Another Amazing Rescue in Progress!

Hi, Everyone! Just wanted to get out  a quick update in case the internet goes again.  We were incredibly lucky, considering a) what’s happened to the folks in south Florida and b) even parts of our county received a great deal of flooding, leaving several roads still underwater. Here’s the scoop on us:

1. My son and his family (who live just 2 hours north of us) weren’t hit hard at all, and escaped any damage to their home, so that was the best news of all for us!
2. Power finally came back on late yesterday, so three days without in this very hot weather. It was not fun, but with the generator, we were able to run ceiling fans, cook on the range, have overhead lights, and run the little a/c in the bedroom for sleeping at night. Compared to so many, many people, we have NOTHING to complain about. Again, we were truly lucky! 
3. Of course, we spent a LOT of money on gas for the generator, but it’s still the best investment we ever made.  
4. Internet is still a bit intermittent, but I don’t have time to be online anyway, as we are busy cleaning up heaps and piles of debris all over our yard. But again, we still have a house and a yard, with no major damage, so … LUCKY!
5. We were able to find a tree service actually still working in our area and not off helping the far more desperate folks down south. They came, got the tree off the house, cut it up and stacked it on the curb for city pickup. They were super fast and efficient, and we were very, very grateful. Cost us $1200, but it could have been much,  much worse.
6. Only a small patch of shingles were damaged by the tree being on the roof for two days, and Mark is busy replacing them with shingles left over from the new roof we had to get after Hurricane Irma 5 years ago. So happy there was no other damage to the house this time around! (Unlike the $85,000 worth to the house, and $3,500 worth to our car, last time.) Did I mention LUCKY??
7. And last, we are very, very grateful and appreciative of all the well wishes and prayers from so many of you! I don’t have words enough to tell you what it means to know folks were thinking about, and praying for, all of us here in Florida. Many, many thanks to each of you, and I’ll be checking in through the days ahead as time allows.

NOTE: I have back-to-back guests on TWS again this week that I know you’ll enjoy. Jackie Lambert will be here on Tuesday, and Kassandra Lamb will be here on Wednesday. I may or may not be able to comment much, but I know you’ll make them welcome!

Now, back to debris removal! 

Just wanted to let you know we are alive, and mostly well. While Ian had slowed to Tropical Storm speeds when it passed over us, we still got a ton of wind and rain, and for the first time that I can remember, flash flood warnings were issued for our county. We still came through remarkably well, compared to southwest Florida.

We did, however, have a TREE FALL ON OUR HOUSE AGAIN!!!! This time, it was a very tall, spindly live oak that the tree people said didn’t need to come down. It was all the way at the back of our property, and Mark didn’t think it would catch enough wind to fall. But with all the weeks of daily heavy rain, the soil was totally saturated, and it just plan FELL over, roots and all. It is lying across the master bedroom roof, but doesn’t look like it damaged it. We won’t know for sure until the rain and wind gusts finally stop and Mark can take a closer look. He might even be able to cut it in pieces and drop them over the edge himself, thus saving us $800 – $1000, and a LONG wait in line for a tree service. We’ll decide on that as soon as he can get up there and assess the situation.

For now, we have lost power, but the generator is working like a charm.  We also lost internet for about an hour, but it’s back, at least for now. The important thing is WE are safe, our house is safe, and best of all, my son & family is safe, too! (They are two hours north of us, and didn’t get nearly as much wind and rain as we did. YAY!)

With the power not restored, we are having to cope with heat, as the main a/c is too much for the generator, and we have an enormous clean-up job ahead of us, once it finally stops raining. But the bottom line is, we are alive and safe, and our house is still standing! I’m filled with gratitude for that, and praying for those who haven’t fared as well.  Also sending prayers to those still in harm’s way as Ian crawls northward, bringing more storm surges, wind, and rain to others in the path.

I’ll probably be pretty scarce for a couple more days, but I’ll check in with updates when I can.  Stay safe, everyone!

Ian is slamming the holy heck out of southwest Florida, and things are looking grim. Over 1.1 million without power (with more coming), and terrible storm surges. It’s very sad!

For us, a bit of good news. I mistakenly posted the maps for the Tropical Storm winds percentages earlier, instead of the  ones for hurricane force winds. Now that I’ve taken a look at the correct map, I see that our odds for the hurricane winds are lower, plus, the storm will likely decrease as it moves north. So we might be dealing with tropical storm winds here in Seminole County. That’s still a miserable mess with plenty of opportunities for damage, but much less dangerous than a Category 4 hurricane, which is what Ian is right now as it pounds Naples, Cape Coral, and the nearby islands. (We are sitting on the cusp between brown and orange so 60% chance of hurricane strength winds, instead of 90%.)

Again, the worst things about this storm are 1) the astonishing size (it covers the entire width of the Florida peninsula), 2)the flood surges it’s causing along the coastline, and 3) the fact that it is moving so slowly. (That gives it longer to slam the heck out of every mile it covers.

It has rained all day today with some heavier gusts of wind in the last hour or so, and only time will tell what’s ahead. But I’m feeling better that the correct map says we are not as likely to get the full hurricane up here as I’d originally thought. Maybe I’ll get some sleep tonight, after all!