Backhanded Slap From Fay

I need to keep my mouth shut. 500 tours and I have never had one as wet as today's. It was my first Everglades tour since Fay headed North and with a forecast of partly cloudy (a departure from the usual thunderstorms), we figured to have an interesting day of checking out Fay's damage. Our first stop was Lake Trafford where we take our airboat ride. The lake had hit an all time low of 4 feet in June. By August 4th the level had risen slightly.

Fay passed directly over the lake and dumped 12 inches on Tuesday, a few more yesterday and despite the "partly cloudy", dumped another 6 inches of rain today as one of the rain bands whipped back down south and provided a lengthy monsoon rain, soaking everyone on the airboat. There was no room on the boat, so I had to stay behind. When they returned, one little British girl was covered in mud but no one was sure how or why!
It continued to rain all day and the lake level has come back to a near record high with 3 months left in the rainy season. I wanted excitement. I got it. Picture above is from July 11th. Below is from August 21st. Same dock. Vegetation is gone.
The Everglades National Park was still shut down from the storm and Everglades City had been under a foot of water on Tuesday, but our walk in the Fakahatchee was productive with many alligator sightings and this happy little pup, glad that the rains have come back.