Tropical Storm Idalia will break from Cuba, become a hurricane, and race north northeasterly picking up strength till it crosses from the marine Gulf to the terrestrial state of Florida. That'll slow it down considerably and quickly but by then it'll surely be at least a 3. And we're only just under 50 miles inland. Up to the minute forecasts have winds not exceeding 40mph, but hey, twenty four hours ago, the spaghetti models almost all had it pointed far enough west of us to where rain would have been problematic and wind a non-issue. Until it starts to move, who knows?
In the meantime, I'm roaming the garden taking pictures and trying to commit things to memory. At a minimum the bananas will be shredded and likely, some of the elephant ears. And we'll get enough rain to last us a week, which is good. We planted a jacaranda this year and it went from four feet to eight. Should I remove the staking and let it move freely with the wind or leave it loosely staked at 4 feet?
