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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—Tropical Storm Nicole pummeled beach communities on Florida’s Atlantic coastline from just above the southern tip to the northernmost corner on Nov. 10, raking away sand dunes, damaging structures, and flooding buildings and streets.
At least five people were killed in its wake, including two who were electrocuted by a downed power line while driving, according to a report by AccuWeather.
But as so often happens in the aftermath of difficult times, the battering also brought out a sense of camaraderie as Floridians faced the effects of the weather together.
In inland Green Cove Springs, members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks stopped in to check on their gathering place, which sits on the west bank of the St. Johns River.
There, they found Al Williams, who carries the title of the fraternal organization’s Exalted Ruler, ready to greet them in a slim strip of high-and-dry land near the adjacent highway.
“Who’s going to give me a piggyback ride to the door?” Williams teased, assuring bystanders that, although water lapped all around and under the slightly elevated building, it hadn’t seeped inside.
And the Elks are used to that. The normally placid waterway overflows its banks during every storm the size of Nicole, Williams told The Epoch Times.
So instead of fretting, Williams joked under gray skies with the members he leads. He threatened to insist one should come and remove his boat, moored nearby and brought by the rising waters over a bulkhead at the edge of the parking lot.
