Irma

[Pax]

My honey is retiring in 18 days and we are packing up to head back to our condo... in Florida. *sigh*

Here's hoping everyone in it's path is safe and this thing fizzles out soon.

[Pax]

Good plan! We called a friend in Ft. Myers and offered our condo to her, thankfully she already had plans to fly home to IL to see her kids.

[Crankin]

It doesn't look good...

[Pax]

No, it really doesn't.

[Pax]

And they have yet to announce any preparations in my area. I am less than 50 miles north of Savannah, GA, and we will be impacted. I'm fine, but what about people with no transportation? We are a typical Southern area with few public services, and a lot of people who are underserved. :(
They're offering sandbags in our area, and schools have canceled all extracurricular activities, everyone is just starting to prep and getting things lined up "in case". Wish we were down there right now so we could sandbag and get ready, we have hurricane insurance, but not flood insurance.

[smilingcat]

It seems the weather gets worse every year... In late '60s we had Camille, then it was another how many years before we had Andrew. Then Katrina now Harvey and Irma back to back in a single season as a major hurricane.

Be safe to all those in Irma's path. Sounds like Irma is going to engulf all of Florida. And to Pax, it may be a good thing that you are not down there. Property is one thing, but your well being is lot more important.

[Pax]

I hear you SC, but it's hard knowing that is our entire nest egg sitting down there. It's just a piece of property, but if we lose it in a "not covered by insurance" way, we have nothing left... but in truth, I'm in a place emotionally where I'll be fine.

[ny biker]

Wondering about Emily -- are you packing up the RV and heading inland until the storm passes?

VA Task Force 1, the first responders trained in search and rescue for disaster response who are based here in Fairfax VA, just arrived home from Houston and a day later have been deployed south for Irma. They will be staging in Alabama for now. I'm sure other teams from across the country will be joining them.

Meanwhile the islands are getting hammered already.

Hoping everyone makes it through okay.

[Crankin]

Yup, we have people leaving here today and tomorrow, for various deployments. One is a ship from MA Maritme Academy, which services both as a training vessel and a dorm for some of the students. They are being housed elsewhere, off campus, so the ship can help out during the storm. We also have a team of nurses going to work at the hospital in Houston for the next 2 weeks.

[Catrin]

My honey is retiring in 18 days and we are packing up to head back to our condo... in Florida. *sigh*

Here's hoping everyone in it's path is safe and this thing fizzles out soon.

May your condo come through this well - and everyone in the state! It doesn't look good, even if the path has moved to the west and it won't be a direct hit on Miami. Still, it's a monster storm and it looks like the entire state is under evacuation orders. I've an aunt who lives in Ocala and she didn't think they COULD get out without running out of gas so they are staying put...


And they have yet to announce any preparations in my area. I am less than 50 miles north of Savannah, GA, and we will be impacted. I'm fine, but what about people with no transportation? We are a typical Southern area with few public services, and a lot of people who are underserved. :(


My original reservation is for M-F of next week. I have another for a separate hotel just on Sunday. When I made my reservation, days ago, there was nothing. It's even located on the same street in Atlanta. So at Marriott on Sunday, La Quinta for the rest. Though if people leave early, which does happen, I might get to stay at Marriott the entire time. Hate moving my stuff around. (But at least I won't have to park my car in a Walmart lot Sunday night! Their security cameras make it the safest place. Especially traveling with a bike on top of my car).

Hopefully your area will be ok Muireen, I hadn't realized how close you are to Savannah. Stay safe, and glad to hear you found a place! It IS good to hear that people started taking this seriously early enough that they started making reservations early.

[emily_in_nc]

Wondering about Emily -- are you packing up the RV and heading inland until the storm passes?.

Thanks for thinking of me, NY. Sorry, have not been on TE for the past few days, but we are just fine! We were super busy Tuesday getting ready to leave our RV park near Orlando, and we drove Wed/Thurs. We are now in a beautiful spot in Mississippi, where we hope we will be just outside the wind/rain zones and avoid the brunt of this awful storm. Just hope the RV park is there to go back to AND that we can get there on the roads, with all the many evacuees wanting to return home. We won't head that way until we know we can make it (utilities back on, gas stations with gas, and roads not totally clogged).

It is gorgeous here, we're just two miles from a lovely, very lightly used paved rail-trail (Longleaf Trace), and we're feeling pretty content right now. Worried about other friends who are sticking it out in Florida, though!

Here's what it looks like from our site:

18318

And here's a view of Pearl, our motorhome, from around the bend at the lake:

18319

[Catrin]

Just lovely Emily, such a calm shot and I love your RV. So glad you and Muirenn got out of there, and hope all other TE members and loved ones were able to get out as well.

[ny biker]

Glad you're settled elsewhere, Emily. It looks like Georgia will take a big hit, too but hopefully it will lessen a bit by the time it reaches there.

Glad to hear from you too Catrin -- it's been a while!

[Catrin]

Thanks NY Biker - between the neck surgery in July and the upcoming shoulder surgery in 4 weeks there hasn't been too many other things to post. I still drop in to see how everyone is doing.

[Trek420]

Thanks for thinking of me, NY. Sorry, have not been on TE for the past few days, but we are just fine! We were super busy Tuesday getting ready to leave our RV park near Orlando, and we drove Wed/Thurs. We are now in a beautiful spot in Mississippi, where we hope we will be just outside the wind/rain zones and avoid the brunt of this awful storm. Just hope the RV park is there to go back to AND that we can get there on the roads, with all the many evacuees wanting to return home. We won't head that way until we know we can make it (utilities back on, gas stations with gas, and roads not totally clogged).

It is gorgeous here, we're just two miles from a lovely, very lightly used paved rail-trail (Longleaf Trace), and we're feeling pretty content right now. Worried about other friends who are sticking it out in Florida, though!

Here's what it looks like from our site:

18318

And here's a view of Pearl, our motorhome, from around the bend at the lake:

18319


Just lovely! Makes us want tell it all and get an RV!

[rebeccaC]

Emily, you two are so blessed to be able to drive your home away from severe weather…..

the upheaval in so many people's lives, especially children, can be such depressing and dark moments…my prayers that the light of choosing hope can help those going through it…..

[rebeccaC]

Got home last night after 9:30 pm. No damage to the house, but I do need to check the roof later. There were a lot of branches down.

It took 9 hours to drive 232 miles. Had I stayed on the interstate, it would have been much longer.

Yeah….so many inconveniences, like people trying to get back home, in the immediate aftermath to deal with….good to hear no visible damage to your home……hoping your roof is fine!

[emily_in_nc]

Glad all looked well on first glance, Sheila. Hope the roof is fine.

We are going to start on our two-day journey back to Winter Garden tomorrow. I-10 has been looking decent today on the Florida 511 website, but I-75 is still very busy. We may take an alternate route on Day 2 to avoid that, if it still looks as crunched up. We checked Gasbuddy to make sure there would be enough gas, and it looks promising. Naples and the rest of southwest Florida are in much worse shape for gas, but our route has plenty of stations with gas and electricity as of today -- should be even better in coming days as the oil trucks are moving!