Today is the sixteenth anniversary of that terrible September 11th. Some days it feels like yesterday; other days the shock and pain are overlaid by more immediate concerns.
I hope everyone was, is, and will be safe during the dangerous storms this hurricane season.
Two weeks ago, I got up at 2 am on Saturday to start a terrific vacation: A bucket list trip beginning in Seattle and driving to Vancouver, British Columbia. A ferry ride to Victoria, BC, to visit the Butchart Gardens and have afternoon tea before taking another ferry ride back to the States. Driving back to Seattle for our Alaska cruise with friends. My husband's birthday during the cruise. The fantastic cruise, with adventures and sunshine every day.
This past Saturday I got up at 2 am to evacuate from Vero Beach, heading to (hopefully) safer ground at my brother- and sister-in-law's home in The Villages.
Two weeks were the difference between the breathtaking and the heartbreaking. So soon after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, residents of Florida and everywhere else in the path of Hurricane Irma are battening down the hatches and heading out for safety. Reports of the destruction where Irma has already hit are coming in (I'm writing this early Friday morning), and it is epic.
We were cruising on the ship when we first began hearing that Hurricane Irma might hit Florida. In our group of eight, six live full-time and two live part-time in Florida. Husband had boarded up the house before we left, just in case. It was too soon to be worried.
That didn't last long.
Our cruise ended on time Tuesday morning in Seattle. The six of us flying back to Florida on Wednesday got to the hotel and checked in for our overnight stay, headed back out for Seattle sights. Back to the hotel for our early morning call for a 3:30 am shuttle to the airport for the return trip home.
Wednesday was our travel day, Thursday was supposed to be back to work.
But.
Hurricane Irma was taking a track projected to bring her straight up through Florida. The size of this hurricane would hit our city, no matter if/where it makes landfall.
The building supply company I work for closed at 5 pm on Wednesday, giving employees time to get their homes hurricane-ready, and to safe shelter in or out-of-state.
Instead of being in the office and catching up on the paperwork from my seven days on vacation, Thursday and Friday were spent packing pictures and other fragile belongings into protective plastic bins, doing laundry, and packing to go out of town again.
Our house weathered Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, Wilma in 2005. Could it, would it, make it through a stronger hurricane?
What do you take when you think you might not have anything left to come back to? Important papers; sentimental jewelry; clothes and toiletries for two weeks, in case that's all I have to start over with. My laptop. My husband.
Lessons were learned from Hurricane Frances, when we were out-of-town for a wedding in Richmond VA, a few days in Buffalo visiting family, and a memorial golf tournament in Pinehurst NC honoring my father on what would have been his 70th birthday had he not died six weeks previously. We stayed with my stepmother for nine days after the golf tournament, coming back home after we knew we had power.
We were lucky, losing only some shingles from the roof, the back fence, and the refrigerator. Nine days without electricity were not kind to our refrigerator. Suffice it to say my husband spent four hours cleaning it out wearing a breathing mask, heavy duty gloves, and using copious amounts of bleach. The refrigerator didn't make it.
Plastic bags are now part of our frozen food prep. We put all the food in the freezer and the refrigerator into plastic bags. If we lose power, melting is contained and the bag is easily disposed of, as is any grossness resulting from foods not getting necessary refrigeration.
This is not just for hurricane prep, when we know we won't have power. This is for daily containment in the case of an unexpected outage. Tip: freeze water in a small cup and put a coin on top of the resulting ice. If you come back home to find evidence of a power outage, check to see if the coin is now encased in ice. If so, it's an indication that the cup ice melted enough for the coin to sink into it and re-freeze, and some frozen foods might not be safe to eat.
We'll pack up what food we can take with us. There won't be power for at least three days, since we'll turn off the water and the breakers before we leave.
Why the breakers? There is a risk of fire from the power surge when the power comes back on after a major outage. It's happened before in the aftermath of hurricanes, in our town. Safety isn't just getting out-of-town, it's also preparing for the return.
Be careful, be prepared.
Most of all, be safe.
Showing posts with label Hurricane Irma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hurricane Irma. Show all posts
Monday, September 11, 2017
Sunday, September 10, 2017
In Advance of Hurricane Irma: 5 Reasons People Can't Escape
Our house, Seaspray, sits thirteen feet above sea level, on Jupiter Island, a barrier island in Florida. The house was built in 1982, before many of the code changes to harden a structure in case of a storm. Thankfully, it's concrete block, a sturdy little cottage that's seen a lot of storms.
But there's never been a storm like Irma. Ever.
The entire island has been evacuated. The town authorities sent out this...
Then they went door to door to make sure everyone had vacated. That prediction of 39 mph? Doesn't mean much. In fact, I'm sure that's a typo. The other forecasts are Cat. 3 or higher with wind speeds of at least 60-70 mph. It's not the wind that's worrisome. It's the water. The sea surge will be 4 to 6 feet. That's a wall of water, 4-6 feet above sea level, not counting the cresting waves. And that wall is coming at you with no warning when it arrives.
If you don't live in Florida, if you are watching television, you might be thinking, "Why don't those people just hop in their cars and leave?"
Fair question.
But there are harsh realities that happen behind the scenes, and these realities deserve to be considered.
Here are a few of those:
1. They can't get off work or leave school. In one hurricane, my youngest sister was the last adult out of the school building. As a teacher, she felt responsible for the students. At the time, she didn't have kids of her own. Even so, the schools are often the LAST to be called off when a storm hits. My brother-in-law and other sister both work in a hospital. They can't leave. If they did, they would be unemployed. If you can't get off work, what do you do? Send your family away?
2. They have animals they won't/can't leave behind. Right now, the shelters are accepting pets. That's not always been the case. Typically, they didn't. One of my friends has a dozen cats. To move them, she would need a dozen cat carriers and a luggage cart. Not going to happen. Also, in advance of the storm, my husband and I were on the phone all day trying to get a hotel room for my son and his fiance. They own a pit bull. Sweetest animal on earth. The weight limit for accepted pets was 50 lbs. Juice weighs about 80 pounds.
3. They've tried to make the drive to safety--and that didn't work. My sister drove from Orlando to pick up her daughter in Tallahassee from college. The trip usually takes four hours. It took eight. That was three days ago. My sister is more worried about running out of gas on the highway than sheltering in place. She couldn't leave without her daughter, and college classes weren't cancelled until the last minute. (Ignore the spokespeople you see on TV. Yes, the state is telling people to leave, but unless they cancel school, a lot of people simply can't.)
4. They don't have anywhere to go. Florida is a very, very, very long state. To be precise, it's 447 miles long. As a point of comparison, California is 840 miles long. To drive out of the state, to safety, is a long trip. Originally my sister thought to drive to Statesboro, GA, where my aunt lives. But Statesboro is right outside of Savannah, also in the path of the storm. As I noted before, hotels as far away as Atlanta were full as of three days ago.
5. Their vehicle won't make the trip--and there's no gas. I'd never had a tire blow out until I moved to Florida. I've replaced my tires more often living there than any other place I've lived. I've been told it's the road surface. It could be the vast distances I drive or the heat of the roads. Imagine fleeing Irma in a car with bad tires. You could easily be stranded on a congested highway. As for gas? We heard reports of gas shortages days ago. If you wanted to leave early, you might have spent more time in line that on the road. Also, the last flights went out days ago--and what do you do with your pets? Leave them behind?
So now you might be wondering, did they board up their houses?
The cost to board up a house is $100 per plywood board. To cover all the windows of a house, might easily cost several thousand dollars. My son and his fiance just bought their house two months ago. They were saving to buy upgraded windows.
And so they've hunkered down in a relative's house in Orlando. I hope they'll be safe.
Meanwhile, I hope that all of you are snug and safe. If you don't have a good book, I can help with that. I'm extending my special offer through the first of next week. Grab a book, charge your e-reader, and try to ignore the roar of the storm outside your window.
Love, Die, Neighbor: The Prequel in the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series is free. Go to -- https://dl.bookfunnel.com/tgy1n0mhbx
But there's never been a storm like Irma. Ever.
The entire island has been evacuated. The town authorities sent out this...
Then they went door to door to make sure everyone had vacated. That prediction of 39 mph? Doesn't mean much. In fact, I'm sure that's a typo. The other forecasts are Cat. 3 or higher with wind speeds of at least 60-70 mph. It's not the wind that's worrisome. It's the water. The sea surge will be 4 to 6 feet. That's a wall of water, 4-6 feet above sea level, not counting the cresting waves. And that wall is coming at you with no warning when it arrives.
If you don't live in Florida, if you are watching television, you might be thinking, "Why don't those people just hop in their cars and leave?"
Fair question.
But there are harsh realities that happen behind the scenes, and these realities deserve to be considered.
Here are a few of those:
1. They can't get off work or leave school. In one hurricane, my youngest sister was the last adult out of the school building. As a teacher, she felt responsible for the students. At the time, she didn't have kids of her own. Even so, the schools are often the LAST to be called off when a storm hits. My brother-in-law and other sister both work in a hospital. They can't leave. If they did, they would be unemployed. If you can't get off work, what do you do? Send your family away?
2. They have animals they won't/can't leave behind. Right now, the shelters are accepting pets. That's not always been the case. Typically, they didn't. One of my friends has a dozen cats. To move them, she would need a dozen cat carriers and a luggage cart. Not going to happen. Also, in advance of the storm, my husband and I were on the phone all day trying to get a hotel room for my son and his fiance. They own a pit bull. Sweetest animal on earth. The weight limit for accepted pets was 50 lbs. Juice weighs about 80 pounds.
3. They've tried to make the drive to safety--and that didn't work. My sister drove from Orlando to pick up her daughter in Tallahassee from college. The trip usually takes four hours. It took eight. That was three days ago. My sister is more worried about running out of gas on the highway than sheltering in place. She couldn't leave without her daughter, and college classes weren't cancelled until the last minute. (Ignore the spokespeople you see on TV. Yes, the state is telling people to leave, but unless they cancel school, a lot of people simply can't.)
4. They don't have anywhere to go. Florida is a very, very, very long state. To be precise, it's 447 miles long. As a point of comparison, California is 840 miles long. To drive out of the state, to safety, is a long trip. Originally my sister thought to drive to Statesboro, GA, where my aunt lives. But Statesboro is right outside of Savannah, also in the path of the storm. As I noted before, hotels as far away as Atlanta were full as of three days ago.
5. Their vehicle won't make the trip--and there's no gas. I'd never had a tire blow out until I moved to Florida. I've replaced my tires more often living there than any other place I've lived. I've been told it's the road surface. It could be the vast distances I drive or the heat of the roads. Imagine fleeing Irma in a car with bad tires. You could easily be stranded on a congested highway. As for gas? We heard reports of gas shortages days ago. If you wanted to leave early, you might have spent more time in line that on the road. Also, the last flights went out days ago--and what do you do with your pets? Leave them behind?
So now you might be wondering, did they board up their houses?
The cost to board up a house is $100 per plywood board. To cover all the windows of a house, might easily cost several thousand dollars. My son and his fiance just bought their house two months ago. They were saving to buy upgraded windows.
And so they've hunkered down in a relative's house in Orlando. I hope they'll be safe.
Meanwhile, I hope that all of you are snug and safe. If you don't have a good book, I can help with that. I'm extending my special offer through the first of next week. Grab a book, charge your e-reader, and try to ignore the roar of the storm outside your window.
~*~
Feel free to share these links.
Love, Die, Neighbor: The Prequel in the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series is free. Go to -- https://dl.bookfunnel.com/tgy1n0mhbx
~*~
Paper, Scissors, Death: Book #1 in the
Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series is
99 cents (and an equivalent amount in the UK and other countries). https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Scissors-Death-Lowenstein-Mystery-ebook/dp/B06VTFC9T3/
~*~
Cut, Crop & Die: Book #2 in the
Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series
is 99 cents (for the first time ever!) And an equivalent price in the UK and
other countries. Go to – https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Crop-Die-Lowenstein-Mystery-ebook/dp/B06XYCMJJN/
~*~
Ink, Red, Dead: Book #3 in the Kiki
Lowenstein Mystery Series
is free
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