Luckily with both Helene and Milton we didn’t have any damage to the house or property.
With Helene, we had a few power flickers, but never lost power. Had a lot of wind, but very little rain. Heard a bunch of noise during the storm. Found out in the morning what those were. A large branch landed on my neighbor’s car, and half a tree ended up in another neighbor’s pool. Crushed part of their enclosure. The barrier islands around me got absolutely rocked. Storm surge was off the charts. My sister called to see if my boat was OK. She wanted to see if we may be able to use it to help her friend get salvage some things from her house as the roads weren’t open to vehicles yet. Problem was the boat ramps were in rough shape. Storm surge lifted the floating docks over the pillars and in some cases broke them free, or left them up top. Normally those pillars are over my head (6’).
Milton was different. Due to the incredible forecast accuracy with Helene, I decided to put the shutters up. As the forecasts were calling for Milton to pass directly over my house. I’m in a non-evac zone, but real close to the water. I can easily walk from my house to places that got flooded during Helene. Lost power at 6:30 PM on the 9th. I fired up the generator to keep the refrigerators, freezers, and internet up. Wind was loud and I heard many things bounce off the shutters during the night. The rain was off the charts. One half of my back yard was under about 4” of water constantly. It formed a river flowing to my front yard and down the street. I’m pretty sure I could have rode a kayak from my back yard, down the street and down to the intracoastal.
In the morning, I checked the area. A large palm tree was blocking my driveway, but I could get out after moving a few branches. Another palm tree was blocking the nearest exit from my street, so I went the other way. Power lines down that direction. I could get past the palm tree by driving on the easement. Went to check on my parent’s place, which is about 1/2 mile away. But with the amount of road blockage due to trees, power lines, or water, I had to drive about 5 miles to get there, and even that involved driving through water that was about 18-24” above the road.
Power still out, and could be out until Tuesday.
