Nicole in Palm Beach: Residents, visitors grateful hurricane was largely ‘a non-event’

Palm Beach residents and visitors headed to Midtown Beach Thursday morning, some walking their dogs, others taking a run — but all scanning the Atlantic Ocean, where a churning surf sent waves rushing toward the shore, crashing into the rocks and sand, and sending up plenty of spray along the way.

The dramatic and far-rougher-than-usual surf was a remnant of Hurricane Nicole, which had made landfall about 3 a.m. just south of Vero Beach, more than 70 miles to the north, as a weak Category 1 storm with 75 mph winds.

Palm Beach felt the effects as a tropical storm, one that likely won’t be remembered locally for its drenching rains or powerful gusts. The official high-wind reading in West Palm Beach came in at 45 mph overnight.

Downed palm fronds appeared to be Nicole’s main calling cards in Palm Beach, although the Lake Trail saw flooding as a storm surge caused the Intracoastal Waterway to rise Wednesday afternoon. The outer bands of the storm had whipped the waterway, which rose even higher because of the full moon.

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By 8 a.m. Thursday, it was clear the beach was still taking a hard hit. Palm Beach resident Sophie Quinn watched the surf as she walked Arthur, her West Highland terrier, near the Worth Avenue clock tower.

“I’ve seen it this wild before, but not in a while,” Quinn said.

The storm, she said, hadn’t made much an impact on her overnight, she said. “I think I slept through most of it.”

Had she been worried before she went to bed? “Not really,” she said. “I expected to lose power — and we didn’t lose power.”

But she had been ready, having stocked up on food, water and other supplies — in short, doing “pretty much everything but evacuate.”

Although Palm Beach was under a mandatory evacuation order, Town Manager Kirk Blouin said before the storm he expected many people to remain on the island. Forecasters had repeatedly said they expected Nicole to be a weak hurricane with an uncertain track.

At Midtown Beach, Paula Gangemi and Joe Laham had unexpectedly extended their visit to the Palm Beach area from Cape Cod, Mass. As they have done for several years, they were living aboard their yacht docked at the Palm Harbor Marina near the Flagler Memorial Bridge on the West Palm Beach waterfront.

The couple had planned to fly to Providence, Rhode Island, Wednesday but found their flight canceled because of the storm. They had been rescheduled to leave Thursday and were taking one last walk.

The beach, the couple agreed, looked entirely different from when they made their regular 9-mile walk — from the marina to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club — the day before.

For one thing, the sand ledge that previously defined the dune had vanished, Laham said.

“All of a sudden, look what’s happened,” he said. “The beach has disappeared. Look how flat it is. It’s pristine.”

He and Gangemi both said the storm’s arrival overnight was otherwise uneventful.  “I’ve heard that they say it’s calm before the storm,” Laham said, “but I didn’t know it was calm during the storm.”

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On one of the streets near the beach, Alexander Speyer was using a leaf-blower to clear leaves from his driveway. He matter-of-factly described Nicole as “a non-event” in Palm Beach.

“I don’t think we had winds more than 40 mph,” he said. “I watch the weather pretty closely. I was surprised how well the storm held together as it moved over Florida.”

The massive storm caused severe coastal damage in Daytona Beach before crossing the state as a tropical storm Thursday. It left at least two people dead in Orange County before heading north, authorities said.

‘Preparation and uncertainty’

But in Palm Beach, it was much milder story. On the North End, Judy Pensabene and Louis, her French bulldog, were on a quiet street headed toward the beach Thursday morning.

She described the storm “as a big nothing,” noting that she saw no flooding on her property or neighborhood streets. And she had considered leaving the island before the storm, she said

“We were watching it,” she said. “But we just made the determination yesterday — after comparing what was actually happening to what they predicted — not to evacuate.”

Longtime Palm Beach resident Bill Bone also weathered the storm at his home.

“I’ve lived in Florida all my life and here is the truth: The preparation and uncertainty of every hurricane path is far more stressful than the storm itself. To hell with spaghetti models. Last night I went to Marcello’s La Sirena and had real pasta,” Bone said Thursday.

“Then I went home and slept in my own bed, neurotically checking the updates and looking out my unshuttered bedroom window. When the 3 a.m. hourly report said Nicole had landed ... I videotaped the palm trees in my back yard. It was eerily calm.”

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Resident Bruce Mazza Langmaid said he and Chuck Poole “sheltered in place with two bottles of Veuve Cliquot and caviar that we brought from Maryland. We loved walking down an empty Worth Avenue,” Langmaid said. “It was like an eerie movie. Fortunately, we woke up and the sun was out. Back to normal.”

Andrea Stark also stayed in place at her home on the Intracoastal Waterway after storing away outdoor items and raising the curtains off the floor in case of water intrusion.

“Because we were so prepared, we felt a little better. But I still had my wheelie (suitcase) packed and ready to go just in case. And guess what? No damage! I feel so blessed,” Stark said.

Preparation seemed  to be the operative word among Palm Beachers.

"We stayed home and based on the reporting managed to buy out almost all of Amici‘s prepared foods before they closed at 2 o’clock," said Gail Worth and Frank Orenstein in an email.

"So we supported local business and waited for the rain to clear so we could walk the dog and get back to normal," they said.

In Midtown, Mary Frances Walde and her husband Bill "sheltered in place. We made burgers, watched TV, and went to bed early. We never really heard any wind, and had no damage at all."

They prepared well.

"Ready with big flashlights with new batteries, candles, AC turned down to make the house cool in case we lost power. Large tubs with water for sponge baths, bottled water… a lot of prep for very little!" they said in their email.

"We stayed here," said Adolfo Zaralegui, president and chief operating officer of Findlay Galleries on Worth Avenue. "It was a non event ... Intermittent rain and wind but I’ve seen worse.

"We've already cleaned all the windows and reopened the gallery," he said Thursday afternoon.

Back on Midtown Beach Thursday morning, Marie Stewart had driven up from Boynton Beach to see the surf. Stewart was relieved Palm Beach County had largely been spared, especially after the wrath of Hurricane Ian, which struck Southwest Florida Sept. 28 as a deadly Category 4 storm that swept across the state before heading north to South Carolina.

“I’m very grateful,” Stewart said about Nicole, as she looked out to sea. “I came to see this beautiful sight. As I was driving in here, I thought: Oh my gosh — it’s unbelievable. We have an awesome God.”

Staff writer Shannon Donnelly contributed to this story.

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This story was updated from a previous version.

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call (561) 820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Nicole in Palm Beach: Residents glad storm proved mostly ‘a non-event'