Tag Archives: hurricane

Were Back

My wife and I returned from our vacation to Massachusetts and Maine on Saturday. We were glad to get home to our cats and Frankie was certainly excited that we were back. He has been ‘talking” a lot more than usual since we returned. The first thing I did was take Frankie for a walk.

Needless to say, he was happy about it.

My wife wanted to drive to the beach to see how the cleanup efforts were going after getting hit by two hurricanes. Things were far worse that I thought. We drove down some of the streets in Madeira Beach, and it was unbelievable. Almost every home had a large pile of trash in front of it.

We continued south until we reached our favorite beach, Pass-a-Grill. During the storm, a lot of sand was carried onto the streets. Most of it was cleared off the streets, but there were still several large piles in front of businesses. And then there was this pile and a similar pile nearby.

We also saw signs like this at the paths that lead to the beach.

Whatever was on the beach, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill dangerous.

On the way home we saw this pile of garbage.

It was on some kind of park across the street from a condo development. I’m sure the people who live there are happy to see this every day. They must be trucking garbage here with the intent of moving it later. I would be surprised if this is gone before Christmas.

When we got home Frankie was more than willing to help us unpack.

Surveying the Damage

34 Replies

As most of know, we evacuated before Hurricane Milton to a hotel thirty miles north. The cats were not happy about it but they also accepted it quite well. Frankie had a nice window to look out of before and after the storm.

He even watched some television.

There wasn’t much to do so I decided to start writing my next book in the Last Healer Mysteries series.

I just finished my latest novella called “Saving Apollo,” which is about a genetically engineered dog who can understand plain English. He escapes and befriends a 12-year-old boy. It is my first family friendly story. I received the art from the artist but I haven’t been able to work on it yet

I was watching our house using my Blink cameras but they were offline when I checked around 5:30 Wednesday afternoon. Our power at the hotel went out just after 8 p.m. and the hurricane made landfall around Sarasota at 8:30.

Rose was watching the track closely. It started out hitting exactly where we live. It then slowly shifted south and then north and then south again.

Sarasota is less than 40 miles south of our house but that 40 miles makes a world of difference in a hurricane. We were happy to see that but, of course, we were sad for the people in its direct path.

The next morning the border to Pinellas county was closed so we had to wait for them to open the roads before we left. If we didn’t have cats to worry about we would have left and waited at the border. We didn’t have to wait too long before it was okay to leave.

When we got home we were stopped by a fallen tree that was behind our next door neighbor’s house.

The tree barely nicked the corner of the house behind our neighbor. Talk about luck.

Our home was undamaged except a downspout broke off and a window in the cats’ room blew out but it was undamaged and I put it back in the door.

I took Frankie for a walk because he was eager to get outside.

There was plenty for Frankie to investigate. Our back yard was filled with branches.

Later, Rose and I drove around the neighborhood. Many people suffered bad damage. Much more than the last hurricane. Here are just a few examples.

I’m writing this from the airport. We are flying to Boston and will travel up the coast to Maine for our 25th anniversary. Our power is still out but the cats will be okay. Our neighbor will take care of them.

Fleeing Hurricane Milton

53 Replies

I was on the beaches for my job yesterday and even though I knew the beaches were devastated from just getting hit by a glancing blow from Helene., it was still a shock to look down every street and see piles and piles of debris.

We maintain aquariums for two restaurants on the beach. This is one of them.

They were cleaning up from the storm surge entering their building. The other restaurant was also flooded. I felt bad for them knowing the next storm could potentially be twice as bad.

My wife managed to get us a room at the Hampton Inn in New Port Richey, almost 30 miles to the north of us.

The trip up here was not good for Frankie. The cats were stuck in their carriers for the long trip up here and then for an additional 20 to 30 minutes while we waited for our room to be ready. When we finally let them out we found that Frankie pooped in his carrier.

Since then they have settled in nicely.

Now we just pray that we will have a home to go back to.

After the Storm

30 Replies

I want to thank everyone who expressed concern for our safety during Hurricane Ian. Just like Hurricane Charley in 2004, this was a category 4 hurricane that was predicted to hit the Tampa Bay area but changed course and hit Southwest Florida. This storm was far bigger in size, though, than Charlie. one graphic I saw put Charlie inside the eye of Ian.

The storm is so big that it is still quite windy here almost 22 hours after the storm made landfall. It is looking like the damage caused by this storm could be among the worst in history. I have not heard of any loss of life and I hope that is the case. I also hope the people impacted can get back to normal life as quickly as possible.

Here we had little damage in our area. The power is out at my work so I am home today. I saw the governor say that 150,000 are without power in my county, Pinellas. I don’t know if that is people or homes. It is a drop in the bucket compared to Southwest Florida. I joke that I have been dodging bullets for 34 years but this area has been spared for much longer than that.

I mentioned before about the Indian legend that says there is something here that repels hurricanes. The last time a hurricane made landfall in our county was in 1921. That one hit Tarpon Springs at the far northwest corner. None have ever hit, as far as I know, the peninsula part of the county where I live.

I went outside this morning to see if there was any damage and found only fallen tree branches.

Our cats made it through the storm well Nobody was nervous the entire time.

On a bright note, the sun just came out.

Hurricane Ian Update

35 Replies

It is just after 11:15 a.m. as I write this. So far it looks like we have been spared the worst of the storm. As of now, the prediction is that it will make landfall about 80 miles from us in Southwest Florida, near the Punta Gorda area, where our friends from Playful Kitty just moved to. I hope they will be safe there.

It has been raining all morning and the winds have picked up over the last hour or so. I expect it to get much worse but I don’t expect it to be bad enough to cause much damage to the house, as long as one of the big trees behind us doesn’t come down. If it continues on its path, we will still get hit hard because it is traveling in a northern direction, but the center of the storm should pass us to the east.

Right now Chris is sleeping on the bed and Floki and Frankie are relaxing in the Florida room.

At least they were relaxing until a squirrel decided to pay us a visit.

I took the window bird feeder down several weeks ago but kept the ground feeder so we still get frequent visits from squirrels.

My wife feels bad that she is stuck out of town and can’t be with me. She just called and wanted to make sure I was locked in the bedroom with the cats. She might be a little overprotective. I told her that it was a hurricane, not a tornado, and I would have plenty of warning before I needed to make a commitment like that. For now, I will just enjoy a day off from work and wait and see what happens.

In the Path of Hurricane Ian

36 Replies

My wife has tickets to go to a trade show in Hollywood, Florida. She planned on driving down there on Tuesday but the threat of Hurricane Ian made her decide to leave a day early so she could get there before the storm made driving difficult. Of course, our cats are always there to help pack.

As she packed last night, the forecast showed what they call the spaghetti model. It was about a dozen different paths, all ending in the Florida Panhandle. We thought the chance of it hitting here was pretty low. We also know that history has shown that our county, Pinellas, never gets hit by a hurricane. Of course, there is always a first time.

You may remember us evacuating before Hurricane Irma. You can read about that here and here. For that storm, we booked an Airbnb in St. Petersburg and then left there for my sister-in-law’s when the forecast shifted the storm’s path directly to where we were staying. In the end, the storm hit farther south and moved east of us. We could have stayed home because we had almost no damage.

I did not watch the weather this morning because I overslept and was rushing to help my wife pack her car and get to work. I also did not watch it while I was at work. On the way home I got an emergency alert which I did not look at because I was driving. My wife saw it, though, and called me and said we were under a mandatory evacuation. I was surprised given the fact that the storm was headed to the Panhandle. I figured since we live in a mobile home they were being annoyingly cautious.

When I got home I checked the weather and the path had shifted east. Now it was projected to hit northern Pinellas County as a possible category three hurricane, about fifteen miles from where I live. Of course, there is that cone of uncertainty that could bring it closer, or farther, but either way, it is a big storm so there is little chance of escaping it now.

We probably should have booked a hotel or another Airbnb but all the models showed it going west so we waited too long. Now the only rooms available are the ones on the beach. Rose’s sister offered her condo for us to use but her condo building is on the water. It might be built strong enough to stand up to a hurricane but the parking lot is under the building so my car would surely be underwater.

As of now I will just be staying here and hoping for the best. The last thing I want to do is try to carry three cats, one of whom is twenty pounds, to an emergency shelter by myself. I will close off the Florida room and bring their food and litter boxes into the bedroom. If it gets really bad I will shut us all in the bedroom. I also have ther carriers in the house, just in case, and will look for their collars. I want them to have collars in case we get separated. My only worry now is someone will come to my house and make us leave.

Riding the Storm Out

42 Replies

We were hit by Tropical Storm Eta yesterday evening. I once heard that there is an old Indian legend that says there is something under the ground in the Pinellas County, Florida area that repels hurricanes. Indeed, we have never had a direct hit by a hurricane but maybe a tropical storm doesn’t qualify. I’m not sure where the center of the storm hit but I know it was north of us, perhaps in the next county, preserving the legend. In either case, it was pretty windy for a long time.

We have a a large oak tree next to our house and I think the wind was causing branches to fall on our roof so every couple of minutes we would hear a loud bang. Frankie and Floki were not exactly scared but the noise did seem to cause them concern.

Chris, on the other hand, was sleeping in the Florida room, totally oblivious to the noise. I wanted to get a photo of him napping but I made the mistake of turning the light on and woke him up

We decided to go to bed at around 10 p.m. That is when our power went out. Rose insisted we leave the bedroom door open for air circulation even though Chris is a pain in the butt.

He was actually not too bad at first but then fighting off his attacks became too much and I had to put him down off the bed. He, of course, didn’t stay down and by 1 a.m. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I got up and got the power inverter that I bought for last year’s hurricane season and plugged in one of my Ryobi 40 volt batteries. I then plugged in a fan and brought it into the bedroom and closed the cats out.

That worked good but by 4 a.m. the battery had died and we were both uncomfortably hot so I plugged in my other battery but by then we couldn’t go back to sleep.

We got up and I tried making coffee but it was too much for the battery so I ended up going to Dunkin Donuts for coffee after they opened.

We are now in the car heading to Lakeland where Rose has a property that she oversees. I assume our power will be back by the time we return but just in case I brought my batteries with to charge.

Update: I was wrong and the storm did not make landfall near me. It looks like it moved north along the coast and then made landfall 100 miles away as the state curves to the west.

Photo Friday: Stray Cats After Hurricane Irma

18 Replies

My wife’s sister and her husband have several of their own cats and take care of strays as well, both near their home and near her work. When we stayed there during Hurricane Irma, there were three strays that stayed in the garage. The morning after the hurricane I captured this picture of one of them hanging out by the front door.

The cat below found comfort on the back of a motorcycle in the garage.

These cats have names but I don’t remember what they are. I know that the life of a stray is not easy but for these lucky few, it’s not bad.

Surviving Hurricane Irma With Cats – Part Two

33 Replies

If you missed part one of this story you can see it here.

I didn’t want to leave the house we rented as a shelter. It was too much stress to pack up the cats again and I thought we would be fine where we were but Rose felt the storm’s path made it unsafe and I wanted her to feel comfortable about where we were, so we quickly got our stuff together and put the cats in the carriers. This time we put Chris in the small carrier and somehow managed to get three cats in the big carrier. It wasn’t the most comfortable for the boys but they were okay.

My electric car did not have enough charge to get there so I had to stop at a charging station on the way. Fortunately, that was easier than finding gas.

When we got to Felice and Jeff’s house they had a bedroom set up for us with two litter boxes. We put the cats inside and that is where they stayed. Everbody hid under the bed at first, even Chris, who was way more stressed than I expected him to be.

I’m sure the room was full of smells from the resident cats and that was probably why Frankie spent the first two hours hissing and whacking everyone, even Rose and me. The cats that gave up their room were not happy either.

Surprisingly, it was little, shy Floki that come out from under the bed first.

Eventually, Chris and Frankie came out too.

Watching the weather became old very quick but we would turn it on periodically to see if anything new developed. I tried to hang out with the cats occasionally to help keep them calm but I also didn’t want to be rude and ignore the people in the house.

I got to see Puck use the litter box for the second time in as many days and thought that there was a silver lining in all this.

At one point we heard the storm made landfall at Marco Island, near Naples. That was much farther south than expected and good news for us because a hurricane that moves over land loses its energy. Of course, it was not good for the people in the Naples area.

The worst of the storm was supposed to occur between midnight and 4:00 a.m. Since all the windows were covered there seemed no point to stay up to watch it so we went to bed a little after 10:00. By that time we never saw anything worse than some rain and a heavy breeze.

I guess Rose and I were pretty tired because we slept through the worst of it and woke up around 5:00. We didn’t want to wake anybody so it was more than an hour before I could look outside. When I did I saw little evidence that a hurricane passed us by. Jeff had an app on his phone that said wind speeds reached 105 miles per hour where we were at around midnight. I was amazed it didn’t wake us up. I was also amazed that we never lost power.

The county that we live in, Pinellas, closed its borders. They would not let anyone in until they declared the roads safe to drive on. That meant we had to stay a while before we could leave for home. I spent the time watching the weather and taking pictures of the resident cats. The picture below is the grown-up kitten we wanted to adopt before Floki but Felice and Jeff claimed him first (see here). The cat outside is one of three strays that took shelter in the garage.

At 10:00 a.m I heard the roads were open so we packed our stuff up and put the cats their carriers. This time Felice gave us a carrier so they were all able to ride home in relative comfort.

A tree had fallen over the road out so I had to turn around and go around the block. The damage to buildings in the area seemed minimal, except for an unlucky few. There were a fair number of trees down and lots of branches on the roads but overall it was much better than expected. Almost half the traffic lights were out and everyone here thinks they need to treat them as a two-way stop. I think the most surprising thing I saw was a billboard that looked like Godzilla attacked it.

Forgive the quality, this is a partial frame from a dash cam video.

I went straight home with the cats and Rose went to check on her mother’s house. Her home survived but she had no power. When I entered our neighborhood, I saw two homes at the end of our street with part of their roofs ripped off. There was also a palm tree lying half way across the street. That worried me a little but the only damage I saw to our house was that three large planters blew over and two of them cracked, one of which was already cracked. We even had power and our alarm clock wasn’t blinking so we never lost power.

I brought the cats inside and they were so happy to be back. None of them lingered in the carrier for even a second. It wasn’t long before they were all on the bed ready for a nap. It was like we had never left.

Photo Friday: Home at Last