was highest while I was at work, but I had my camera with me.  Kyle took some photos from last night, I'll see if I can get my hands on them.  It was still a scene this morning.  It's weird seeing the boat reflection above the dock.

Right now the sun is out, so I'm crossing my fingers that the drive to work won't involve crossing too many rivers.  The water has already gone down a few inches since this morning.  I can almost see the very tops of the posts on the community dock.  Hope everyone else is faring well!  Friends of ours have water in their garage and I saw a house that had turned into an island.  Also, Virginia Beach underpasses get pretty deep in rain like this - a semi ran right into one yesterday.  We're expecting a north wind this weekend that ought to bring our water levels back to normal.