Whew! We Were Spared!!

/ Marcia Meara

NOTE: Just after I posted this, Elsa made landfall near Cedar Key. (A good distance north of us. 65mph winds, and from the map, it looks as though Gainesville (where my son lives) is now being hit by those eastern bands. We are “officially” in the clear here.) 

Just a quick note to let you know that Hurricane Elsa was once again downgraded to a tropical storm, and didn’t come ashore yet. It barely missed a direct hit on Tampa, apparently, and has continued northward up the coast.

Here, we were greeted by torrential rains  from one of the wicked eastern bands at 6:00am this morning , but any serious wind must have blown through overnight. Thus far, we seem to have escaped any damage, and I think my son & family did, as well, though an hour or two ago, they were getting a LOT of heavy rain. But nothing dire.

I believe we are out of Elsa’s reach now, unless she does a sudden U-turn, but please keep the folks still in her path in your thoughts and prayers. It can gain strength again before finally touching land, and even as a tropical storm, can cause a lot of wind and flood damage. 

And a HUGE thank you for all the well wishes, prayers, positive thoughts, and encouragement. It really helped me deal with the prepareation and stress involved over the last couple of day. I’m going to try to catch up with some comments, but bear with me if it takes a while. In the meantime, I must say, you guys ROCK!

40 thoughts on “Whew! We Were Spared!!”

    • Thanks, Priscilla! It was tense for a while, even though this was a small storm by comparison to many. Still, I’ve been through 70mph wind before, and it can be horribly destructive. So glad it’s beyond us now. 🙂

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  2. Glad it missed you, Marcia!

    We’re in Gainesville. Mostly buckets of rain. A little breezy but not much wind yet. Although we did get rousted out of a sound sleep at 6 a.m. by a tornado warning, but nothing happened near us. Still have power so far.

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    • Oh, you’re up there where my son is. He was fine earlier and said the rain wasn’t too bad, but it looks like you’ve been getting those dreaded outer eastern bands now. If they haven’t already moved on, I hope they do so pretty soon. And that everyone remains safe and suffers little damage. Keep us posted, Kass! 🙂

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  4. Glad it missed you. We have a Tropical Storm watch here for tomorrow. I haven’t seen the latest update, but this morning it was looking like we could start getting some rain in the afternoon, with the worst in the evening and night and the storm heading out to sea by morning. The track was taking it slightly west of my area, more inland. And it was still up in the air if it will be a tropical storm or weakened when it gets here. I need to see what the newest forecast is.

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    • Thanks so much, Robbie. We’re in the middle of a HOT, SUNNY day already, but I’m still waiting to be sure none of those last feeder bands impacted my son’s house. The last time I heard from him, all was well, so I’m going with that, though I’ll check in with him before too long.

      I’m so glad Elsa is GONE from here, though she’s got a lot of states lined up in front of her. It remains to be seen what she’s going to do next.

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  7. Such a relief to hear that it was downgraded. The waiting to see must have been as worrying as the event itself – probably more so – but it looks as though you need to get out your waders and rejoice! ❤

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    • Thanks, Trish. Don’t even need my waders. It never touched land at Tampa at all (which was when we would have gotten the worst hit over here). Instead, it just stayed in the Gulf and kept trudging north until it finally landed near an island called Cedar Key. (Jake and Dodger visited that place, if you remember. It’s where Dodge met the girl of his dreams).

      The eastern bands were still threatening Gainesville, though, so I’m waiting to hear from my son as to whether they got any damage, but the storm itself missed both of us. And it’s HOT and SUNNY as the dickens right now. Blindingly so, after a whole week of dark, overcast skies and rain showers.

      That’s the deal with hurricanes. You never know what they will do, the fickle things. In Elsa’s case, the worrying was far worse for us than the actuality, but you don’t dare not be prepared, in case it does hit.

      I’m just glad it’s over for now, but the hurricane season is only a month old. 🙄 We’ll have a lot more coming along, I’m sure, and we’ll be fretting over where each is heading and how strong it is, too. *sigh*

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    • Thank you so much, Mae. We are fine, and I’m hoping Jason & crew are, too. Waiting to get an update, since even though the center of the storm passed them by, they were getting slammed by the feeder bands last time I checked. We missed out on those here, happily, but it passed closer to Gainesville than it did to Orlando area. It’s still projected to pass through the center of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and into Virginia! GACK. I wish the dang thing would just fall apart, already!

      It’s been a stressful few days, but we made it through unscathed, so I’m celebrating that! 😀

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    • Thanks so much, Olga. Mark and I and our home are all fine. Still waiting for word from my son, but it looks like they likely are, too. 🙂 So glad this one passed us by! 🙂

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    • Thanks so much, Craig. Yep, I’ve been thanking God all morning. Waiting to hear from m son, but my feeling is that they were likely not impacted seriously, or I’d have heard something by now. (Can’t believe how many weeks of hurricane season are still ahead of us, though. Urk.)

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    • Thanks a million, Gwen. I’m so relieved today, after non-stop stress (and manual labor) for several days straight. Looking forward to hearing from my son before long, to let me know the outer bands didn’t cause them any damage, either. Fingers crossed! Hugs back atcha! 🤗 ❤

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    • Thanks, Staci. Back to clear skies, bright sunshine, and unrelenting heat. But no trees threatening to crush the house (or me), so I’m relieved and happy. Sadly, a man in Jacksonville was killed when one fell on his car. I think that was the only death we had in Florida, though Elsa claimed a few more people en route to us, and she’s still plowing through South Carolina this morning. My thoughts are with all of the folks still in her path.

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    • Thanks, Sue. It was a tense couple of days, waiting to see how much strength Elsa would gain as it came across the Gulf, and just where it would make landfall, but we’re done with it now. (Not so for states to the north of us, though I really hope it’s slowed down a lot so there aren’t any more deaths.)

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    • Thanks, Debby, and my thoughts exactly. Enough, already! 😀 Of course, it’s just the first month of hurricane season, so there will likely be some more threats coming this way, but hopefully, no direct hits or serious damage. It’s one of the reasons I’ve never even considered living on the coast. Even 50 or 60 miles inland makes a difference, though sometimes a hurricane will suddenly decide to come straight up the center of the state, like Charlie did in 2004. 😯

      If I had my way, Florida native or not, I’d be living on my OWN Wake-Robin Ridge. 😀

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