Even though my posts are still catching up to where we are now, many of you know that we are in Florida; with Irma on her way here too, I decided to skip ahead and give you a little update. My plan is to resume regular posts after our current situation is behind us.
Yesterday morning, Friday, September 8, we made the decision to stay. This decision has literally been up in the air, and it has not been an easy one to make. Along with everyone else, we have been watching weather reports, predictions, and projections, as well as traffic reports, etc. and trying to process all of this data with common sense.
At first we thought we might need/want to evacuate. Many mandatory evacuations have been ordered, but so far there have been none where we are. Yesterday, John was able to download a free scanner for his cell phone so we could hear what was going on around us in this county. Things are crazy! Evacuating traffic is filling the highways and not moving very fast.
We stocked up on groceries several days ago. The water shelf was already bare, but with access to safe water where we are, we filled all of our extra gallon water jugs and will be refreshing the tanks on our motorhome later today. Our refrigerator is full. I have prepared food so if we lose power, we can quickly retrieve something to eat. Yesterday was a sunny day with a breeze, so I got the laundry done and hung out to dry.
Rain is a given, but our area is not in any surge area. Hopefully any excess water we get will drain off into the Oklawaha River Basin and keep any waters here below the height of entering any of our vehicles.
The wind, we have heard, by the time it gets to the area from Tampa to Orlando, will reduce to 115 miles per hour, and down to 65 by the time it gets to the Georgia State Line. We are hopeful that we can withstand winds coming at us from the front or rear, but are not sure what any side winds will do to us. Our RV is constructed of steel framing, and in the center, away from windows, we have an aisle with the bathroom and kitchen on one side and the shower and refrigerator on the other. And we are in an area of tall pine trees.
When I was a child growing up, many times I heard my mother say that the trees surrounding our house saved us during many storms. We can only hope that no debris comes flying through the atmosphere with us as a target.
There is not much of anything else I can say at this point. You can read more detail on our hope to ride out Irma at John's blog post at incargonito.blogspot.com.
We will try our best with God's help to weather the storm and be safe. If we are still here after the storm, I will post an update.
As I told John in an email, Sharon, i have my fingers crossed for you both and Angel. I read a pair from Chris and Cheri and they had no problem getting from Marathon in the Keys, left two days ago and are now, probably in Alabama. Cheri said the major N/S interstate routes were slow and clogged, but they stayed on the blue highways and encountered no traffic and no shortage of fuel-gas or diesel. Be safe. My thoughts and prayers are with you and my fingers are crossed.
ReplyDeleteEd, Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and for taking time to comment. Thankfully, praise God, our decision turned out to be a good one for us. Thankfully, we had more options than others who were under a mandatory evacuation order, but as the direction of Hurricane Irma became clearer, changing our mind did not seem like a viable option. Thanks again for reading my blog, keep the comments coming. You are appreciated!
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