Hurricane Debby, all over but the raking . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

SPARED!!
For having done zero hurricane prep,    and not even being in the state until last night, I was absurdly fortunate.
We were without power for only about 4 hours and have suffered only a few broken branches and the usual mess.
As you can see in the pic below,  Debby has moved north and (mostly) east of us.
I'm right under the arrow pointer in the blue circle, towards the bottom of the pic.
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This pic is typical of bad thunderstorms and/or CAT 1 hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson category scale:
"Category 1. Wind (mph): 74 - 95. Damage: Minimal - No significant structural damage, can uproot trees and cause some flooding in coastal areas."
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For all the talk about having to make a new Category 6, due to hurricanes getting so much more violent lately, the Saffir-Simpson scale is a measure of destruction for a given wind range, and NOT about the wind speed, itself.
Cat 5 may only be 156 mph, but it is total destruction.  156 mph, 175 mph, even 200 mph are indistinguishable from each other. Total is total.
What are you going to do with a Cat 6? Have 125% destruction? 

Yup. That's really all we got.
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Orange yard sweeper at left is going to get a workout tomorrow, after I hack up and drag to the curb, that Drake Elm branch.
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This is a very typical apres-hurricane pic.  Little pieces of vegetation, everywhere.
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I feel both relieved that there was little damage or inconvenience and also chagrined, that I was so woefully un-prepared.   
I realized I have been taking for granted, that hurricanes tend to be a little milder this far north and this far inland and I have gotten far too complacent. 
For example, I have not test-fired the generator at all, this year and it's already August..
Sloppy, very sloppy, Charles. 
Time to get vigilant, again.

Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

That's always a good thing to see....nothing harmed but leaves. I had intended to do some double checking on the data buoy vs predicted wind speeds but it got cancelled by domestic chores. That one surprised me by sneaking in under a slot in the Sahara dust. Which is getting less, so Sept may be more fun. I'm glad you got mostly missed.

[noelH]

Good to hear that you avoided serious damages.

On the lighter side regarding leaves.  What did the Tree say to the wind? Hint is already given.

[Norm L.]

I'm guessing the Category 6 is just so meteorologist can put things on graphs and in calculations. For the public if you aren't afraid of even a near miss Cat 2 or a Cat 3 headed in your general direction higher numbers shouldn't mean much to you. Its other use might be something for future construction regulations. For a house it may be that for Cat 5 or 6 the house has to one of those built into a mound with only your satellite dish exposed.

If you want to know, there is a wind force per exposed area calculator online. You can even calculate air density.

[Doug SC]

We are inland here in SC and getting the outer rain bands this morning. We will be getting a lot of rain, but the coast looks like the rain totals will be really bad for their area.

[Wolverine]

We're on the inner banks here in NC where they are predicting 8-12" of rain and only 40 mph winds. Phone has been beeping with flash flood warnings for a week now and so far, nothing.  Hoping it remains that way.

Glad you got through the storm without any real damage. Also, thanks for reminding me to check the generator!

[Charles Brennan]

While I escaped with nothing more than some nuisance yard work (Hmmmm . . . is there any other kind?)  not all my neighbors were as fortunate.

Lots of fallen trees, these are just some examples.
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We have rainfall retention areas up here, since our rain tends to come all at once and so these buffering rain catchment areas are built in to most subdivisions to deal with the rain, until it can drain away.
The down side is that our limestone foundation of north central Florida makes it prone to sinkholes.
I was used to paying for flood insurance back when I lived in south Florida, and shocked to have to add sinkhole insurance, when I moved up here.
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Who ever took this sinkhole pic was really Dumb  because they tend to collapse in a sort of sphere-shape and standing at the edge of one is a pretty good way to end up buried alive.
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There is another really large sinkhole that has closed SR26, my main route to Cedar Key (will have to take SR24 which is a worse road) but there aren't any pics, because the cops are routing people away from it.

Looking  at those pics, yeah, I was really lucky.
Charles Brennan

[Captain Kidd]

We had that much damage from a line of showers that came through a few days ago. One neighbor lost a tree. Glad you came out ok. Sorry for those who did not.

I remember that sink hole in Florida that swallowed the guy's bedroom at night. He was never recovered. Kinda scary. We had one when I lived in MD. It occurred in the middle of the night in the middle of a busy road. First car in killed the driver.

[Norm L.]

This is the largest and most amazing sinkhole incident.  It is 12 minutes long. If this doesn't work do YouTube Louisiana Lake Sinkhole Disaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWRO2pyLA8

[Riley Smith]

Yikes on the trees. Wolf Ridge has hundreds of enormous oaks scattered about, with a few pecans, pines, and cedars mixed in. In Katrina, the one across the road from my driveway took the electrical grid out and closed the road for a couple of days. We were the last two houses in the area to get power back. So I'm really leery of those big trees. Just the other day a lightning strike hit a decent sized pecan branch and left it in the curve east of my house. Just a perfect place to cause all kinds of stuff if someone was going too fast.

[Charles Brennan]

What a difference a mere two days of back-breaking work, makes! 
Couple young, (10, 11?) enterprising, entrepreneurs accosted me to clean up my entire yard for 30 bucks each.
I asked them if they had seen my back yard, yet.
Told them I was strongly tempted to accept their offer, to teach them a valuable lesson in Scope-of-Work job estimates.
After more inspection, they pedaled off on their bikes, post-haste.

Those downed branches in the pic were only about ¼ of the total downed branches in that area but at the time, I was dis-inclined to go out in the rain, for a more panoramic view.
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Gotta love having a leaf blower (after the leaves dry off enough, to want to move) and I didn't even have to worry about my neighbor objecting to the noise, since they were having electric problems and running a (loud!) generator continuously, until yesterday afternoon.
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Having a yard sweeper pulled by a John Deere, sure beats going after all that with a rake! 
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Like it never even happened! 
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Only real Down Side: 2 days deprived of SCAMP progress. 

Charles Brennan

[Captain Kidd]

Alright, break is over. Back to the scamp.

[Captain Kidd]

This is the largest and most amazing sinkhole incident.  It is 12 minutes long. If this doesn't work do YouTube Louisiana Lake Sinkhole Disaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWRO2pyLA8

Fascinating! Utterly incredible no lives lost!

[Charles Brennan]

Alright, break is over. Back to the scamp.

LOL!!   
Charles Brennan

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Charles, nice pergola!