The Hurricane That Changed Florida History Forever
Hurricane Helene blew apart a hunk of my wooden fence — that annoyed me.
The hunk of fence crashed into one of my newly planted trees, shearing several branches off like a knife slicing barnacles off a ship’s hull — that annoyed me even more.
The tree-shearing event inspired a positive, personal revelation — that left me on basically even ground with Helene.
Then she went and did what she did to the good people of North Carolina, and I can’t say I have anything positive to say about that bitch, Helene. Like a troublesome ex, however, she did leave with me some fond memories.
Well, one fond memory, anyway.
As Helene ripped through my Florida town, I was preparing a presentation for a library. I’d be speaking about my book, The Hidden History of Amelia Island. A couple months earlier I’d presented on the topic at the Amelia Island Museum of History, but I wanted to do something different — something that would speak directly to north-Florida inlanders who would be listening to my talk.
In my usual overthinking fashion, I’d been dealing with no little amount of uncertainty and frustration. It’s simply not in me to do anything writing-related halfway (which can be profoundly frustrating, honestly), and I had wasted an agonizing amount…
