Hurricane Irma

Sitting out on my front porch with a Coleman lantern. The wind finally died down and we had a bluebird blue sky. Absolutely beautiful afternoon.

But nobody has power and the night is stupid quiet. I mean BLACK! Weird.

 

It's probably too late tonight for satellite watching, but take advantage of the lack of light pollution before the power gets back up...

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=29.0292&lng=-81.304&loc=Unspecified&alt=12&tz=EST

 

It may not be much but....

http://www.680news.com/2017/09/11/hydro-one-sending-crews-to-florida/

loooong drive in a bucket truck

 

I'm shocked as hell, after a 39 1/4 hour slog at work keeping the lights on via our 11 meg backup power system I drove home after Duke Energy got one of our dual utility feeds working.

It was an eerie drive home to the islands, Clearwater/Largo road was blocked by police at West Bay so I diverted west and crossed over to the barrier islands and headed south on Gulf blvd. Belleair, Indian rocks, Redington were mostly dark. Into Madeira Beach which was lit up and looking mostly powered but a weird vibe with little traffic. Onto Treasure Island, sporadic lighting until about 107 seventh Ave/Central blvd and than completely dark the rest of the way, one car in Sunset Beach, an unmarked police care cruising the streets with flashers on silently, probably keeping an eye out for potential looters. Jet black otherwise painted with a dark starlit sky.
Found the boat safe and sound, no roof or water damage, just lots of debris for cleanup.

The shocking part? Duke got the power back on at 2:52 am, I got up, got the a/c on and closed the windows.

Just another story to share amongst friends at the Ka'Tiki. Island life...

 

Sometimes good things happen to bad people!
That is great that you came out of the storm relatively unscathed. It is good to hear some positive stories coming out of the area too. My friends in the Houston area are batting about .500 for flooded / not flooded...
Good luck to all who have to dig out of the mess.

 

Sitting here in Orlando watching mold grow on wet carpet

 

Got word last night that my up for sale house in Oviedo sustained no damage. My luck does not usually run that way. . No power, but not being there doesn't matter. We actually had a house showing on Saturday. People are crazy!

 

Probably closer than the crews from California.

 

Dammit man!

 

Hydro Quebec is sending staff too.

 

How's the RV?

 

any word from fire/disaster restoration companies ? as omatter said, being independently owned, some from same franchise will be better than others. there are independent firms too though..

 

Left lots of messages but not able to get anyone on site yet.

RV did fine and is sitting in the driveway so we have access and hot water. If it weren't for the water damage I would have nothing to complain about

 

And then charge you enough that you could have bought your own fans, vacuums and dehumidifiers.

 

On second thought you could probably remove and replace the carpet for less.

 

If you file a claim the insurance pays for mitigation. At least that's how it worked when I was an adjuster.

If it's a covered loss of course.

 

Dude if you need tools/nails/etc hit me up on your way down, I'd be like a 15 minute detour. I'm in Kenosha.

 

Thanks bro. I'll let you know.