Milton

[Frank B.]

I a have a good friend who used to live in Boca Raton.  One particular year he was in the warning zone so many times that after boarding up his windows three times and de-boarding, he finally just left them up till the end of the season.  Said he had a nice patio with screened portion and with cooking, eating and bathing areas, so they just lived out there most of the time just going inside to sleep.

[Riley Smith]

It's pretty nice living outside this time of the year. The Bay has been very active this year!

[Charles Brennan]

Frank, That happened to me in 2005, when Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma slammed us.  Wilma was around the third week of October.  We were without power for 15 days, although for 12 of those days we had a generator going.
For a day or so, until the flooding drained we also had the only working toilet: the Porta Potti off our boat.  We put it in a hall closet for our family and some of our neighbors.  Nobody's toilets would flush, since the whole area was on septic systems and you couldn't get a siphon going, until the flood water levels dropped.   

Halloween was truly a night of horrors, with the neighborhood aglow with an orange haze from porch lights reflecting off the gas generator smoke and kiddies suddenly appearing without warning, from behind stacked piles of debris. No street lights and debris piles stacked higher than the kids; was amazed we didn't lose any kids that year.

The problem with leaving the hurricane panels up, is that they can cause SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and we ended up taking down one panel in the front and one panel in the back to see out, figuring we could put them back in a hurry, if need be.

I've always said Hurricanes were a sort of "Paradise Tax"; the cost of living in Paradise.
The Paradise Tax was especially high, that year.

Charles Brennan

[Norm L.]

Nature doesn't listen to statistics. Louisiana takes a bad multi-storm year. Florida does the same. That doesn't mean that MS/AL or Texas is next. Kowa Bunga. Even Maine had a bad year.

[Wayne Howard]

I know people in Gulfport, FL. One just got flooded out of his new apartment and parts of his building are no condemned. His wife is in a building that serves as a shelter which is good as some of the people there do not do well with excitement and change. So he's sleeping on an air mattress there.

Our other friends had great timing and had her sailboat on the hard getting some work done so it survived. The derelict cabin cruiser we anchored near when visiting broke free and played pinball in her marina right where she keeps her boat.

And now, all of them are looking down the barrel of another whirly girl/guy. Whatever.

[Norm L.]

Our Tampa office, in Bradenton, is in the center. The lead over there has been with us for over 25 years and runs our cargo insurance group and has us as Lloyds agents for the southeast states. We are already on some losses in Tennessee for Helene. One is the loss of thousands of rotting thawed chickens. It's odoriferous.
He and his family are great people to spend time with, so I'm greatly concerned for them. But this is not their first time in this situation.

[Charles Brennan]

OK, it's starting to get just a little bit OLD, now!! 
2 Hurricanes in 2 weeks, but at least preparations were easier.
For one thing, I still remembered exactly where everything was!! 
Usually waste an hour or two, finding/remembering where I last put all my hurricane stuff.   

I could just as easily have used the pics from Hurricane Helene again, with one new twist:
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The City of Newberry picked up all my tree limbs/branches, etc. but neglected all the leaf bags debris.
I don't fault them for having to perform "trash triage", since there are a LOT of trunks, limbs and branches that NOBODY wants flying around at 100+ mph all over the neighborhood and they have had the trucks out non-stop, ever since Hurricane Helene paid us a visit.

Way too many bugs in those bags to put in the garage and not enough room in the garage for all those bags, anyway.
So my solution was to run out to Harbor Fright and snag a couple of cargo nets.
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Then I tossed a tarp over the top and then glommed onto all my camping tent stakes and staked out all around the bags, approximately every foot or so.
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I hadn't even bothered to untie the SCAMP, since I had been suspicious of that depression I spotted in the western Caribbean, from LAST week.
Here is a little detail I didn't post last week about keeping the nylon straps from riding up the stakes.
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Starting to think I'm just going to leave everything stacked up, and tied up, until Thanksgiving!! 


More from the other side, as I'm able,
Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

It's starting to get a whole lot more dangerous. No doubt. I'm trying to see if there are any Yucatan photos about but so far, no bites. The long fetch before it GETS to Florida is bad news. On the good side it has picked up some speed.

[Riley Smith]

Here it is the most excellent morning. There isn't a cloud in the awakening sky and the air is clear and cool. 61 degrees cool. I can live like this!!! You guys and gals down in Florida best leave that beachfront. I sort of wonder if I can see it those 600 miles from the Gautier beach this morning, the sky is so clear. I could see Georges as it approached. I'm glad that thing is going 90 degrees to me, but I'm watching it like a hawk.

[Charles Brennan]

I COULD post some more trashed yard pics, but I doubt if anyone would be able to tell the difference between them and the pics I posted after Hurricanes Debbie, or Helene. Branches down, twigs and leaves everywhere and that's all.  No real damage, no major limbs down. My tattered canvas barbecue pergola is now even more tattered, but that's about it. Figure one or two more hurricanes, I won't even have to take it down; it'll come down all by ITSELF!! 
In fact, we didn't even really lose power this time; had power all through the night.
We had one minor power outage last evening, well before the storm winds arrived, when somebody's escaped Mylar balloon shorted between two power lines and tripped a fuse, but the local crews got power back up within 25 minutes.

We were indeed fortunate to escape any significant damage.
Although, having to clean up the yard and put all the backyard stuff back and stow the hurricane stuff away again, for the third time in a little over a month is beginning to feel like the Florida version of the movie: "Groundhog Day".   

If these whirly-girls would slow down long enough, I may even be able to get back to the SCAMP project!   
Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

I'm glad the effects were muted once again. It is the most awesome weather here I must brag.   I'm just glad that I'm not without power this fine morning and feel for those who are. I just watched the governor and thought, he's got a plan and knows how to deal with these things. Excellent. I guess he gets plenty of practice.

[Norm L.]

Our friends in Bradenton are okay. A bit of roof damage, many limbs down and no power. But happy with that.
It sounds like an exact replay of Hurrican Ida at our house 3 years ago.

But it will be rough for many others. I'm checking on another Tampa (Palm Harbor) friend.

A colleague on the BoatUS Hurrican damage squad must be non-stop for a while. That group are top yacht surveyors that are on the BoatUS list for when mass teamwork is needed.

[Doug SC]

My Dad in Seminole County near Orlando is without power but is hooked up to the next door neighbor's generator to keep the frig and freezer running. A close friends sister lives in Bradenton they sheltered in Orlando. They recieved word that their home was OK but the were trees down in the yard. It seems the fickle finger of fate decided who gets spared and who doesn't but where you build and how you build plays a big role too.
We still don't have cable or internet2 weeks after Helene, but no damage to the house. We had a dozen 100'loblolly pines removed a few years ago and two big laurel oaks with hollow centers or things might have been different.