Getting Through Milton

On Tuesday, October 8, I wrote my previous post; I was waiting for Hurricane Milton.

Today is Thursday, October 17, and I made it through Milton.

I apologize if I am repeating information from my most recent post.

I live in Wimauma, Florida, about 25 miles south of Tampa. I am not on the coast, although I live pretty close to areas that are in flood zones and must evacuate. I am also above sea level. We are in evacuation zone Z, which isn’t an evacuation zone. When I say “we,” I am referring to my daughter, son-on-law, and granddaughter. They live three miles north in the next town off the same road.

The forecasts were dire. Tampa was to be a direct hit and Tampa Bay to suffer a huge storm surge. (Wow, the power just went out for half a minute!!!) I don’t know what type or windows I have, and I don’t have hurricane windows. I looked on the website for my community, and it said that if you had hurricane shutters in your garage when you moved in, you probably need them. I had none. Not that that necessarily means anything. I read that my house (concrete block) was built to withstand Category 3 hurricanes. Milton was a Category 5 and predicted to hit landfall as maybe as high as a 4. It wobbled around a bit as hurricanes do, and it was difficult to predict exactly where it would hit.

My location has lucked out a few times since I have lived in Florida. This time we were not so sure. Then, last minute the storm took a very unexpected 90-degree turn. It hit beautiful Siesta Key at landfall but missed us. That is not to say we didn’t have a very powerful, scary storm. It was a Category 3.

I was afraid to stay at home alone for this one, so around noon on Wednesday, my car safely in my garage along with my daughter’s van, she picked me up and I went to her house. The storm was predicted for late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning.

It arrived a little earlier than expected and seemed to be over around 10 p.m. Wednesday. But I woke up around 1 p.m. to howling winds and no power. By 4 a.m. it was pretty much over.

I knew there was no power at my house either — or most places in the area. My son-in-law was very prepared: hurricane shutters, bright rechargeable flashlights, power banks, fast chargers, several water jugs, bathtubs filled with water. We charged everything to 100 percent. I did have a battery-powered radio I brought, which turned out to be very helpful. That is something my generation is familiar with, but not theirs!

My son-in-law’s aunt and uncle live an hour north of us. They got the storm, but they never lost power. On Friday we drove up there and charged all our electronics again.

I wondered how my house fared. My daughter and son-in-law had helped me prepare it. Instead of sandbags, they said I could use bags of mulch. I worried about flooding mostly because of something going on between my roof and gutter. The water pours through when it rains, and it starts to gather in my front lanai, so I was afraid I might get water in my house. So they put plastic and ten bags of mulch total outside of my back slider and my front door, which is also glass.

I put tape in an X on my slider and front door (which I heard does nothing, but it made me feel better). So I was ready. I hoped.

On Friday night at about 11:12 the power came on at my daughter’s house. I was sleeping and suddenly all the lights in the room went on (since they had all been on when the power went out). I wondered if the power at my house was on. I couldn’t find out until their power went on because messages were not coming through my cell phone. And the power company was too busy to update their website anyway. When the power came on I walked into the living room. My daughter was in there; she wanted to make sure all the lights hadn’t gone on suddenly in the baby’s room. We could hear shouts of joy outside from the neighborhood. I later found out that my power had gone on a few hours before theirs did.

My daughter and son-in-law had no damage except for a few minor issues with their fence.

I went home on Saturday morning. My house was fine. No leaks, no trees down and no windows harmed. No floods. Nothing except part of a decorative roof tile down. The neighborhood was in good shape. Of course there were branches down and some trees leaning. I am very glad I had my huge oak tree that was planted much too close to my house taken down a year or two ago.

I don’t suspect there were may generators going in my 55+ neighborhood, but there were quite a few in my daughter’s neighborhood. I am not a fan. They are noisy, especially when you are trying to sleep, and they take gas, which was already in very short supply with people trying to evacuate to somewhere. I can see you would need one for medical devices or if you have an infant, but if you just have to go without power for a day or two???? How weak and dependent have we become?

The last issue was gas. I was concerned because I had only 55 miles left in my tank and tickets to an event in Tampa a few days later. I couldn’t go unless I got gas. Someone in my daughter’s neighborhood waited three hours for gas on Friday or Saturday. I thought I would give it a try on Sunday. I was lucky and waited in line only 20 or 30 minutes at Walmart. The Tampa event was postponed because of the storm anyway. Some people are still without power or just got it back a day or two ago. I did feel safer with a full tank, however.

I have bought two good flashlights, a five-gallon water jug, a power bank, and a super fast phone charger. I am ready for whatever comes my way.