Was it scary, uncomfortable, and inconvenient? Yes, definitely. But that's overshadowed by the relief we are feeling.
I should share that we live in Florida in the Tampa Bay area (more on that in a moment).
My employer closed our building on Friday so hubby and I spent both Friday and Saturday preparing the house. We shuttered the house, videotaped all of our belongings, moved about 75 plants (some in very large and heavy pots), moved patio furniture and yard art and bird feeders, bought nonperishables and lots of water, caught up laundry, filled up gas tanks, packed up clothing, valuables, and important documents to evacuate, got dog shots and records, etc. We were exaughsted as was a coworker that helped us.
We evacuated to my mom's house on Saturday night with our two rat terriers. It was hard leaving our home not knowing it if would be there when we returned. Although mom only lives about 17 miles away, she's much higher above sea level than us; more importantly, she is in what's called a non-evacuation zone. Our house is in level C (A to E rating scale).
Our next door neighbors were going to stay at our house because they didn't have shutters for their windows and got scared watching all the coverage (more about that later). On Saturday night, late, we got a call from them saying change of plans - they were on their way to Georgia to get away from the storm. But, there was a problem. They couldn't find a gas station open with gas and they needed gas to make it. We invited them, and the two cats, to come stay at my mom's condo which is a block building (neighbor and us both live in timber houses covered with stucco). They agreed ad came over on Sunday by noon (public officials said to get where you are going by noon Sunday). I should mention they have two cats and we have two dogs - dogs with a high prey drive.
We actually enjoyed our sequestered time by playing dominos, scattergories, eating, talking, etc. We looked outside a lot and at one point I decided to film the wind and caught a transformer blowing up! Needless to say, the power went out shortly after that. Until then we watched the hurricane coverage on just about every channel available!
The wind howled and shook glass but luckily mom had her windows replaced somewhat recently so they are hurricane rated. The scary one was her sliding glass door which was original to the 1979 building. We had lots of flashlights and candles so we were good without lights but the air conditioning was greatly missed. We had a little episode when one of our group had a asthma issue due to the heat and stuffiness) and went to the hospital more to use their electric than receive treatment. I understand the drive there was also very scary with fallen tree branches and complete darkness. The good news is that my mother's house is about a block and a half from the emergency room. When they returned she slept in the air-conditioned car while we opened windows and cooled down the house.
We got antsy and when we started to see cars out we made a trip to our neighborhood to see how we faired. After passing fallen trees, damaged houses, and crashed fences, we were very relieved to find our homes standing unscathed. The only real damage was a section of fence between our houses had fallen. We joked about no more skinny dipping! There was a lot to be cleaned up but we were both happy to do that.
We went back to my mom's and before dark the neighbors decided to head home - their cats weren't too happy in the strange environment. Jerry and I stayed another night not wanting to leave my mom alone too long when there was no electric for charging cell phones. So, today we got home and there was electricity! Apparently it came on while we were on our way home. Now mom is with us!
Things I noticed....very few things, or more correctly said very few areas, had open stores. Those that did were busy. Fast food restaurants had lines at the drive up you would not believe. Same with gas stations. At one station there was a police directing traffic because the road was being blocked by folks trying to get gas.
Second, the media had us scared to death. Worse, they had our friends and family scared. I kept getting phone calls and messages urging me to leave Florida because of what they were seeing. Apparently CNN believed we were really in deep do-do because they sent Anderson Cooper. It got almost comical as the hurricane moved away from Tampa and the news folks had to find something hurricane related to talk about.
Third, while I really do appreciate the concern, all the text messages caused my phone to run out of charge and no way to charge it.
Finally, I discovered that people don't understand how a hurricane works. People were asking if we had wind, etc. days before it actually happened. They start reporting it well before we have any effects.
My office is open tomorrow; however, anyone without power or anyone who hasn't returned home from evacuating can take a vacation day instead of coming in. I'm going in with great dread because what I do revolves around a master schedule that has been disrupted by the loss of 3 business days.
In closing, we are supposed to be going n a cruise to Cuba 6 days. Currently out ship is being used for humanitarian purposes. The trip is not canceled but the destination may be changed if Cuba received too much damage.
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