Tropical Depression 11

Every place gets its own type of drawbacks. Arizona has heat; Minnesota has cold; California has earthquakes. And Florida has hurricanes and tropical storms but also tropical depressions that are sometimes even worse. Still, the aftermath can be a photographic treasure.

Mary Joan Cilwa

On August 26, 1968, Tropical Depression Eleven developed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Drifting northeastward, the depression was situated offshore Central Florida on August 28, shortly before it trekked southward and made three landfalls in Florida near Clearwater, Holmes Beach, and Venice. By early on August 29, the depression began moving northeast to north-northeastward across the state. Late on August 31, the system emerged into the Atlantic Ocean near Atlantic Beach and dissipated shortly thereafter.

The storm surge was so great that a part of the fishing pier broke off, and floated about a mile north of there to come to rest at this spot.

My sister, Mary Joan, came with me to check things out and graciously allowed me to use her as a model to give scale to the images.

Clearly, the weather had not yet switched to its sunny, Florida-like disposition.

Mary Joan at the Beach

We returned later to another section of beach (and a different wardrobe; I think Mary Joan was getting into the modelling aspects of our day).

Mary Joan with Sammy the Dog

At the beach by A Street, we found Sammy, a the dog of our neighbor when we lived on C Street. Yes, people used to let their dogs wander the neighborhood.