I laid in bed listening to a terrible storm in Tampa last night. The wind was incredible. I could see flashes of it when the lightening came it was strong and heavy. I also heard what sounded like trees/limbs cracking but when I strolled my yard this morning I saw nothing down, not even my amaryllis stalks, not sure where it came from.
Lori

Yes, here we get all our rain for the entire year in just a few hours. My tomatoes in the topsy turvey tree split.

This is from 5 minutes ago......we have a circular drive and in the center is one of my blueberry beds, it is now and islnad lol.

We had 2 days of rain and still going strong, I heard everything you guys heard. Still I have not gone out and see the damage, from the window I see one of my banana flower is down and some broken branches in the tomatoes.
Bamboo, I was trying to figure it out what is islnad? I thought it was a saying from your home town, then when I looked again at the picture, I got it! lol

Silvia

Been watching the news all morning...and some of you had some pretty strong storms...Please be safe!

Not a drop of rain here in Highlands county the last two days. Did have almost 2" of rain though on Monday. Hopefully, we will get some of the rain this afternoon...but I can do without the wind and damage.

Good luck to all of you that have had severe weather. Stay safe and hopefully no damage from it!

BR,
We are all ok here, the cats were all hiding in their cardboard box bomb shelters. The tornado took out the power a little after lunch time. They didn't get it back on until around 8PM. The power company trucks were all at the other end of my street. Still haven't been out there to get a look see at what damage there is because of all the lightning on this hill today. When I pulled the start rope on my little generator it wouldn't wind back in, so I was busy messing with that. My other generator was apart as I was in process of cleaning it and getting it ready for hurricane season. When I finally got the little generator running after I filed the points clean the power came back on. The lightning took out my main computer and I'm on my spare backup computer.
I did notice a lot of flotsam junk blown into my yard but haven't been outdoors much due to all the heavy rain and hailstones, just a quick run to feed the chickens and collect eggs. I'm getting a lot of very close lightning strikes here today, no time delay between the flash and the bang, usually when that happens my trees have been hit.

My garden is swimming in rain water, many pots were blown over and the dirt is half out. Looks like I will be super busy if & when this rain finally stops. My weather bug says I got 3.25 inches just today so far at 11:45AM, I don't know what I got yesterday as the computer was down.

Lou

Stomping rains here, lot of wind but no tree damage so far. It is frustrating watching my rain barrels overflow many times over, knowing in a few days I will empty them and it'll be hot and dry...

Just watched the tornado warnings for the center of the state - do hope you all are going to be ok.
We've had tons of rain and wind - such heavy rains, my old gutters are bending and overflowing. I got up there this morning to try and fix, but I think it's beyond my capabilities! What do you think the chances are of getting a gutter guy to come out anytime soon after all this rain? lol.
And you are so right, pnbrown, next week we'll be watering again.
but it sure is nice to have this rain for all my new plants.
Like Lou's group, my cat is not happy at all about the thunder and I think he's in a closet somewhere. I may join him.
Hester

Lou, I am glad to know that you are okay, I am also stuck inside like you, can not go anywhere with the weather and my scared pets.

Silvia

When I got up at 6:00 this morning to get ready for work I was amazed with how much lightning we were getting. When I looked at my pond it was very close to overflowing since the drain line just couldn't keep up with the amount of rainfall. I had to redirect the hose from the waterfall to flow down the driveway while I was getting ready for work (didn't go outside until after the lightning calm down some). I'll probably have to pump some more water out of the pond tonight too. Ended up being a half hour late for work, although the drive from Inverness to Ocala wasn't bad. We haven't had much lighting in Ocala today but we have had a lot of rain.

It's good to hear that everyone's okay so far. I was worried after watching bay news 9 this morning and seeing the storms coming in off the gulf.

O.K here in Apopka. Pool is on the verge of overflowing, but one thing good about this old sandbar we call Florida--it can really soak up the rain.

Papa Jim

Around 11, I turned on the news and saw the little tornado circles directly over my house. Yikes!!! Thank God, no major damage or tornadoes appeared. Lots of rain and water around.

Here in Oviedo, trees came down, tornado sirens went off for over 15 minutes this am...

Almost lost the broccoli due to high winds, one of my roma's snapped in two (close to the roots, I just stuck the dang thing WAAAY down, hope it roots).

Not sure how much rain we've had, but it's been pretty much non stop for 2.5 days now...I'm glad. We sure do need the rain!

My hubby's from Nashville (where apparently they don't HAVE weather) FREAKS out every time it storms. I thought he'd have a nervous breakdown when Charlie came through. I just laughed at his catting around, lol...I told him he didn't know what a hurricane was until he'd spent 8 hours under a soaked mattress in a bathtub with NO roof...I moved to Lake Wales because of Andrew, then up here. I'm too far north now, lol

Good to hear everyone is ok. 2.5 inches just since last night in my gauge here in Valrico. I left at about 11 this morning to go get some fertilizer in Dade City since it had slacked up a lot or so I thought. It took me 3 hours to go 36 miles and back. When I got home the tops of two big old oak trees had broken off and fallen across my fence from the conservation area behind it. Only one hit the garden, the other nuked a bougainvillea and two bird feeders. I will have to clean them up when it stops again.

We have gotten our share here in Titusville. seems like we have been in the center of the storm belt passing over the state. Haven't been outside to survey the garden damage.

My wife Dottie made a pot of soup for lunch. She said this is soup weather.

Luther

Supposedly tornadoes just about 6 miles North of me this morning, it got really black but not as high winds like about 2 months ago. But it's rained constantly here and our seasonal pond is back within 40 feet of the house and it drives me crazy, that's another story. Clay soil here so it will be a week before it perks down. The new puppy wants to play outside - lightning is constant though. Haven't had a chance to see if any damage on property yet, don't see any close to the house, though.

Yesterday I was in my studio above the garage washing brushes when I saw the wind and rain blowing sideways, hard. Time to get a weather radio up there!

I spent a fair amount of this morning in our "shelter," a closet under the stairs, because of the tornado warning. I need to absolutely train myself to take those seriously. But -- lots of rain, a few branches down, but so far nothing more. We've lived here for almost 4 years now, but I definitely still feel like a newcomer.

Jenny

hit hard today....suppose to be clearing....3 inches an hour....i need a job like that...major clean up here....

Drowning at my house. So much rain! I am going to make a bold statement and say it is the most rain in a 2 day period I have ever seen in my life.

Polk County got hit hard. I live in Lakeland and the Sun and Fun wasn't so sunny or fun today. About 40 planes damaged and reports of 4 tornados in the county.

It got pitch black here a little before noon. I turned on the TV and channel 10 was saying a viewer had called in saying a tornado was sited in Mulberry headed towards Bartow. I live just north of there by about 4 miles or so.
Spent about 15 minutes in the shower stall with my two dogs who couldn't figure out why they weren't getting their Sunday showers! We have tree limbs down and my pool is close to overflowing and its still thundering and raining.

We had nearly 4" of rain today here beachside in Volusia County! That means that in the last 4 days, we've had 5.25". We really needed that. No damage, just high water on the roads and one tropical plant on the lani that thinks it's back in the Keys.

Judging by buckets left outside it was about 6 inches fell from yesterday. Add that to the 2 inches or so on Sunday night I think it was.

Had a bunch of young radishes blanched for greens just now and couldn't get all the little bits of debris out that washed into the rows. The radishes where up to their necks in mulch. Growing your own means eating some mulch now and then, right?

My MIL had surgery this AM, FIL and I have spent most of the storm time inside FL Hospital downtown (yesterday & today). Commuting back and forth along I4 from downtown Orlando to Lake Mary; there are many, many big trees down. And more branches. Our yard looks like tree litter time, branches, leaves, dead fall. We were out of power for 5 hours yesterday and 4 today.

{{gwi:815299}}

Hope all our friends and gardens are faring well.

~dianne

I guess the wind was a lot worse south of here, we are fortunate. Too bad about
the trees.

My sweet almond verbana tree (approx. 12 feet tall) was knocked down and when it fell, it took out part of our fence. My arbor was also blown a few feet away and when it fell to the ground it snapped my honey bell tangelo in half. Tha is the worst that happen and a consider myself lucky because I know there were some twisters a few miles away in the area. Funny thing is no one else around us had any damage.
My hubby and I were able to use a truck and pull the verbana tree back up. We staked it in the ground and my fingers are crossed that it will live.
We took a video of us pulling the tree back up. I will try to post a link to it a bit later.

Oh, that is too bad, and I am especially sorry to hear about the honey bell. What a shame. I hope part of it is salvageable.

Carol

We had a total if 4 inches of rain and our power went out on Wednesday at about 4pm and didn't get it back until 12 noon on Thurday. Thought we didn't have any damage until we checked the property line with our neighbor. One of our big trees lost its top which of course went in their yard. Nobody home but we went and cleaned up up anyway. Like a good neighbor should!! Think the neighbor has walked away from(abandoned)the house.

...lost a peach tree to the storm; blew so hard the tree trunk cracked and split. I think the new fruit on the branches contributed to the weight that caused it.

On the positive side, I fertilized my St. Augustine earlier in the week; with the rain, grass that was brownish is now bright green. You take the good with the bad, I guess.