Maryland Gets a Good Soaking While Florida’s Flamingos Head for the Bathroom
I guess our tefillah of משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם worked! The remnants of Hurricane Isaias brought several inches of rain to Maryland over the weekend, giving Baltimore and surrounding communities a good soaking. While the rain was welcome, other parts of the country faced far more dangerous conditions, including flooding, damaging winds, widespread power outages and storm-related deaths.
Rainfall totals across Maryland ranged from 2.34 inches in Park Heights to 5.23 inches in Cape St. Claire, according to reports from the National Weather Service’s Baltimore/Washington office through 7 a.m. Monday. Maryland received plenty of rain, but the storm’s impact was much more severe farther south.
Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and dangerous storm surge. Florida experienced significant wind damage and power outages, while flooding in North Carolina prompted water rescues. As of Monday, at least four deaths had been reported in connection with the storm, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, at ZooWorld in Panama City, Florida, zookeepers took an unusual approach to keeping their animals safe, moving 30 flamingos into a bathroom to shelter them from the hurricane’s winds. Staff secured the doors, and all the flamingos made it through the storm safely.
Maryland may have gotten the rain without the worst of the destruction, but the flamingos offered their own lesson in storm preparedness: when a hurricane is coming, sometimes the safest place really is the bathroom.
This article was independently written by the BJL Newsroom based on reporting from WBAL-TV and The Associated Press.