Summer starts with a storm on Siesta Key

As Florida braced itself for Tropical Storm Colin Monday, Gail Aker and her two kids, Chloe and Carson Aker, were on the beach.

Chloe, 8, stood in the high surf while her brother, Carson, 6, climbed on rocks, leaning against the wind and pointing as the wind whipped sand in sheets across Siesta Key Beach.

Gail Aker stood away from the surf, holding towels and shielding her eyes from the sand. Her family wouldn’t usually go to the beach during a tropical storm, but she didn’t anticipate Colin actually making a significant impact on Siesta Key. As streets began to flood Monday afternoon, she admitted the storm’s impact took her by surprise.

“I really didn’t think it was going to be this bad,” Aker said. “Usually we just get the winds and stuff.”

Like many Siesta Key residents, forecasts regarding Tropical Storm Colin didn’t prompt Aker to make any preparations.

Tree branches and minor flooding aside, the storm ultimately left Siesta Key relatively unscathed. Siesta Key Village was quiet by the time Andi Chappell sat outside the Local Bean Tuesday morning. She has lived on the key since 1991 and said she didn’t make any preparations, either.

“It’s just a little tropical storm,” Chappell said. “If it was a hurricane, I would — but not a tropical storm.”

Still, many visitors to the key made sure they had some of the basics before the effects of the storm hit the Key Monday.

“Locals were probably in pretty good shape, but people on vacation didn’t think about bad weather,” said Gary Wright, the manager of Morton’s Siesta Market.

Wright said some of the most popular items were candles, batteries and water.

“One lady came in saying her girls would be afraid of the dark if the lights went off in her condo,” he said.

Upwards of 10,000 Sarasota County residents lost power due to the storm, though a majority of the outages had been addressed by Tuesday morning.

Even the Key’s smaller residents escaped major damage from Tropical Storm Colin.

Kristen Mazzarella, senior biologist for the Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, said it’s going to take time to assess exactly how many turtle nests were washed out by the storm.

Sea turtle nesting season will reach its peak around the week of July 4, and Mazzarella expects new nests to be laid to make up for the number of nests washed out.

“It’s good that this happened at the beginning, because we have many more nests to be raised,” she said. “There weren’t as many nests out there to wash out.”