Wife and I live between Lakeland and Orlando.

We were out side at first light surveying damage and were surprised how well we did based on the way the wind sounded.
We board up so we were unable to see what was happening overnight.

In the 25 years living in central Florida I think this was one of the worst storms we have been through. As per my back yard weather station we had over 11 inches of rain. Thankfully the area we live in is mostly sand and it drained through it quickly.

So far this is what we have found and some of what we have fixed, a couple of sections of fence needed to be straightened out.
BBQ grill fell over so it needed to be up righted, first time that's ever happened.
A 8 to 9 foot Cactus we have had for over thirty years that we keep in a big planter pot needed to be up righted with help from a neighbor.
Lots of leaves and small branches from our tree needed to be cleaned up. We ended up with 5 or 6 yard waste bags full.

Most of the boards are still on the windows, for now.

Thank you to our Sig Forum family who were thinking of us in Florida during the storm.

quote:

Most of the boards are still on the windows, for now.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
My neighbor has had her windows boarded since Katrina (2005).

As someone from the PNW (currently visiting my daughter in Davenport IA), this sure seemed like a damn scary event
No kidding, Went through Frederic in 1979 thought the house would blow apart. Huddled in the hall with a candle that flikckered as the wind hit the house.

I slept through most of the storm. Was asleep around 10:30pm last night. Woke up about 2:30am and thought "Huh, sure is quiet?". The power had went out at 11pm.

Walked outside around 2:45am to very light winds and very light rain. Walked back inside and said to my wife, "Seems like it's pretty much gone. Nothing going on out there." She pulled up the radar on her phone and showed me I was wrong. Went back to sleep.

Awoke just after sunrise. Got the generator hooked up to the coffee maker and fridges and then started cleaning. Lots of small debris, pool a mess, gutters a mess.

But, Charley in 2004 still ranks as by far the worst I have ever seen in Orlando. That was a whole different level than what I have seen today in terms of damage. And Ian in 2022 dumped more rain. Overall, we in Orlando dodged a bullet.

So do I have this right? It split into two halves once it hit land and that greatly lessened the expected power of it or something like that?

^Where do you see that?

When we talked about making our final stand, I didn’t think this was how we’d be using the ammo:



The water is back where it belongs:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
When we talked about making our final stand, I didn’t think this was how we’d be using the ammo:

Excellent alternate use of ammo

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
^Where do you see that?

Wife saw somewhere and mentioned it to me that it broke up or split up or slowed down or something once it approached land and didn’t have quite the intensity and power that they feared as a Category 5 originally.

It hit as a 3 and then lessened I think?

We made it through all right. I've been cleaning up some palm trees that we lost and working on fences that were blown over. I'm 3 miles from Madeira Beach and we got our fill of wind and rain. My area lucked out tremendously by the eastward turn into Siesta Key.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
^Where do you see that?

Wife saw somewhere and mentioned it to me that it broke up or split up or slowed down or something once it approached land and didn’t have quite the intensity and power that they feared as a Category 5 originally.

It hit as a 3 and then lessened I think?

That's correct.

Seeing some videos, appears Siesta Key took the brunt of the storm

24 hours without power here. Didn't sleep until 4am. The wife and kid were pretty rattled. A fence line separating our community from a trailer park was demolished. The overflow pond was peaked out to max height and the trailer park was just below it. Just a little more rain and the overflow pond would have flooded the trailer folk.

We lost two slate shingles at the roof peak and a few more have been dislodged. Other than that, we fared well.

Tony.

While I’m not an overly religious man, by the grace of God, my 106 year old house survived without issue in St Pete. The sky was filled with flashes of blowing transformers from about 8 to 9, at which point I decided to take a nap. Woke up around 10 PM, just as I lost power. After midnight, I went outside to check on things, finding a section of wooden fence blown over in my backyard; secured it back in place as best I could with some screws & swear words. Then I walked down the street and saw a big oak had fallen over, blocking the road completely. By this point cell service was almost non-existent.
I came back home and got word that the city had not only shut down the sewer treatment plants (was expected) but also shut off city water due to a major water main break… it was time to go to bed.
At daylight, I went back down the street with a chainsaw. Just got done cutting and clearing through the oak that fell over across the road and began to work on a large branch further down the street when the city came in with a big John Deere and cleared the roadway. For all of city’s flaws, they move fast.
After a morning of chainsawing and picking up yard debris; covered in wood shavings, wet oak leaves and 2-stroke fuel smelling-sweat, I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket of cold hose water and a pitcher. Stripping down to my skivvies, I stepped outside onto the backdoor stoop and embraced the cold pitcher shower.

quote:

After a morning of chainsawing and picking up yard debris; covered in wood shavings, wet oak leaves and 2-stroke fuel smelling-sweat, I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket of cold hose water and a pitcher. Stripping down to my skivvies, I stepped outside onto the backdoor stoop and embraced the cold pitcher shower.

I bet that was invigorating!
You da man!

https://flic.kr/p/2qn4gW1


when MILTON WOBBLED!!!

Anyone need help or materials?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
Anyone need help or materials?

If you were in Tampa, I’d hit you up. Thanks so much for offering.

Bob, Sue and PC the Wonder Dog checking in. No internet, got out my iPad that does cellular to see what has been happening. Power went off for short time periods but has stayed on since Milton left.

No significant damage, Thank You, Lord, very minor damage, one smaller tree far from the. House down, but all in all, happy to be here and don’t wanna do that again.

Have heard from my former Pastor today (he’s up in Missouri)that our local church in St Pete has some damage and maybe the steeple fell.

I have never seen so much rain before but the house stayed together and seems to have been watertight. We moved from our house on the water to this smaller on 19 years ago because it was supposed to be the highest point in Pinellas County.

I appreciate the prayers very much.

Bob

Speaking of help, those folks in Tampa, could someone recommend a handyman or company you trust to assist with cleanup/ odd jobs?