Report from up here in the Florida Big Bend....Leon County specifically. We took quite a hit from Her Mean (our name for the storm). Over 100,000 city residents were without power. As of this morning, about 45,000 still don't have power, me included. Two huge pine trees fell across our street, trapping us until the guys in the neighborhood brought out their chain saws and cut a path. A big Dogwood fell in my neighbor's driveway, trapping the person watching their pets. Fortunately, it didn't damage get car, but left a lot of debris on the roof he just spent $11,000 replacing. Every single one of us in the cul-de-sac had a tree come down during the storm. Fortunately, other than my neighbor, they all were in our backyards and didn't cause any structural damage. I'm still trying to figure out which oak tree the 15 foot tree limb in my side yard came from, since I don't see an injury to the one in my front yard. And I was lucky...if that limb came from my nextdoor neighbor's tree, that was some wind to propel that thing into my yard....but thankfully not into my kitchen. Spent two days cleaning up the mess, removing debris from driveway and front yard...the piles of pine/oak/magnolia branches are so neat. Will wait for a week or so to call the tree guy to cut up the 30 foot tree that fell in the backyard, since they are busy helping people get fallen trees out of their homes.
Spent this morning finishing cleaning out the frig... probably threw away hundreds of $$$ of meats - since i had a freezer full of fish and chicken. But the frig is now squeaky clean, albeit empty. Next project is putting the deck furniture and plants I stored on the screened porch back out and then clean the porch.
It's been hot, but thanks to overcast skies and afternoon rains, not miserably so. Just hoping to get power back in time to watch Monday night's big football game. Go Noles!
Next time that commercial about whole home generators comes on, think I will investigate.....
Glad the rest of Florida made it through okay. We really took a beating up here in the Big Bend, especially Wakulla and Taylor counties. I've seen pictures...10-11 foot storm surges, looks like a bomb went off. Had to cancel our holiday weekend trip to Uni as the vet didn't have power or water, so I couldn't board my cat. But Uni kind enough to give me a full refund.
Just thankful everyone is okay...no injuries or loss of life...and I have an undamaged home. Lived through Kate 31 years ago, so familiar with the annoyance of no power - and that was for a week!