Florida hurricanes
Well, friends, this seems like "deja vu all over again" in Florida, where we have a place in Vero Beach. I'm still in our Washington home -- which, as many of you know, is more like Joanne's preferred nest. (I do prefer Florida.) I had stuck around up here after we got back from Europe in mid-July: she had some medical issues, now resolved -- and so, a few days ago, I'd booked a flight for the 18th.
Ah, but now we suddenly have Hurricane Irma -- as of tonight's news, it looks likely to turn its path from west to north on Saturday, up Florida's east coast.
Not that we're strangers to hurricanes there: in 2004, Vero was hit with TWO of them, three weeks apart. Our place was badly damaged, as our neighbors reported. Joanne thought to ask a contractor we'd used for remodeling up here if he'd take his crew down to help with emergency repairs -- and he agreed to bring a truckload of equipment and 4 other guys (all Guatemalans).
We got there five days after the storm, quickly set to work replacing the shingle roofs and doing other urgent repairs. We performed minor miracles, even getting reconnected to the power grid so that we could run A/C and dry out the rain-soaked interior. We quickly learned -- as have the people of southeast Texas in the past week -- that the real enemy in post-hurricane situations is MOLD. We ripped out carpets, some cabinetry, but mainly soaked "drywall" in much of the house, though some rooms (including our guest house) were pretty much okay.
A week into the rebuild, 18 days after the first storm, a SECOND hurricane (Jeanne) -- which had gone east of us, but then did a bizarre pivot in the central Atlantic -- and came straight at us. We and the crew evacuated a day before it hit, heading for the Florida west coast, where we have friends living on Longboat Key, off Sarasota. We put up the crew in a motel in Sarasota, and we watched it all on our friends' TV. Neighbors who stayed in Vero phoned to report that the house had sustained more damage. We rented a UHaul trailer, filled it with construction materials from the Sarasota Home Depot, and returned to Vero.
Much of our work had been undone by Jeanne, including most of the new shingles. (One learns that new shingle roofing must "cure" in the sun for months before it becomes a serious barrier to wind and water.) Again, we had what is most needed to cope with heavy damage after a Florida storm: a hard-working crew -- since labor is suddenly in short supply (as we had earned from South Florida friends who survived Hurricane Andrew there in the mid-90s).
Long story short (six more months of working on and off -- the contractor and crew needed to go back north for other clients, but they returned to Vero several more times to complete the restoration by the following May), we got our lovely home back, collected on the insurance (Joanne created forty pages of spreadsheets with every damned shingle and hour the crew worked) -- and have enjoyed it for the past 12 years.
Now, as I wrote, "deja vu" is upon us -- as we talk to Vero neighbors looking at evaculation tomorrow, and watch the TV coverage. (The Houston chaos in the past few weeks had already reminded us pretty brutally just how vicious the wind and water can be.) It'll be a nervous few days as the forecasts evolve and we come to know more about the storm's likely path.
Wish us luck!
Ah, but now we suddenly have Hurricane Irma -- as of tonight's news, it looks likely to turn its path from west to north on Saturday, up Florida's east coast.
Not that we're strangers to hurricanes there: in 2004, Vero was hit with TWO of them, three weeks apart. Our place was badly damaged, as our neighbors reported. Joanne thought to ask a contractor we'd used for remodeling up here if he'd take his crew down to help with emergency repairs -- and he agreed to bring a truckload of equipment and 4 other guys (all Guatemalans).
We got there five days after the storm, quickly set to work replacing the shingle roofs and doing other urgent repairs. We performed minor miracles, even getting reconnected to the power grid so that we could run A/C and dry out the rain-soaked interior. We quickly learned -- as have the people of southeast Texas in the past week -- that the real enemy in post-hurricane situations is MOLD. We ripped out carpets, some cabinetry, but mainly soaked "drywall" in much of the house, though some rooms (including our guest house) were pretty much okay.
A week into the rebuild, 18 days after the first storm, a SECOND hurricane (Jeanne) -- which had gone east of us, but then did a bizarre pivot in the central Atlantic -- and came straight at us. We and the crew evacuated a day before it hit, heading for the Florida west coast, where we have friends living on Longboat Key, off Sarasota. We put up the crew in a motel in Sarasota, and we watched it all on our friends' TV. Neighbors who stayed in Vero phoned to report that the house had sustained more damage. We rented a UHaul trailer, filled it with construction materials from the Sarasota Home Depot, and returned to Vero.
Much of our work had been undone by Jeanne, including most of the new shingles. (One learns that new shingle roofing must "cure" in the sun for months before it becomes a serious barrier to wind and water.) Again, we had what is most needed to cope with heavy damage after a Florida storm: a hard-working crew -- since labor is suddenly in short supply (as we had earned from South Florida friends who survived Hurricane Andrew there in the mid-90s).
Long story short (six more months of working on and off -- the contractor and crew needed to go back north for other clients, but they returned to Vero several more times to complete the restoration by the following May), we got our lovely home back, collected on the insurance (Joanne created forty pages of spreadsheets with every damned shingle and hour the crew worked) -- and have enjoyed it for the past 12 years.
Now, as I wrote, "deja vu" is upon us -- as we talk to Vero neighbors looking at evaculation tomorrow, and watch the TV coverage. (The Houston chaos in the past few weeks had already reminded us pretty brutally just how vicious the wind and water can be.) It'll be a nervous few days as the forecasts evolve and we come to know more about the storm's likely path.
Wish us luck!