Hurricane Irma, Monday

In spite of of thinking we were prepared for the arrival of hurricane Irma, on Sunday before she arrived, we found a few more things to take care of.

Though the grill was tied to a tree, we decided to untie it and put it in the garage. That was a good move because the strongest winds came from that (NE) side of the house and there's no doubt the grill would have been blown into the lanai.

Also, Dan raised the exterior entryway light on it's hanging chain, using a zip tie to secure it near the ceiling. 

We added towels in the tracks of the sliders - in the eating area, and in the living room area. Turns out that was worthwhile as all the towels were wet this morning! You know there's a strong wind when the rain blew though the lanai to the sliders!

In the early afternoon on Sunday, we had rain. It looked pretty calm though.

By late afternoon, Irma was making her presence known.

The rain was blowing when these guys returned from a walk.

After watching the first episode of the new/third season of "Outlander," I went to bed. Slept from 11 pm until 1:30 am when the increasing velocity of the wind hitting the bedroom windows woke me. This is all I could see out the bedroom window, a view toward the street and houses behind us.

Dan was awake all night, alternately watching The Weather Channel, Orlando’s channel 13, and WESH-TV, the latter of which seemed to focus more on our area of the state. I settled in with him to watch a “red wall” of strong winds from the south drive northward to us.

At one point I recorded this on a wind velocity app that I download on Sunday. Gusts of near 55 mph were frequent for a while, though I cannot verify the accuracy of this reading.

In fact, we believe the wind gusts were higher! According to the news, gusts in the red areas were between 70-80 mph. Based on the way it felt at our house, we think winds reached 70 mph.

The worst of Irma rolled into our area between 3:30 and 4 am. I thought it was pretty scary, and only wish it had occurred during daylight hours. Perhaps it wouldn't have felt quite so eery.

Today the winds continue at between 30-40 mph, coming from the NE. That's also interesting about a hurricane... how the strongest winds come from the NE, and then after the hurricane passes, the winds come from the SW.

Our beautiful Bismarck palm in the front yard is looking quite bedraggled from all the wind. But that's our only "damage." We did not lose power, thanks to having underground lines. We also didn't lose shingles from the roof, nor have trees blow over, as some of our neighbors did.

Irma is like nothing like either of us has been through. And we don’t want to go through it again! I'm feeling extremely grateful for God's protection, and for having a structurally sound and well-built home. I'm also feeling sad for those who have lost power, and will need time to rebuild.

Thank you all for your concerns. Linda