Cat 3 Hurricane
A lot has happened this week and little of it good. Monday I took my car in as it was acting up again for the third time in a week, something about the stabili trak. They couldn't get to it until after the hurricane but said I could drive it to evacuate as my area was in the orange flood zone and it was a mandatory evacuation order. Well I was afraid to try to drive it much because it frequently cut engine power and where I had planned to go was the same place I had for Ian and that meant traveling in unpopulated areas. I filled up the gas tank on the way home and was so worried, no scared that I let myself get distracted at just the wrong moment and my car ended up totaled. No one hurt just a real mess. I stayed home during the hurricane as all car dealers and rental places closed early for employees to go home and evacuate or get their houses ready for the storm.
Part of one section of the eyewall came over us so we got some hellacious wind but fortunately not for long but did have a lot of Cat 1 force winds with gusts to 100 mph. I heard some weird noises outside at one point and cautiously opened the door to check and found water up over my bottom step (there are only 3). The whole area was flooded which freaked me out as I didn't want it to ruin the house. Couldn't do anything so sat back down and watched online news on YouTube livestreaming to see what was going on around me and the rest of Florida. Yeah, I didn't lose power during Milton, a couple of second long brownouts but no loss of power which surprised the hell out of me. A couple of hours later I looked out again to see if the flooding had gotten worse and found that it had receded back down and only partially covered my driveway. A half hour later it was back in the grass and the road. I did not check behind the house as the small lake there does have alligators at times and it was very dark and still very windy. I am at 13 feet elevation so it wasn't storm surge but our lake is a retention pond and all the rain had caused it to flood as it does with every hurricane. I have evacuated with the other direct hits from Irma and Ian so didn't know that.
It was a very long night. I got about 4 hours of sleep between around 6 am when everything died down and when I got up to check the house for damage. My attached shed/laundry room had flooded a few inches but nothing on the floor needs more than washing off and the bottom few inches sanitized to prevent mold. A small amount of water flooded my lanai and I will have to throw out the carpeting but not much else. Did not lose any shingles from the new roof (after Ian) and nothing else was damaged. Oddly my off center patio umbrella that was closed and tied to its pole did not get knocked over but then it was close to an 'L' section of the house so rather sheltered from the direct winds and also has about 100 lbs in the base. Funny thing is that trash pickup went as scheduled rather than late a day as usual for these things.
Downtown and out in Punta Gorda Isles they had some horrible flooding and with that water and the winds many boats, cars, trucks and other debris were thrown around everywhere. It looked like a war zone rather than the pretty little town I knew. Ian was a Cat 4, just under a Cat 5 when he came over this city two years ago and we had no storm surge downtown and everything was back to normal within a few days. Water was up about 5 feet in businesses and homes. It won't be a fast recovery this time.
I can say it was quite an experience riding out a Cat 3 hurricane but was not thrilled with it. Unlike many it won't scare me out of living here. Yes they are horrible and very destructive but physically I have been doing much better since moving here with a lot less chronic pain and I am also out of debt with my credit rating now excellent. Florida isn't for everybody and I may in the future decide to move farther north but we will see. As of now though I still love living here despite the crappy parts and hurricanes are definitely crappy.
Part of one section of the eyewall came over us so we got some hellacious wind but fortunately not for long but did have a lot of Cat 1 force winds with gusts to 100 mph. I heard some weird noises outside at one point and cautiously opened the door to check and found water up over my bottom step (there are only 3). The whole area was flooded which freaked me out as I didn't want it to ruin the house. Couldn't do anything so sat back down and watched online news on YouTube livestreaming to see what was going on around me and the rest of Florida. Yeah, I didn't lose power during Milton, a couple of second long brownouts but no loss of power which surprised the hell out of me. A couple of hours later I looked out again to see if the flooding had gotten worse and found that it had receded back down and only partially covered my driveway. A half hour later it was back in the grass and the road. I did not check behind the house as the small lake there does have alligators at times and it was very dark and still very windy. I am at 13 feet elevation so it wasn't storm surge but our lake is a retention pond and all the rain had caused it to flood as it does with every hurricane. I have evacuated with the other direct hits from Irma and Ian so didn't know that.
It was a very long night. I got about 4 hours of sleep between around 6 am when everything died down and when I got up to check the house for damage. My attached shed/laundry room had flooded a few inches but nothing on the floor needs more than washing off and the bottom few inches sanitized to prevent mold. A small amount of water flooded my lanai and I will have to throw out the carpeting but not much else. Did not lose any shingles from the new roof (after Ian) and nothing else was damaged. Oddly my off center patio umbrella that was closed and tied to its pole did not get knocked over but then it was close to an 'L' section of the house so rather sheltered from the direct winds and also has about 100 lbs in the base. Funny thing is that trash pickup went as scheduled rather than late a day as usual for these things.
Downtown and out in Punta Gorda Isles they had some horrible flooding and with that water and the winds many boats, cars, trucks and other debris were thrown around everywhere. It looked like a war zone rather than the pretty little town I knew. Ian was a Cat 4, just under a Cat 5 when he came over this city two years ago and we had no storm surge downtown and everything was back to normal within a few days. Water was up about 5 feet in businesses and homes. It won't be a fast recovery this time.
I can say it was quite an experience riding out a Cat 3 hurricane but was not thrilled with it. Unlike many it won't scare me out of living here. Yes they are horrible and very destructive but physically I have been doing much better since moving here with a lot less chronic pain and I am also out of debt with my credit rating now excellent. Florida isn't for everybody and I may in the future decide to move farther north but we will see. As of now though I still love living here despite the crappy parts and hurricanes are definitely crappy.