Hurricane Irma Part 2

Monday morning.....we awoke....turned on the news and Irma was passed Bradenton...It had blown through, rather slowly at a less than category 1 storm...winds gusting from 45-90 mph. Sparky had a website called Next Door, where neighborhoods can set up a little private network of their own for neighbors to check on neighbors. You can request information about the best service people to use, what companies are good, and one of the best requests, "We are out of town, but how does our house look after the storm?" Because it's just your neighborhood and neighbors, it seems like a safe site to use. Sparky sent out a request, and a neighbor walking her dog was kind enough to report back, "Your pool cage has a branch through the screen, but it's just a small hole. Everything else looks ok!" Whew! Dodged a bullet there! It could have been really bad...the southern part got hit much harder than we did.

Sparky was anxious to get back home. Eldo, not so much. He was thinking, "Why not just stay here in Myrtle Beach, play a little golf, and wait for all the hubbub to die down?" But he knew how much Sparky missed school and the little kids, and how much she wanted to get back as soon as possible, just in case school resumed quickly. So we left late Monday morning. With no decision made on school other than it was closed Monday and Tuesday, Sparky was ready to go. There was just one slight problem. The outer bands of the hurricane were scheduled to pass through South Carolina close to the time we would be making our way back in the direction of Florida. Let's see what happened....

We drove and drove and drove....through bands of strong winds and heavy heavy rain. Just when we thought it was a bad idea to have headed home, the winds would calm down and the rain would completely stop. We kept going. Things started to get a little alarming once we got into Georgia. All the ramps were closed getting off I-95 through Georgia. We didn't know why....Apparently, the exits were closed due to the exodus of people leaving Florida, and the hurricane headed northwest tracking through Georgia and they hadn't opened back up yet. As the night deepened, the highway remained extremely dark. There were no overhead lamps illuminating the exits, there were no lights to be seen along the exits, where the gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants were. There were no gas stations open. There were no restaurants open. NOTHING was open. The area was without power. Uh-oh...we started worrying about gas, hearing that gas supplies were available. There was no electricity for miles and miles. We had kept our tank filled and topped off after having a terrible time getting gas once we were in the southern part of South Carolina. We started seeing lines and lines at the gas pumps and the gas pumps were closed off. We realized this was going to be a problem the rest of the way home.

Once we hit the border of Florida and Georgia, we were wiped out. It was about midnight. We pulled off the I-95 exit and interchange at I-75 in Wildwood, FL, deciding to see if we could find a place to spend the night and finish the drive the next morning. The most surreal scene greeted us. (Sorry for no photos, time of day and sheer exhaustion caused us to go into survival mode). Picture this...a major interchange with cars strewn all over the place in and around the gas stations....People sleeping in their cars in gas lines, lines of cars 25 or more deep, waiting for gas deliveries the stations said would be coming by morning. People sitting on the tops of their cars, parked willy-nilly all over in parking lots, on hillsides, like a demolition derby had just taken place and everyone had climbed out of their cars to wait the rest of the night out or choosing to sleep in them. People with children and babies trying to get some sleep, wondering where and when the gas would come. Others walking aimlessly around, talking to strangers. There was a motel right there, a Days Inn. A sign on the door said, "Sold Out" and it was locked. Sparky had to go to the bathroom, BAD! So she knocked on the door. The night clerk motioned to a little side window and Sparky explained her need. Sure, said the lady, and unlocked the door to let her in. After Sparky used the bathroom, she asked if she and Eldo could park the car in the back of the motel and just rest for a few hours. The lady took one look at Eldy, head down in the car and said, "Actually, we have a handicapped room still available. Would you like that one?" and Sparky WANTED  to say, "DOES A BEAR SHIT IN THE WOODS????" but she mustered up an effusive, "OH, YES! We WOULD! Bless you! Thank you SO MUCH" And we took it. Guess they were holding the room for anyone handicapped. At midnight, it had not been claimed, so we took it. They could have charged us an arm and a leg for it under the circumstances, but it was 116.00. That was all right. it was doable. Eldo climbed into bed and within 5 minutes was snoring logs. Sparky had her shower, and then she collapsed, too.

At 5:00 AM, we were back up and ready to roll. The thought of making it home on a low tank of gas was worrisome, but we had enough to make it. We headed for the highway entrance ramp for 75 south which had a line of 50+ cars in it at a dead stop. Nobody was moving. We couldn't figure out why until we saw a cop directing people AROUND the line of cars and it turned out the ramp was blocked because people were in a gas line that wrapped around the corner from the highway. We suspected that some people might have run out of gas in that line, but we didn't know for sure. We had to do a U-turn and come back the other way to get on the highway. As we got on I-75, there were cars after cars after cars on the shoulder. They had all run out of gas. We arrived home at 7:00 AM or so, and saw that the gas pumps were all out of gas in and around our exit as well....Unreal.....We have never experienced that nor seen anything like this ever!  We are old enough to remember gas rationing back in the early 70's but this was a lot worse....

Triple hurricanes 9/10/17

And wouldn't you know....school was cancelled for the rest of the week! Sparky owes Eldo, BIG time! :-) As we recovered from our ordeal, many emotions hit us the first couple of days back from having evacuated. Sparky was very emotional and tried to figure out why....(she's normally calm as a cucumber and very little gets her upset). Having missed a terrible storm, seeing others be not as fortunate, makes you feel guilty a bit. The Florida Keys got hammered. We felt terrible at the losses some RVing friends suffered from the damages to the Keys.

It was really really stressful....It took time to calm down and get back to normal, whatever that was and is...We learned some things about hurricanes in the process and being ready for the next one. We are not sure if we would stay or go the next time, but we do know how to prepare and how to be ready. We don't think we would stay in a shelter. There were some real horror stories about how people treated the shelter facilities in Sarasota. People left dirty diapers in children's desks in some of the schools that served as shelters. There was animal feces and other awful junk left behind.

We aren't blasé any more. We have a much more personal connection now with the weather here in Florida. We will have better supplies on hand next time. We will keep a "go" bag ready and packed a few days prior to having to evacuate if we do. We saw the power of a tropical storm, almost hurricane force winds, and we have a greater respect for the power it does have. It's been a busy hurricane season this year, THREE in the Atlantic basin at one time, Katia, Jose and Irma, something our weatherman says he has never seen. However, we are blessed to be in a location that has VERY few hurricanes actually come into the area. We are not worried. BUT--we will think about some new windows and we really should think about a new roof!

Until next time.....(not hurricane time!)

                                                             Eldo and Sparky

Hurricane Irma Part I

We've never really worried about hurricanes here in the Sarasota/Bradenton area in the four years we've lived here. We are about 30 miles inland from the coast on the west side of Florida, an hour south of Tampa.We knew there was always a possibility, but 1) they hadn't had a direct hit hurricane in the area for about 90 years, and 2) we are not in a flood plain. We don't even carry flood insurance. We don't have hurricane shutters. Very few people in our neighborhood have hurricane shutters.

So in the first few days of last week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Sept. 4-6th, we were
watching the weather, in particular, our favorite weatherman, Denis Phillips of ABC10 News as he talked about a newly named hurricane by the name of Irma. He wasn't too worried. The system was well out in the Atlantic, and he was going to watch it very carefully....As the week progressed, the storm developed into a category 4, then a category 5, still out in the Atlantic and he was now watching it VERY carefully. A little note about Denis Phillips, Tampa Bay weatherman. He is probably THE most calm, non-excitable weatherman. He's cute, and always wears suspenders. He doesn't sugarcoat any bad weather news, he gives you all the probabilities and a very measured opinion and he doesn't hype up the storm like other weather stations do. And he doesn't do stupid stuff like go out in the raging hurricane gust winds and show you hard how it is to stand up in the wind with palm fronds and tree limbs flying by past you. (Really, Weather Channel? How stupid is that?) He has a favorite rule, rule #7--Don't freak out unless Denis Phillips freaks out. So we felt safe and secure....We continued to watch...and started to prepare. The stores started emptying out of basic hurricane supplies, water, food, plywood, etc. It appeared people were taking notice of the weather stations to prepare, prepare, prepare, and they did.

Around Wednesday, the spaghetti models and predictor models from several different sources were saying that the hurricane was a category 5, and it was a monster storm, one of the largest ever to form in the Atlantic.  What is a spaghetti model? It's a method of viewing data to visualize possible flows of weather systems. It looks just like spaghetti! But--according to Denis and other weather reports, the hurricane was going to hang over Cuba for a couple of days, it would weaken, and then take a turn northEAST around Saturday and head up the EAST coast. There were a few strings of spaghetti showing going up the central and west coast but the majority agreed it was a east side storm side for FL. So far so good. Remember, we're on the west side. The worst side of a hurricane to be on is the EAST side---the worst winds, the worst chances for developing tornadoes.  Eldy started looking at Pensacola, FL, up in the panhandle for rooms--plenty of rooms....

Thursday, the spaghetti models changed a bit. They were now showing lots of strings moving up more to the central part of the state, covering almost the entire state and a turn still happening around some time Saturday. We weren't worried. Denis thought that although the storm would make landfall at the southern tip of Florida, things were still pointing to the central, north central direction of the state. We decided to hang in there and see.....we got sandbags. Sparky prepared TONS of containers for the freezer in case we lost power. She got all her Tupperware containers and recycled plastic tubs and made ice. We bought bagged ice, Sparky cleaned out the perishable side of the fridge down to some basics and turned down the fridge to as cold as it would go. Sparky started preparing for a possible evacuation. If it was a category 3 or higher, we were definitely going to leave....Sparky talked to everybody she knew, and now the conversations at work were, "Are you going? Are you staying?" School was in session thru Thursday and they finally called it off for Friday.

On Friday, Denis was still thinking the storm was going to take a turn and although he predicted the storm was going to be coming thru the central part of the state, we would not get the worst hurricane winds, at most, perhaps tropical wind force winds with hurricane gusts...He did say the hurricane had shifted just a slight bit to the west, but it could shift back to the east overnight. All week it had wobbled back and forth like windshield wipers. Sparky packed some coolers with remaining perishable foods. She packed bread and peanut butter, snacks, pop, and cleaned out the right side of the fridge completely. She turned down the thermostat to the fridge to as cold as it would go. Fridge was ready.....Sparky was almost ready. Eldy was holding off. There were now NO ROOMS anywhere north in the panhandle, southern GA, or Pensacola area.

Sparky packed some more things, just in case...she looked around for what were THE most essential things in case the hurricane hit our area. H-m-mmmm...her dies for her die cutting machine, the Big Shot--they were expensive! Got to take those...Gotta take her big collection of knitting needles, medicines, check. Extra clothing, check. Important papers and photos, check. Bag anything in the craft room that might get wet should we lose our 1990's roof. Bag clothing in the closet in case water leaks through the roof. Pack the computer and tablet. Pack season 2 of the Outlander, one of Sparky's favorite TV shows. Check. Eldy went to bed early in case we had to get up early to leave. Sparky continued to pack. Updates for the hurricane were every day at 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM.  Eldy had said, if there's any change, we could leave in the middle of the night to avoid a big exodus of traffic. Sparky continued to pack. Then she went to bed. At 2:30 AM, something made her wake up, oh, right, the bathroom called. She got up, turned on the TV and there, blasting away, was Irma coming up the WEST side of the coast, hitting the Everglades and the Keys and heading straight for Sarasota, Bradenton, and Tampa in a few hours, forecasted as a category 3. NO TURN.....OUR AREA. We are in-between the 4 and the 1, an hour south of Tampa. It didn't look good.

"ELDY, WAKE UP! IT'S COMING STRAIGHT FOR US!" perhaps a little overly dramatic. Eldy was dead asleep, but it didn't take long for it to sink in, and he got up. We turned off the AC, the pool, and the hot water heater to reduce electrical load should the power go off and surge back on. He packed, we loaded up the car, and decided to hit the road at 3:30 AM. Traffic was very light...Since the hurricane was now heading up the west coast, we decided to head up the east coast. Eldy's brother had a place in Myrtle Beach and kindly offered it to us as long as we needed....a BIG thank you to him and his wife Shell. We drove away from the storm. It was an easy drive, with very little traffic EXCEPT for one thing. Two hours into the drive, in a rainstorm, WHAM! A car sideswiped us on the passenger side, and kept driving, a hit and run driver. We sped up and flashed our lights to try and get the guy to pull over, but he sped up and exited at the very next exit. There was no way to stop and call the cops until exit 358 on I-75. We sustained some minor damage and passenger Sparky wasn't traumatized.

This is a photo of traffic before the storm, heading north on I-75. Internet photo.

The remainder of the trip out of FL was uneventful. There had been two previous waves of evacation the past week, one was on Wednesday, and the second one was on Friday. Seven MILLION people had been ORDERED to evacuate Florida, the largest evacuation in U.S. history, according to the news.

We left in the middle of the night Friday, so we were in good shape. We stopped in Charleston, SC (remember that town for later on the way back) and stayed at a wonderful Best Western in Charleston.

We continued to watch the news....and Denis Phillips...He was saying on Saturday that it would not be a category 4 but a category 3, and landfall would be around the Naples area, so by the time it came to our area, it may weaken a bit. Still, winds and wind gusts were formidable. By Saturday afternoon, we were in Myrtle Beach and safe.....By Saturday night, the turn had NOT happened, but because Irma would make landfall south of our Sarasota/Bradenton area in the keys and possiblly a second landfall further north, it would weaken as it moved up the state and they were now talking category 1......Wind gusts of 74-95 miles and hour with hurricane gusts of over 100 m.p.h. We went to bed Saturday night with hopes that our area would not be too badly hit.....

Sunday, we watched the news off and on all day....One of the most interesting things to happen which is a very rare occurrence, before the hurricane hit Florida full force, was a reverse storm surge. The winds sucked the water out of Tampa Bay and other low lying coastal areas. The winds would continued to circulate and eventually the water flowed back in. Manatees were stranded and people went out to rescue them, which was a heartwarming but dangerous thing to do, because nobody knew when the water would flow back in. People were out walking in Tampa Bay and the beach areas where all the water had disappeared, on the sand which is normally under water. (The winds out of Tampa were southwesterly, which pushed the water from the bay into the Gulf of Mexico. The surge is maximized when the tide is low and the bays are shallow.) It was weird seeing this!

The day went on...it seemed like forever.....Friends were texting from Florida, giving us the latest news. Then cell service from our area became interrupted and intermittent. We watched anxiously as the storm moved north...Friends were moving into shelters.

The storm was HUGE! It covered the entire state of Florida. No one would escape its wrath, it appeared. As it passed through familiar areas to us, we saw that although the winds were fierce, the storm was not pushing through the 100 M.ph. steady sustained winds that had been previously forecasted. Our area of Bradenton/Sarasota ended up getting tropical storm force winds with gusts of over 95 m.p.h., down from a category 1 forecast.....We heard our residential area still had power....We started talking about going home and trying to beat the millions of Floridians that had evacuated this past week. It was with a great deal of relief and feeling blessed as we headed to bed Sunday night. We would make a decision in the morning as to whether to stay or leave SC.