So Long, Irma!

I'm sure you've all heard by now, we survived Irma with no damage or anything to write home about. I posted quite a few of my pictures on Facebook, but there's a few I didn't share there. I thought I'd do one last hurricane blog, and go ahead and close this little Irma chapter, and hopefully return to normal life. It was a week ago tomorrow we first started dealing with this, but it seems like it's been forever. 

I know there's lots of poeple in Florida still dealing with it. The Keys have serious damage. Jacksonville is underwater. Plenty of people we know could be out of power for days. But, for us, personally, we're just ready to do something, anything but hurricane crap.  

When I last left you, we still had power. Shockingly enough, we never lost it. A lot of our friends in and around Tampa, Lakeland and Orlando are without power (even friends 5 minutes from us are without it), but we're still up and running, which is good since Asa is working again today. (It's his Friday).  

Around midnight last night the winds had really picked up, but I still didn't feel like we needed to go to the closet. Being a girl from Ohio, it's a little weird not to know when to go into that interior room. I mean, there we have sirens and everything. Here you just kind of have to watch the TV and see if they tell your area it's time. It's very strange. We decided to all sleep out in the family room again, so Asa drug our mattress out, and we turned on the news once we got all settled. At that point, the worst of it, the eye, was battering Lakeland. 

They kept saying how Pasco (our county) was next, and how we'd really be able to hear the winds now. But, I'm telling you, I didn't buy a house, I bought a fortress. The majority of the time we were in the Family Room we heard nothing but the wind blowing through the trees outside. From where we sat you wouldn't have even known anything was going outside, with the exception of  an occasional gust where we'd all look at each other and acknowledge that must have been 'a big one', and some power flashing.  At one point yesterday, my neighbor two houses down posted a video of the winds going absolutely crazy at her house, and I thought to myself 'wait, when did that happen? I heard nothing!" In fact, when we were supposed to be getting the worst of it Hayden fell right to sleep.  Now if you went to our bedroom, the boys rooms or really anywhere else, you could hear the wind a lot more. Maybe I would have been much more worried if I sat in a room where I could hear it, in the dark, without any power to distract me. But from where I was, I was totally calm. (Don't even get me started on the boys level of not being concerned. Calib and Peyton were convinced every time I did anything to prepare I was over reacting, and then were almost disappointed it wasn't more intense here. Ugh, boys. I better not be raising those kids who do stupid things in storms to see the spectacle of it all!) 

The eye wall did just skirt just to our east. After leaving Lakeland as a low CAT 2/high CAT 1, the storm headed for places like Dade City (where we lived when we first moved here), and Wesley Chapel (where Calib goes to school). Everyone keeps talking about how lucky we were. And maybe I should feel that way. But I feel less lucky, and more relieved that I didn't get unlucky. Think about it, a direct hit from a major hurricane hasn't happened in Tampa for over 100 years. Every time one hits anywhere in the US, we hear about how Tampa would never survive one (we had just heard it after Harvey), but it's just not an area prone to them. Vulnerable, yes. Prone, no. At one point the forecast track had the eye of the wall, a CAT 3 or 4 coming right through my neighborhood. There's millions of miles of coastline any given storm could hit. Most storms dissipate quickly once they get on land. It's not like I live ON the coast. What are the odds that the eye of one of the strongest hurricane's to hit the United States is going  to hit MY house? Not good.  I'm sure part of telling myself that was because I didn't want to freak out too much about it. But, now I'm telling myself that because I don't want to deal with any of this again anytime soon. Odds for that are in my favor. 

I do know for our situation, we did get a good scenario though. 36 hours ago they were saying that once in a hundred years storm was coming right for us. It could have happened. But, the storm stayed longer in Cuba, and nearly made landfall there (depending on who you ask), which helped. I also kept saying that if the storm could just hit as far south as possible and stay inland, we would be good. If it had to hit here at all, we're happy that's what happened.

 And now, I mean if history is any indication, I've paid my dues and I should be good for awhile. It's the first one here in my 11 and half years. Even if you account for global warming and another shows up in half that, I'll be pleased. But, I do feel lucky that we have power, given how many people don't. 

I've also been through my first hurricane now, so that's something. I can no longer say I have no frame of reference. What I learned from my first hurricane:

Prepare, but don't stress about it. That's the approach we took, and it worked out well for us. 

People will help you, just ask, and let them. Floridians can be total assholes, until we're all put on what could be a sinking ship together. Then they turn it around. My kind of people right there. 

Don't panic if you're in the direct line of the storm. It's going to change no less than 500 times before it gets to you. No less, I promise. Watching it closely will make your head spin. 

Also, don't ever check the 2 AM advisories. One bad one and you ruin a perfectly good night's rest. 

Don't watch national news. For the love of god, I repeat, do not watch the national news! They make generalizations and basically are all doom and gloom without specific information. It's in no way helpful. 

Use Facebook to update people. It worked SOOO well. My phone was free for other things than everyone checking in on us (we do appreciate the concern and well wishes though!). I'm not sure how people got through these things before social media. 

The anxiety of it all is the worst part, knowing the worst could be coming for you for days, sucks. (Although if I didn't have power for days or weeks, that would probably be the worst part. I've still not experienced that part of a hurricane!)

So, that's that. Irma is my reference now.

Anyway, this morning we went out to see the damage, and if you looked up and down the street, you would just think a strong summer storm had come through (you know if you ignored some of those boarded up windows). Just lots of leaves, not even big branches down my street. 

The backyard was mostly in tact too. The only tree that you could tell took a beating was the papaya tree. It wasn't really damaged, but it was leaning up against the fence and pulling ever so slightly up from the very, very wet dirt. I think it just didn't have enough of a root system to be firm enough in the ground. It was fixable, we thought. No big deal. We put dirt around it, a rock to hold it in place until the ground firms it back up a bit, and tied it to another tree so it would be ok with the little bit of wind we had today. 

A curfew was put in place last night in Pasco county, but by the time we were up and around it had lifted. Morning brought tropical storm winds, but nothing terrible. I will say, for everything this storm wasn't for us, it was MASSIVE from top to bottom. The amount of time we felt the winds of Irma was crazy. It covered the whole state except for some of the pan handle. After morning coffee, we were out talking to neighbors who had wandered the neighborhood and they were telling us about the damage. We decided to go check it out. 

 There were some big trees down, but if you want to talk luck, every single one of these trees fell in a 'good' direction. As far as we could tell, not one tree in Wilderness Lakes fell on any houses, cars, or even community property. While a couple were in the street, people in our neighborhood worked quickly to make the roads passable.  (And check out the powerlines into my neighborhood still standing- YAY!) 

The roundabout where we had taken the picture of those 9 deer a few days before lost a couple of trees, and was pretty wet. 

The retention ponds are all really high. I think we ended up with somewhere around six inches. That was good because those things are at the tippy top. Too much more and we would have had some neighborhood flooding. 

The animals seemed a little confused on where their habitats should stop though. Between the high water and the downed trees/leaves/branches gators, snakes and birds were all over. 

The closest downed tree to us was at the end of our street. It split right in two. The tree is actually already cleaned up and by the curb for pick up tomorrow in nice little pieces. 

We walked down to the lodge, and there was lots of leaves and small twigs covering the sidewalk, but nothing major. 

Peyton pointed out that some of the sticks were stuck into the ground at really scary angles. We pulled one out, and to our surprise it was much bigger than it first appeared. The wind here reached somewhere around 70 miles per hour. Lakeland, near the eye, got almost up to triple digits. 

As far as we could tell there really was no structural damage to any house. There wasn't so much as a shingle out of place. We didn't see one broken window, or one damaged car. We saw a few ripped open screens, and a couple of fence panels out of place, but that was it. Up at our lodge (our version of a clubhouse), there was lots of brush a couple of big downed trees. It looked like the most affected part of the neighborhood. 

The big  tree came down, and took bushes- in several spots! The pictures didn't really do it justice.

Peyton  took pictures on his phone to send to his friends. A lot of his online friends and kids he met while we were in Hawaii were really worried about him. 

By the time we were up there around 11 AM, people had gone up with axes and chainsaws to at least make the road to the lodge passable. 

The pools were at the tippy top just like the retention ponds, but they didn't overflow. There were lots of leaves and branches and palm fronds in the pools, and some bent plants, but nothing a little clean up can't fix. 

 

There's also lots of branches down at the lodge. Remarkably for as many tall glass windows as they have up there, nothing broke. We did get an email saying it would be a few days before we could use anything up there (the gym, I think is open), but that other than some clean up of branches and debris, they should be up and running soon. 

We walked down to check out the lake and the dock. We found another down tree and some high water, but still totally manageable. 

You can kind of see that the floating dock on the right with the canoes and the kayaks is now UP from the normal dock. I hadn't seen that before. 

All in all, the damage is negligible around where I live. The main thing people are dealing with is power outages. The weather was nice and cool today (well for Florida in September, anyway) but as it warms back up, I hope people get power back soon. Living in Florida with no A/C isn't fun, in addition to all the other inconveniences. Schools have decided to stay closed for a few more days. Pasco won't open all week, with a target of being open next Monday, September 18th. Calib's class for tonight was cancelled long ago, but Pasco-Hernando State College called tonight with an automated message letting us know that's pending the power situation (they apparently don't have it at the moment). 

 Now while I might have gone around the neighborhood to check things out, I'm not a looky Lou who's going to go driving all over, so I don't know, first hand, exactly how things look around the area. I was checking things out online though, and even if we wanted to leave today, it would have been difficult to do so, this morning anyway. 41 was blocked because of trees, Ehren Cutoff was flooded, and to the north on 52 there were at least 12 utility poles down and in the road.  I did lift some pictures from social media to share with you guys though. 

For the most part there were a lot of fallen down tree pictures. That was the most widespread, common issue. 

Some gas stations didn't make it out so well. 

Mobile homes don't fair as well in hurricanes, and some billboards must have caught the wind just right to go down. 

One random boat got loose and ended up hitting a bridge in Tampa, and a church roof came off. 

But, Lakeland really took on the most damage. Their winds hit near triple digits. It really could have been much worse though.

The winds have gradually died down all day. It rained off and on this morning, but nothing to add much to our rain total, just some heavy sprinkles or short bursts of rain. When we figured it was all clear, we let our buddy Herman go back outside. He wasn't so sure about it, so we kind of let him go on his own time. Peyton told him to make sure to give us a good review on kitty yelp. 

Our pets, meanwhile, weathered the storm pretty good. I thought Porkchop was just going to lose it during the hurricane, given how he reacts to thunderstorms. But, apparently it's the thunder and lightening that he finds the most terrifying, because except for some quiet shaking, he wasn't all that whiney. Phenom is always fine, because he's Phenom and he loves everything about everything all the time. Ellie really missed going outside, but held her business in the whole time. She was SO excited when she could finally go outside, do her business and chase lizards. So excited, she trampled through the very, very muddy yard without a care in the world. For those of you who don't know, Ellie has white paws. Or at least she did. 

The water is draining from the yard, and it never got much worse than what I posted yesterday. But, my hammock is going to have to wait a minute to go back out there. The ground is REALLY soft, and I don't want it sinking in and getting yucky. So, for a few days we'll have the hammock in the living room still, no big deal. 

We all worked together to try and put everything back. We did have an issue in my closet where the stupid builders grade wire shelves couldn't seem to withstand the weight of our clothes when we went to put it back on. So, that'll be something to deal with (or eventually go to the Container Store to permanently remedy). But the back porch is all back together, Asa's work from home computer is back in the office, the plywood is off the front window, and the bathtub has been drained. (Although we're told to drain/use as little water as possible as to not overload the system for the next 24 hours.) 

Oh, and Delano can enjoy the great outdoors once again. 

The weather tonight has actually been really nice and breezy.  It's not even humid right now. We sat around the living room for dinner, caught up on the latest episode of Big Brother that we missed last night because of the storm (and football) and opened up the back doors, something we haven't been able to do in a really long time. 

We're about to hit our weekend again (that's Tuesday thru Thursday), but I'm not sure what we'll be able to do. They say not to use much gas to make sure everyone has some, and I know the roads will be crowded- but I'd be lying if I said a trip to Disney wasn't at least on my mind. How did Disney fare, you ask? Well, it was closed Saturday and Sunday. But it will be back open tomorrow. (Again, I took some pictures to share). 

People were posting pictures from the damage around the resort. But, Disney knows how to handle hurricanes, and even while being confined to your home resort, they keep you entertained with activities and characters in the lobbies and game rooms. 

 And they make all their hotels pet friendly to help out anyone who needs it, which makes for adorable pictures!

Some people in our area are still dealing with the storm, I know. People along the Anclote River were told to evacuate again tonight because the river is getting too high. Tides are still a concern. Lots of people have no power. I don't want to get in the way, but I also want to get out, so we'll see. 

I do want to say, this whole thing has made me very appreciative. My neighbors have been great and reassuring. Everyone from Publix employees to the first responders have made this whole thing way better for a lot of people. (So, these last two lifted pictures are now appropriate). 

 But I'm also just really, really relieved that my city avoided catastrophe, as unlikely as it might have been. I don't talk about it much, but I moved here 11 and a half years ago because a lot of things happened and life in Ohio just wasn't for me anymore. I needed a new home, and I found it here. It wasn't easy when I first got here, and it was an adjustment, but I have a deep love for this place now. There's no better feeling than knowing you belong somewhere and Tampa feels like where I was meant to be. It's given my boys a lot of opportunities they wouldn't have had otherwise, it's given me a new outlook on life that I really needed when I got here so many years ago. When I've been away and I arrive back here, and I just take a deep breath in and feel ... just home. This place is home. I may have grown up in northwest Ohio, but I am a Tampa girl through and through now. There's literally no other place in the world I'd rather live. 

Of course, with this whole hurricane my first concern was the boys, and Asa, and our pets. But, I also love my home: my city,  my neighborhood, and my very newly purchased house. As much as it is all just 'stuff', I'm glad I still have it, all in tact. So tonight, when I walked out on my patio to enjoy the cool air, I took that deep breath in and really got where the phrase 'a sigh of relief' came from. And as I looked up to enjoy the clearing skies, I realized that crappy screen didn't make it through Irma as well as I had thought it did, and I turned around and groaned 'Ughhh... Asa, come look at this!' 

Because.. how soon we lose our perspective, right? 

Next Up: Does anyone know what to do with 8 gallons of water and a million batteries? (Actually I wonder if we can donate them to people in Florida who might need them, we should look into that!)