When I last left you, Hurricane Ian was bearing down on the state of Florida. Some forecasts had it heading basically straight for us, as little as two days out. The forecast, everyone admitted, was subject to change- Ian was in fact, very hard to predict. In fact, one day they thought it might hit north of here as a catagory 1 (the least damaging). But then the forecast changed to a strong category 4 (nearly the worst), slamming into Florida's gulf coast anywhere from Tampa to Naples. At that point, it was best for us to prepare for the worst and hope for the best (I always say you prepare as though you might be out of food and water for weeks, spending time money and energy to get supplies, and everything moved inside and taken care of- and then hope you did it all for absolutely nothing). Tracks will always shift, so if you're in the dreaded "cone", you have to keep on your toes. And as late as Tuesday, Tampa was still in the cone.
We wrapped up our preparations Tuesday morning. Gotta get those hurricane drinks, and evacuate the last hold out from the back porch (I sent this picture to Peyton as proof we had taken care of Delano).
I filled the cooler with drinks and ice, stocked the outdoor fridge with stuff we preferred to keep cold, leaving the indoor fridge for the stuff that had to stay cold. That way in the event of power loss, we could keep the cold air in the indoor fridge longer- without needing to open it often.
And in case of that, I did freeze all kinds of containers of water to act as ice packs. Put them in your fridge and it also helps keep things colder longer.
Wednesday morning we woke to a dreary and rainy day. Asa had prepped for this and had the umbrella handy for the dogs morning trips outside to do their business.
(Going out in the rain, deserves extra treats!)
Luckily for us, the track had significantly shifted over night. It looked like Ian was going to come on shore about 2- 2 1/2 hours south of us- near Fort Myers. Not only that, but the track after it came on shore went more inland. They were still predicted cat 1 winds, a TON of rain (like feet worth!!) and power outages for our area, announcing the winds would arrive for us overnight.
This, obviously, was good news for us. But, terrible news for the people in Fort Myers. They did not have as much warning. Yes, they were in the dreaded cone, but they weren't even ordered to evacauate until Tuesday, when Tampa had been evacuating since Sunday/Monday. The last minute shift was saving us, but it was killing them. Such a weird mix of emotions when you know it's going to hit somewhere on your coast, and you just hope it's not you- but then you know it's going to be someone else. The storm was still moving slow- horrific for the people in the 40(!!!) mile wide eye, and those in the worst rain swaths.
But for us, there seemed to be nothing short of light rain and decent winds- though nothing more than an afternoon summer storm might produce. Sure, the Skyway Bridge was closed, but that happens a lot around here.
Asa had a playlist for Wednesday all ready to go, since everyone encouraged him so much with his hurricane list the day before.
And despite knowing we esacped the worst of it, by Wednesday night, we were still bracing for some overnight cat 1 winds and a ton of rain. We dressed Porkchop and Etta accordingly in their thunder jackets. While hurricanes don't usually come with thunder or lightning (except Ian's inner eye with TONS of lightning), the wind can be frightening to them.
Meanwhile, I was just happy to still have power, some hurricane drinks and snacks and my hammock inside.
Plus Porkchop and Asa joined me for awhile.
Overnight the storm shifted even further west. While we had a couple big gusts and some flashes of power just before midnight- it seemed to taper off after that. Not only were we escapting category one winds, we were also espcaping the massive amount of rain they had coming for us. In fact, we had nothing more than a light rain most of the day and that was it. They had predicted it was going to rain all day Thursday- but it was just a breezy, partly cloudy day for us. We went outside to see if there was any damage from winds. Not so much as a tree branch down in the front yard. Just some leaves around.
The backyard was a little wind-blown, with the side yard plants seemingly taking the brunt of it.
And one small little branch down there.
A couple of palms got stripped, and the banana tree leaves were split (a function of them they have on purpose to help survive strong winds).
And out of all the lemons on our tree- we only lost one!!!
Asa's morning playlist on Thursday was a relief to all of us.
In fact, all Hurricane Ian seemed to bring us was fall weather. For the first time since April, we were able to open the French doors all day!
In fact, we got fall to stick around for awhile thanks to Ian. The Gulf temperate dropped something like 10 degrees after Ian came through, cooling us down and giving us low humidity.
But, our good fortune came at a huge cost to others. Everything from Fort Myers beach to Venice took a serious blow. While some areas are completely leveled, others suffered serious damage. You can't even get to Sanibel, Captiva, or Pine Islands. The bridges were all washed away. A 6-8 foot storm surge wiped it all out. It will take years to rebuild. People have died. People are stranded. Five days later, they're still doing rescues.
And it isn't just that area suffering. The flooding across everywhere from Daytona Beach to Orlando was terrible. Rescues took place there too. Days later the Mayakka river was flooding, cutting off i-75 making it incredibly difficult for anyone to get help south of Sarasota. Luckily, today that has receded. But, there are still whole communities that are in need of water and power.
But man, did we get lucky. Like, really, really lucky. Two days earlier Tampa, Clearwater and Saint Pete could have been Fort Meyers. Clearwater Beach could be cut off just like Sanibel. If it came up the bay, both my house and downtown Tampa could have been in the eye (AT THE SAME TIME). I can't even imagine that devastation happening to my city. I can't imagine how helpless the people in Fort Myers and other communities down there are feeling. The entire Tampa Bay area was largely spared. Yes, a lot of people in Pinellas didn't have power. Power outages were sporadic around here. Dade City lost a lot of trees and was out of power. But all in all, we got off easy this time. Even as far as rains and flooding. Instead of massive flooding from storm surge, the reverse happened. The water was sucked out of everywhere around here- from Bayshore Blvd to Hudson, you could walk on sand that's usually underwater. Instead of heavy winds, or heavy rains, we got fall.
I get how lucky we were. An hour south and things could have been much different. And lets take a second here to talk about Florida's home owner insurance disaster. Our insurance provider we've had for the last six years (since we bought the house) is pulling out of Florida, like many insurance companies over the last few years, and thus we're being dropped. We've never so much as made a claim, so we're lucky enough to have another insurance company take us on- albeit at increased prices. But some people's property insurance has quadrupaled. Some people can't find a new insurer. And this is only going to make the situation worse. It would have been nice if our Governor had stepped in to do something, but it seems as though he was busy with other "priorities". *Sigh* I guess I should at least be grateful I didn't need to make a claim a month before my insurance company was pulling out of the state. I know many other people won't be so lucky with that, either.
For the most part, I've been using this opportunity to do a little "spring cleaning". Since the backporch was cleared, I did my annual fall powerwashing/screen cleaning. It just takes a beating from rain and sun in the summer. Check out my before and after. Looks way better!
And we can eat outside again! So, while the weather will heat back up, it won't go back to being quite the same heat we've had for the last few months, and that makes me happy. We made it thru summer!! Now, fingers crossed we can make it thru the rest of hurricane season without another one coming this way. (To be fair, thats only the second real threat I've faced in the 16 1/2 years we've been here, and both Ian and Irma turned at the last minute and spared us).
However, I will say, it's been a hell of a month and half. Really, since I turned 41 things have been bananas. We did our first vacation in years. Then we all got Covid. Then we took a cruise to the Bahamas (I can't wait to blog about that amazingness- I'll get to a next), only to come home and be faced with a hurricane. Whether or not those storms hit you, you're out at least a week, even if it doesn't hit you- between the anxiety and the prepartion and then the clean up. So, if things could just go back to normal for a bit, that'd be cool. I could really go for normal life (and, lets be honest, at this point, my bank account can only afford normal!)
That's it for me. Sending good thoughts to all those to our south. I'll be back soon with those Bahamas blogs!
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