Tom Brady's dock breaks, sending jet skis floating away during Tropical Storm Eta

TAMPA, Fla. — Tropical Storm Eta lashed the Tampa Bay area Wednesday night into Thursday morning, leaving damage and flooding across the region.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady got his first big taste of tropical weather, having spent most of his career up north. The 43-year-old said he had a dock break and float away with jet skis on it as Eta pummeled the area.

"I saw those things sitting out in the middle of the bay and I was going, ‘Wow, that’s pretty surreal,'" Brady said. "I was kind of laughing like, ‘Well, you’ll get the jet skis back. A lot of people are dealing with a lot worse than that.’"

Brady said his yard was "pretty messed up" by the tropical-storm-force winds.

"I’d be really nervous if a big one hit. It happened pretty quick," Brady explained. "I thought you had time to prepare for these things, but apparently you don’t. They’re just kind of on you and then you’ve got to deal with it."

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The Bucs pushed their schedule back on Thursday due to the weather, which began to clear up throughout the morning. Luckily, the team made it out "safe and sound."

"Good lesson learned for someone who has been in the Northeast for a long time," Brady said of the experience.

Eta's impacts to the Tampa Bay area were largely felt ahead of its 4:20 a.m. Thursday landfall near Cedar Key in Levy County -- its second Florida landfall. The tropical storm's arrival marked the thirteenth landfall in the U.S. this hurricane season alone. For context, the previous record was nine U.S. landfalls in 1916.

RELATED: Families begin to pick up the pieces with help of Red Cross after Tropical Storm Eta

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