Power back on from Irma

Hi everyone, just wanted to thank you in advance for all your thoughts and prayers. We lost power during Hurricane Irma at 11pm on Sunday night, before the worst of the weather hit. We just got power back at 5pm Friday, so were out almost five days.

We had no damage to our house, no trees down. There was extensive flooding in nearby ponds and lakes, but very minor property damage. I haven’t seen much news other than the daily paper, so I am very behind.

First priority is go out and purchase food to replace all that was thrown out as spoiled. My wife is doing good, we managed despite the 90 to 100 degree inside our house all week.

Waiting for Hurricane Irma

Update 3:30pm: We are doing okay so far. We’ve had light to moderate rain off-and-on all day; a total of 3 inches so far. I expect we’ll get 6-10 more inches by Monday afternoon. There have been no winds, storms or tornadoes yet. All the severe weather has been along the east coast from Miami all the way north to Daytona. Hurricane Irma made an initial landfall between Key West and Big Pine at 9:10am. The second landfall took place at 3:15pm on Marco Island and then north to Naples within the next two hours. The extended forecast in my area has the peak winds between 2 and 6am with 84mph gusts. Still have power, but expect to lose that sometime overnight. Don’t have a smartphone, do have a laptop, but the battery only lasts for an hour or so. Will update this post later this evening.

As I write this Sunday morning, the eye-wall of Category 4 Hurricane Irma is closing in with 130mph maximum sustained winds just east of Key West, moving northwest towards the Gulf of Mexico. We live in north-central Florida and will get the worst of the winds and rain beginning around 6pm tonight, until 4pm Monday.

The winds will likely have gusts between 75-90mph, but the sustained winds will depend on how close the center of Irma gets. The forecast from 48 hours ago, had the eye moving very close to our location. This morning, that track has gradually shifted over 60 miles west. Many people who evacuated from the Miami area, wound up in Tampa. They are now bracing for the possibility of a direct landfall.

I will likely lose power later on today or tomorrow morning, so I have scheduled my posts for the next week starting on Tuesday. I will update this post Sunday and Monday, as long as I have power and our house is safe.