Irma Update

Hi guys,

So we weathered the storm quite well.  We live about 20 miles west of Lake Okeechobee so they ended up evacuating our whole area.  We were going to leave and head farther west to stay with my parents at their house during the storm anyway (bringing our dog and cat with us).  Then the track of Irma kept changing and going farther west.  Where we stayed with my parents, the eyewall went right over us so it got a little hairy there for awhile.  Their house sustained zero damage although there were A LOT of trees down in their neighborhood.  Luckily they had a neighbor who had brought his huge forklift home and was able to clear the roads quickly so people could get in and out of the neighborhood.  My husband got out there with his chainsaw and worked on my parents yard as well as helping their neighbors who had several children (two who are special needs that they had adopted) get a tree out of the way of their van in case they had to take the kids anywhere. And of course, no power in the neighborhood.

So then we headed home to check out our house.  Both horses were fine.  I had put ID bands on them and they were able to go into the run-in barn or out of it as they pleased.  I left the door to the chicken coop open so the chickens could come and go as well.  With livestock, the best thing to do is always allow them to go where they want…never locking them into a barn/coop/etc in case a tree should fall on the structure trapping them.  And the chickens were great too.  And of course, no power in our neighborhood.  Some of the shingles came off our roof and there are water stains inside the house on the ceiling.  The house faces east (so the wind from Irma just pounded the front of it) so we had water leak in though the two front windows, down the wall and onto the carpet.  Our water system took a hit but we were able to get our well guy out there right away to fix it so that when the power did come back on, we’d have running water.  Still waiting on a part for filtering the water but right now I’m happy to have running water.  It took about five days to get power back, and it took six days for my parents to get power back in their neighborhood.  Can you believe there are still areas without power today?  This storm was a major wind event and destroyed so much that it’s taking electric companies a long time to get everything fixed.

We barely had any flooding either…..there were puddles of standing water in the pasture like there would normally be with a heavy rainstorm but nothing terrible.  Our property drains out pretty quickly which is amazing.  Hurricane Wilma in 2005 was more of a big rain event and we saw flooding for that but we still had dry areas in the pastures.

We’ve been in constant contact with our insurance company….had a service come out with fans and a de-humidifier to dry up the wall where the water leaked in, adjuster came out, we’ve tarped the roof, etc.  I’m just thankful the house isn’t so bad that we can’t live in it.  Got another guy coming out today to give an estimate on the interior wall/carpet/floor where the water leaked in.  Since we live on five acres there’s A LOT of tree clean up we have to do here.  Before the storm we had two dead trees close to the house cut down (but not hauled away, the tree company barely had enough time to come cut them down before the storm) So we have those two trees as well as a few others that need to be removed and tons of branches everywhere.   My poor oak trees look miserable but at least they’re still standing. Our shed outside took a bit of a pounding but it’s still standing, the horse’s run-in barn and the chicken coop were fine.

Even though it sounds like we got a lot of damage, it really isn’t that much considering what a monster this storm was.  Our house was about 20 miles east of the eyewall.

Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful comments you’ve left here on the blog, I really appreciate it.

Now…let’s hope we stay clear of anymore of these darned storms until November 30th (end of hurricane season) 😉