TAMPA — One of this city’s most famous streets, just hours before Hurricane Ian was to make landfall some 90 miles south, became the site of an impromptu festival early Wednesday afternoon as residents emerged to witness firsthand something exceedingly rare: the bottom of the bay.
In a phenomenon that recalled Hurricane Irma, Ian’s march up the coast appeared to suck the water out of Tampa Bay, revealing its marshy, grassy bottom. For locals who had spent the previous days stocking up on supplies and weatherproofing their homes, the empty bay presented a final, if risky, chance to frolic before the storm drove them inside.
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