It's finally over. Florence has come and gone and as the news people are saying, "good bye and good riddance." The rain and wind started on Thursday evening. It was amazing. I saw trees bow to the sheer power of the wind and water rippling down our street like a small river.
I read one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book in her prairie series when I was in elementary school. In it, she described experiencing a tornado. She and her family were in the cellar and she could hear the sound of the wind. She felt confined and wanted to be able to breathe in the air and see what was happening. I felt the same way. We could see and hear the storm, but I felt stuck and sticky. But the rain hitting the pine trees unleashed the smell of pine. I loved the smell. It was fresh and liberating.
We lost power at 6:45 a.m. on Friday and it didn't come back on until Monday night at 9:45. We used the generator sparingly and managed to keep hot water until Sunday night. We got creative with lighting. We have solar powered, stand alone garden lights in the yard. We brought some of them inside and used the lighting from them instead of candles. It was dim, but it worked.
We did attempt to leave on Sunday but flooded highways and police turned us back. We saw cars stuck on roads with water up to the door handles and massive trees uprooted, many blocking house entry ways and garages.
Highway signs were bent and displaced and we saw a gas station with the overhead awning totally destroyed and laying on the pumps.
On Sunday and Monday, lines for gas were 3 hours long and many were turned away as the gas ran out. Luckily, Tony filled both cars before the storm. Grocery stores were closed and those that opened on Sunday had long lines of people waiting outside in the rain to get in. Drug stores were closed, but many sent out email warnings about getting meds before the storm hit.
All in all, we were very lucky. We survived with minimal damage. The wind took our portable garden shed and flew it two yards away, including over a tall fence. Tony's grill was destroyed and two of our pine trees were damaged.
Destroyed plants, no power, cold showers and Scrabble by candle light were very small things to deal with when we looked at the damage that others had sustained.
We are confident now that our house will stand up to a major storm so if this happens again, we will evacuate right away.
Here she comes!
View from the Lanai, the trellis went over and one of
the large bushes in the background was uprooted
The cornhole games were in the shed that flew away. The games fell out.
There goes the grill. Five minutes later it on blown
over face down on the grass, propane tank included
Scrabble instead of Dr. Phil....hmmmm
The shed door landed on our small island
The day after
I will share more of our adventures soon. Right now, I'm off to take a hot, hot shower!
We are well.
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