Tropical Storm Andrea Hits Safety Harbor (PHOTOS)

Whew. We made it!

That was the feeling around town on Thursday as Safety Harbor - and the Tampa Bay area - weathered the first named storm of the 2013 hurricane season.

Tropical Storm Andrea caused her fair share of damage, including a tornado touching down in Gulfport, as well as power outages, minor flooding and scattered debris all over city streets and yards.

But as far as storms go, Andrea proved to be just another close call with Mother Nature.

"Just a little rain," local performer Laura Dent said as she walked down Main Street during a lull in the storm. "It's good for the trees, clears out all the dead limbs!"

Despite the lack of any major damage in the Harbor, a tour around town proved to be eye-opening for a number of reasons.

Over at Philippe Park, waves crashed over the seawall and lapped onto the grass, while a couple of brave (?) souls decided to take a dip in the Bay.

Danny Delahunt, 27, of Clearwater and 21-year-old Jordan O'Connell of Tampa said they always come to the park to soak in the beauty of nature. The fact that a tropical storm was blowing through did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

"This is our sanctuary, our place to come and think," O'Connell said. "We come here to experience something real other than concrete and metal."

When cautioned to be safe during the storm, they assured me they were.

"We stay safe," Delahunt said. "That's why we stick close to shore and do go out there. We appreciate the power of nature."

Down Philippe Parkway at the Safety Harbor Marina, more people were in the water, for a very different reason.

Jeff Kerr's boat, Kerr's Delight, had apparently come loose from her moorings and was drifting towards the shore.

Kerr took off in a skiff to try and start the boat, Safety Harbor Fire Department showed up and helped him tie the vessel off to the mangrove trees near Veteran's Memorial park.

Amazingly, that was the second such runaway boat SHFD had to deal with on the day.

"We had another sailboat drift away past the pier and land in the mangroves on the other side of Philippe Park," Fire Marshal Richard Brock said. "It's wedged in there pretty good now."

"Now we've got to worry about getting this one secured so it doesn't come free and crash into anything," he said of Kerr's boat.

According to city officials there was only minor damage in town from the storm, including tree limbs down, a few power outages and minor flooding.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Skipper said there was no major incidents reported that he knew of, other than the twin runaway boats.

Check out our photo gallery of Tropical Storm Andrea in Safety Harbor. If you have any shots you'd like to share, feel free to upload them here!

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