Our encounter with Irma
Well, this is a departure from the normal posts that I make...
Living in Florida, we knew that there was always a chance for a tropical storm or even a hurricane. What we didn't expect was to get one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit Florida and one of the biggest in area (twice the size in area of Andrew).
Irma tracked WNW from the tropical Atlantic across the leeward islands and along the northern coast of Cuba. As of 10am on the 10th, when I started this post, Irma had just begun its Northern turn and, per latest forecast, was heading directly towards our home in Tampa. As per our bad luck, it will be the first major storm to hit Tampa since 1921!
So, we listened to the authorities and evacuated as we live in zone a which is susceptible to storm surge being a low lying area (South sun bay). Before leaving, we moved most of our furniture to the center of the apartment and covered it with tarps. We didn't want to leave it near the windows when winds of 💯 mph are forecast!
We also packed the few possessions that we didn't want to lose plus a few changes of clothes into suitcases and put them into our rental car.
In addition we also have a bug out bag, something that I put together when we moved back to the US. It contains three days emergency water and rations plus basic survival gear such as crank flashlight/radio, knife, multi tool, small stove, first aid kit, shovel, tarp, etc. We threw that in the trunk with our suitcases and 24 litres of water and some beer. 😀
We woke up Saturday morning to see the warnings for the storm moving more along the west coast of Florida... some apprehension set in as we we're planning to head to a shelter. The thought of staying locally was a consideration as I wanted to be close to the apartment but I was worried about being in a building with a thousand people who I didn't know. We were really surprised when a friend from school, almost forty years ago, invited us to stay with them about sixty miles north of Tampa and higher, not in a flood zone. What a great thing to do, thanks Stephanie and Dave. 😀 Much thanks and love...
We're now in Homossasa, it's Sunday morning and the rain has started. We're now just waiting for the bad weather to get here... will update this post later this evening.
1415: not much happening here other than rain and the occasional gust to 40 mph. Some of us are more relaxed about this than I am...
I have to say that I am worried about potentially losing all our belongings and not having a place to live... wish us luck.
1900: Not much happening here, North of Tampa. The positive news is that Irma is now a Cat 2 and is moving quickly North, with a slight easterly component. If it sticks to that path then it will likely drop to a Cat 1 by the time it passes Tampa. That means less winds, gusts to 80, and lower surge. We are sitting here with everything crossed hoping that is what happens...
2200: Powers out, heavy rain and gusts easily over 40 mph from the northeast. Could be a lot worse, lucky that the storm is weakening as it continues to track North. Excuse to sit around with our friends and eat ice cream. Obviously, don't want to leave it to go off now do we 😉. Anyway, off to bed hoping that things don't go to shit overnight.
11/0700: Well, we're all safe and what's left of the storm is over us and moving NW. We had a lot of rain and wind but very little damage here. The initial reports from Tampa and St Pete is that it could have been a lot worse than it was so we count ourselves very lucky... still need to get back to the apartment and see what, if any, damage has occurred. Still a window of time when we're concerned about storm surge... not entirely out of the woods yet but being on the third floor de-risks things a bit. For now, we've got generator power to the fridges so plenty of food and water.
I have to say that I am worried about potentially losing all our belongings and not having a place to live... wish us luck.
1900: Not much happening here, North of Tampa. The positive news is that Irma is now a Cat 2 and is moving quickly North, with a slight easterly component. If it sticks to that path then it will likely drop to a Cat 1 by the time it passes Tampa. That means less winds, gusts to 80, and lower surge. We are sitting here with everything crossed hoping that is what happens...
2200: Powers out, heavy rain and gusts easily over 40 mph from the northeast. Could be a lot worse, lucky that the storm is weakening as it continues to track North. Excuse to sit around with our friends and eat ice cream. Obviously, don't want to leave it to go off now do we 😉. Anyway, off to bed hoping that things don't go to shit overnight.
11/0700: Well, we're all safe and what's left of the storm is over us and moving NW. We had a lot of rain and wind but very little damage here. The initial reports from Tampa and St Pete is that it could have been a lot worse than it was so we count ourselves very lucky... still need to get back to the apartment and see what, if any, damage has occurred. Still a window of time when we're concerned about storm surge... not entirely out of the woods yet but being on the third floor de-risks things a bit. For now, we've got generator power to the fridges so plenty of food and water.
