Storm season 2021

Well it is storm season and I see one is already heading towards Mike in Fl…so far.

Mike, what do you do when Hurricanes come rolling thru? 


https://www.myfoxhurricane.com/storm1_track.html

Man it must be tough being a Floridian.

Yep, Fred on his way. Honestly I am tired of living in Florida. My wife is ready to leave as well. But I have a great job and there is no way I would ever leave it. Good pay, good benefits and a pension. Maybe after retirement we can sell the house and move somewhere else that's a little more landlocked. 

What do we do? Basically hunker down! This one should only be a tropical storm at landfall. That just means a ton of rain and a bit of wind. We usually prepare by stocking up on supplies & filling up the gas cans with ethanol free gas for the generator. Generators are good to have but they are quite loud and a bit of a pain to lug around even on wheels. It will power the fridge, lamps, tv and more. Last year I bought a portable AC (one of those that rolls around on wheels so you can move it to any room). So far we have never had to use it but it would've come in handy for Hurricane Michael. 

Michael kind of snuck up on us. At first it was a category 2. Then it kept getting stronger and stronger. By 10:30am that morning the power went out. The day before I bought some plywood at Lowe's to cover the windows just in the nick of time. The store closed at noon because of the storm. I pre-measured the sizes I needed and at 1pm I left the store. I was the last customer there after waiting in line for over and hour to get my wood cut to size. Went home, got the windows covered and rode it out. Anyway, when the power went out and the wind started getting bad the 4 of us moved into the hallway and shut all the doors. Since there was no power we relied on our cell phones for weather updates but then all cell service went down. Since we use Straight Talk there are different providers and my SIM card happened to be AT&T so I was the only one who had limited service. It was a very scary experience and if it were to happen again my wife and daughters would evacuate but I would probably stay home to tend to whatever or go to work for hurricane watch but normally out of 500 or so employees there are only around 20 that stay on site during a storm. I've never made the cut because it's offered according to seniority (and I have been employed for 16 years). Before Michael made landfall they sent everyone home except 4 supervisors. 

Really the best place for me to be is at home but it really sucks. There is always a chance of taking on water (not because of flooding but from the roof). Luckily I am not in a flood zone but one block away from one. During Michael we took in some water but I was able to catch most of it with 5 gallon buckets and dry up the wood tile floor with towels. The floor would've been destroyed had I not been home. Power wasn't restored for about 4 weeks. The day after the storm my wife and daughters stayed with family in Tennessee. It was an incredibly stressful event trying to get back to normal. We lost 5 oak/shade trees but luckily none landed on the house. We have one oak left in the backyard but the biggest part of it fell so it has no shade. It kind of looks like a giant stick in the ground now but at least it's alive. 

My 20 year old daughter must have PTSD from the storm because she worries about them all the time. 

It definitely was a trying experience but in some ways kind of cool. How many people can say they survived a Cat 5 and went outside during the eye of the storm? 

So for the next big one they will evacuate and I will stay at home with the cats and hopefully at least keep cell service.

I can’t say I survived a Cat 5 but one that was so close to being a Cat 4. And yes. I even stood outside in the eye of the storm. That was Hurricane Frederic back in ’79. I can remember seeing uprooted trees afterwards.

Let’s just hope Fred stays at a tropical storm or maybe a Cat 1.


Right now I have a friend that is in Miami visiting her sister. She said she was planning to head back on Saturday but that was before the storm news.

Wow Mike that doesn't sound like fun at all. 

My only experience with Hurricanes was Hugo in '89.  When it hit South Carolina it was a Cat 4.  I wasn't even in S.C. we were living in Fayetteville in central North Carolina and only got some really windy rain and quite a bit of local rain flooding (up to 4 ft in some locations).

You mention your daughter possibly have PTSD and being worried about storms all the time.  I have an older cousin (in her late 50's) who has lived in central California all her life and has experience several substantial earthquakes.  She has become so concerned with them that she seems to feel anything as low as a 2.5 on the Richter scale.  I don't think she is faking either because I have witnessed her in a group of people say "did you feel that?"  when nobody else noticed anything.  Then we will find out a few hours later there was a 2.3 level earthquake with an epicenter 20 miles away.  It's really strange.  Hopefully your daughter will work her way out of any serious hurricane fears.
Praying you and your family (and home) will weather Fred without any real trouble.

Strewth, that sounds scary.  In the uk we're pretty safe from too much high winds.  The worst I can remember was in 1987 when the winds got up to 86mph with gusts of 134mph.  It has gone done in history, as this happened just before hand...

Storm is now tracking a bit east of here and the worst of the rain will also be east. So if it continues in this direction we we just have a little rain and some 30 mph wind. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

That doesn't sound too bad at all.  Hoping it doesn't cause a lot of damage for anybody.

Well now it looks like it is heading westward (towards me).

I hope this sto doesn't do a lot of damage to any of you.  I do hope it brings some rain to TN.  We are SO extremely dry right now.

That's not cool to get hurricane and huricane.
I can imagine that you don't like it to be in FL anymore.
A hurricane is so heavt and scary.

I hope the hurricanes this season leave you and take an other path.

Man, sorry you guys have to deal with that. Gotta be devastating and scary. We just have earthquakes, so all our stuff just gets shook hard (and occasionally comes down), but nothing gets torn to shreds and thrown across the state   
I "get" having PTSD from natural disaster. After the 7.5 in '92 we had a huge influx of patients with stress, anxiety and panic attacks. My sis-in-law is still freaked to this day. And that's just an earthquake, I cannot imagine a hurricane  

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Man, sorry you guys have to deal with that. Gotta be devastating and scary. We just have earthquakes, so all our stuff just gets shook hard (and occasionally comes down), but nothing gets torn to shreds and thrown across the state   
I "get" having PTSD from natural disaster. After the 7.5 in '92 we had a huge influx of patients with stress, anxiety and panic attacks. My sis-in-law is still freaked to this day. And that's just an earthquake, I cannot imagine a hurricane  

It can be scary depending on two factors, how strong the storm is and how close to the coastline you live. 

I live an hour or so north of the beachfront, so they will lose some strength by the time it gets here. The damage won’t be quite as severe but we will still get some. The last time we got hit “head-on” by one was Frederic in’79. Since then we have only had Tropical Storms and Category 1 or 2’s. That usually it mainly some small limbs knocked out of trees and a bit of rain. The rain will end up flooding some streets and part of the downtown area.

The worst part of any storm for me is if the power goes out at the store. When that happens the freezer and coolers go out. Everything thaws out and then we will have to pull everyone off the shelves and out of the coolers/freezer to throw away. Then it is a matter of restocking the shelves once the power is back…what a waste and a hassle.

Ok update, now the projected path brings it straight thru here. It is only showing strength expected to be a tropical storm.

I just found out there is another storm right behind it. “Grace” looks be here by next weekend.

One of the reasons I moved out of South Florida. I got tired of working till the last minute, running around (even if you stocked up) and wondering if this was going to be the big one to wipe everything out. I was North of Andrew when it hit, and Miami looked like a war zone afterwards.

Rain has now started. Landfall now looks like it will be right on top of us. Should have 40 mph gusts. Hopefully it will be a mild storm. Schools are closed today so family is at home. 

Storm Grace headed for Mexico.

Yeah, it seems to have shifted back towards Mike. We don’t have any rain yet. It is still sunny now.

Lots of rain, lots of wind. No damage to anything except our swing out back. The top ripped off. Full garbage can blew over. The wind gusts were pretty strong some reaching 75 mph. Lost phone, cable and internet but at least the power stayed on. It made landfall near here. Schools closed again today. My wife said she would rather live somewhere with snow days instead of hurricane days. At least the kids could go outside and have some fun in the snow.

Well Hurricane Ida is headed towards Louisiana now. They expect it to make landfall late Sunday as a category 3 storm. We will have to check again tomorrow in case it decides to come further east.