Over the next few days, we learned that a few trees had been uprooted, some houses had sustained damage to their lanais, and low-lying roads had been flooded. A long walk through our neighborhood showed little damage. Larry and I woke up Friday morning to beautiful sunshine. We spent the rest of the day restoring our house to pre-Ian condition. By late Thursday afternoon, the rain and wind had stopped, and the sun was peaking through the remnant clouds. Later that morning, as the storm headed northeast to wreak more destruction, we realized that we were very fortunate.Our house and immediate property was undamaged. to the news hat Ian had been downgraded to a tropical storm but was still producing strong rains, heavy rains, and winds up to 65 mph. We did a last minute check to ensure that all our other emergency gear-candles, matches, crank-up radios, smaller flashlights, cork screw, were in working order. On the last minute advice of our friends in England, we transferred a couple of bottles of white wine to the frig. Larry and I each finished off a big bowl of ice cream, reasoning that our half gallon of Breyer’s Vanilla Bean would melt if the power went off. We FaceTimed with our children, assuring them-especially our seven-year-old granddaughter- that we were fine and safe. Fortunately, the water stayed well below our lanai, spreading north to south behind the homes on either side of us.īy eight p.m., darkness was closing in. The rain was coming down in sheets, turning the small pond behind our house into a river. Meanwhile, our community was feeling the impact of Hurricane Ian. When applying for this position of field weatherman was it the first line under job requirements or was it buried in the fine print ‘Must be Suicidal.’” (sic) As faithinhumanity later tweeted: “I’m curious. All I could think was, Is it worth losing your life to report on this? Thankfully one of the men in charge told him to find shelter. At one point, Jim Cantore was nearly hit in the head with flying debris. TWC meteorologists were in the middle of it. Maybe I feared that the projects needed to be completed before we lost electricity for goodness knows how long.)īy 5 pm Wednesday, Hurricane Ian had touched down near Punta Gorda, about 120 miles away from our home, with 140 mph sustained winds.The scenes on the news in the hours that followed were terrifying to watch: massive flooding, destroyed buildings boats piled on the shore. I followed Ian’s path on the television set in our kitchen, where I was working on a Mixbook family album and the final edits for my upcoming book. Larry kept track of the storm in the office, switching between The Weather Channel, the local news, and some mindless programming to ease the stress. The Weather Channel (TWC) showed a cone that covered all of Florida. Then it was a waiting game as Ian was getting larger and more ominous by the hour. We even squeezed in our fourth COVID vaccine booster shots, figuring if we had any side effects we were already stuck inside. For extra measure, I filled the bathtub as well as several big pots. We filled empty orange juice jugs saved just for this type of emergency with water. We brought inside all potential flying projectiles: lanai furniture, plants, lawn ornaments, and hoses. We made a quick run to the supermarket to add more canned food to our already full panty. Immediately following Rosh Hashanah, we went into full “A-Hurricane-Is-Coming” mode. We also knew how to prepare for the storm. “Actually, that should be a selling point for Solivita – the community that survives hurricanes well! “As I learned later, all the homes were built in compliance with 2002 Florida Building Code(FBC), which mandated that new construction be able to withstand hurricane-force winds and feature shutters or impact-resistant glass in all openings. “I’m one of those pioneers who have weathered several hurricanes here,” wrote Kathy Glascott. In a text thread with fellow SOL Writers, one of the long-timers assured another member, who was experiencing her first Florida hurricane. This confidence was further boosted by experience of people who have lived in our community for over twenty years. Our first experience with Florida hurricanes was with Irma in 2017, and that had given us more confidence in our ability to withstand these mega-storms. Furthermore, the homes were well-built, with underground electrical wires and excellent drainage. We immediately had fallen in love with 55+ active adult community south of Orlando because of what it offered.
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