To put it short this years trip was a combination of disasters being hurricanes back to back
and personal tragedy that caused me to break off the trip after one week.

So back to business … prior to my departure hurricane Helene had pounded Florida, Georgia and the
Carolinas so I was not sure if my flight would depart due to damages along the route.
With the airlines usually not that forthcoming with giving info about cancellations the decision to
cancel or not cancel was made by using info from poweroutage.us.

With all counties that I had to pass having power for 85 percent or more I figured airports and 
other important facilities should be operational.
With no negative advice from the hotel I stayed in I was good to go.

Although my destination was not directly in the path of the hurricane the damage was still done
by the storm surge. The beach road was swamped by several feet of sand so impassable.
Beach accesses and public parks where closed with only some access points open.

Fishing was dismal for the first couple of days due to wind and wave action causing the usual 
muddy mess in the Gulf of Mexico.
The only fish willing to play where small ladyfish that would hover around structure like pilings
and rip rap.

After a few days the water cleared up and more access was restored.
The main target remained ladyfish although I spotted some snook and tarpon at certain locations.
A trip to the southern end of the beach convinced me that the beach was missing 3 to 4 feet of sand
due to erosion caused by the hurricane.

I could only reached the last part of the beach at the inlet by wading waist deep at low tide during calm weather. This would be a dangerous venture during rough weather and higher tides …
So fishing was off … I barely managed one small snook after losing a big one as there where not many around.  Had some shots at the tarpon but they where not willing to play.

With access to the southern end of the beach difficult I concentrated on the northern end where the
inlet was always good for some fish. Mostly small ladyfish and blue runners that would congregate on
the incoming tide to harass the baitfish.
Action on the beach itself was pretty slow, highlight for me was catching a nice redfish while fishing
a clouser-minnow for any bottom feeding fish that might be around.

After a week the next hurricane was looming but I had to cut my stay short due to the passing of
a family member. A few days later the area I was staying in received a mandatory evacuation order
due to hurricane Milton so all in all a pretty bad time.