michaels4gardens":g3sxf2c4 said:
When I lived in Florida we had a few times the power was off for weeks, --I had a generator like yours plugged in to an outlet, we first turned off the main breaker, and all sub breakers and just turned on the ones to the frig and well, we took turns turning off the well, and water heater, . we ran the generator for a couple of hrs at a time to keep the food frozen and water in containers, [and fill community water bottles] -- The gas stations were all closed or out of gas, so my 15 cans of gas I had stored lasted us until the power was eventually turned on, -- people from the community came to our house to get water, and some to shower. We were the only ones with power and water.
Where were you in Florida for Ivan? We were living just a smidge west of Navarre. We evacuated to DeFuniak Springs, and watched the local weatherman calling the tornadoes before the NWS did. Until we lost power, anyway. It was pretty intimidating... we didn't realize the thing was going to spawn so many tornadoes. The next morning, my husband found the tracks of four of them that had run just a couple dozen yards from the motel. :shock:
Since we had crossed county lines, we were delayed an extra day in trying to return home, because they closed the county lines. All of the belongings in the houses of Santa Rosa Island had been swept across the bay, and could be found in the trees in Gulf Breeze. One of our friends told us to drive down her street. We did. There were some houses left (pretty much destroyed), but many were gone, just leaving foundations. Some of them, even the foundations were gone. There were whole neighborhoods almost wiped out. I remember seeing the Coke machines from outside of Cowboy's Restaurant in the middle of Hwy. 98. Their furniture was in the Winn Dixie parking lot across the highway.
The apartment complex came together after Ivan. At least, those of us who returned within the first few days. We had cookouts where everybody brought food, and a couple of the guys made stuff on their grills with whatever they were brought. A couple of military guys dug a latrine complete with toilet seat and roll-up blind for a door (the walls were blown-out pieces of fence). Everybody knew that they didn't let any water go down the drain, because the lift station was offline. People who came back four or five days later didn't care. They wanted their showers and toilets, and didn't care if they flooded somebody else's apartment. That didn't go over well.
When Dennis came along about 6 months later, we evacuated to the Milton Community Center, instead -- in county. We had to show ID to get home, but we got there.
(I'm only talking about this because Dayna's safe!)
dayna":g3sxf2c4 said:
It looks like a war zone. I'm so glad I brought all the animals inside.
Wow, Dayna, your pictures look way too familiar! I was hoping that, since it was a weaker storm, it wouldn't do such bad damage. Unfortunately, some of the worst damage has been done by storms after they've lost their hurricane status.
dayna":g3sxf2c4 said:
we're all okay. All the animals that had to stay outside pulled through. Stressed, but okay.
I'm so glad you were able to post so soon! So good to hear that not only are y'all okay, but so are all your animals.
I hope things will get cleaned up and put back together around there quickly. <br /><br /> __________ Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:16 am __________ <br /><br /> I hadn't even thought about your daughter going off to college! I'm so glad you had her with you!
