10/11/24 Report - Morning Beach Visit Report. Legend of Protection of Tampa Area and Origin of the word "Hurricane." High Surf Today..

 

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Old Map of Tampa Area
See source link below.

So, another hurricane has come and gone.  It did its damage.  I want to express my sympathies to those who lost lives or otherwise had their lives changed for the worse by the storm.

For Tampa, the storm surge wasn't as bad as originally feared.  The storm made a turn which resulted in Tampa receiving less storm surge than might have been the case.  The turn revived memories of an old legend about a prayer that protects the region.  Below is a little about that from a recent publication.

There’s an old legend that the Tampa, Florida, area is protected by an ancient “prayer-blessing” bestowed upon it by elders of the Tocobaga tribe that once inhabited the area, particularly a locale known today as Safety Harbor...

But through the past decades, it has seemed curious how flood-prone Tampa Bay itself, which can incur tremendous surge, has escaped so unscathed in an era of Katrina and Andrew and Michael and so many other angry tempests.

Native Americans certainly attached spiritual meaning to tempests. As we have pointed out, to indigenous Taino people of the Caribbean and Florida, “Huricán” was the god of evil, which apparently comes from “Huracán,” the Mayan god of wind, storm, and fire...

For more about that, here is a link.

Will Old ‘Blessing’ Again Deflect Storm from Tampa? | Spirit Daily Blog

Here is a bit from another article that tells it more succinctly.

Local legend has it that mounds built by the Tocobaga tribe hundreds of years ago protected the area from major storms for centuries.

The tribe lived in small villages between what is now Safety Harbor and the Gandy area, from 900 to the 1500s, but died out from disease and violence from Spanish settlers in the 17th century, according to Pinellas County’s website.

In those villages, the tribe would build mounds made of layers of shells and sand. The mounds were used as temples, homes and burial grounds. The oldest remaining one is located near Old Tampa Bay.

Some locals claim the tribe blessed the mounds for protection from hurricanes and other hazards, but we have yet to confirm the validity of their story.

“The Tocobaga tribe legend is big down here. People feel it keeps us safe,” Largo resident Denise Walenter-Just told NewsNation.

And here is that link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tampa-residents-credit-native-american-legend-for-helene-milton-misses/ar-AA1s2YJY?ocid=BingNewsS

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The angles don't seem ideal but the surf will be high, and the tides are still fairly high.  The change in Milton's track may lead to less post-storm erosion than I was expecting.  

Here is what SurfGuru is predicting.

Source: Surfguru.com.

The surf will be growing Thursday night and peaking Friday morning.  You'll notice, though, that the surf is only shown as being east/northeast.  Before the change in the track, I was thinking we'd get it more from the north.

Still, the surf will be high enough to be worth checking out the beaches once they are open again.

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Morning Beach Visit Update.

I visited a number of beaches on South Hutchinson Island this morning.  I'll give you the important points now and keep the photos for tomorrow.

1. Roads were open, as was the bridge to North Hutchinson Island at Fort Pierce,   I was surprsed by how dry and clean the roads were this morning.

2. I saw almost no cutting to the beaches.

John Brooks beach was back but smooth.  

Frederick Douglass was still closed and will be for quite a while.

Blind Creek and Walton Rocks beach accesses were closed still after nine o'clock.

Dollman had new sand piled up on the beach.

Herman's Bay was also smooth.  No apparent erosion.

Fort Pierce North Jetty Park had some small cuts but the slope was generally soft.  You might find some erosion at other beaches that have jetty's, rocks or other obstacles.

3. The surf was rough and the waves pretty big but were hitting the beaches straight on.  

Very few people were out.  I saw no other detectorists although I didn't venture far from the accesses.

That is it for now.

I'll have photos by tomorrow or sooner.

If you have any new beach photos or reports, please share with us.

Thanks.

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Hope you made it through the storm with good health and minimal damage to property.  Some were not so lucky.   Count your blessings and help the less fortunate.

Stay safe in the clean up effort.

With my little nail in the foot experience, I noticed a lot of people in soft soled shoes walking through dirty water and all kinds of damaged materials that could result in a nail or glass in the foot.  

Good protective foot-wear seems like a good idea.  Be careful with those chain saws and ladders too.

There was one video I planned to show from Helene that showed one of those big metal shipping containers being crushed like an aluminum can by the water.  Remember the power of water when metal detecting on a beach with the high surf.  You can easily be knocked off your feet by an unexpected wave as you concentrate on your detector signals.  

Water can be very powerful.  Respect it.

Treasureguide@comcast.net