Hurricane Michael

[GreatLakes]

Ok, this is getting to sound like a prophecy of the apocalypse.

I don’t deny climate change exists. But in the changing of our earth, it has changed before and will change again.

Also if you look at hurricanes and the history of tracking them, the worst were in years past and many years apart. Again, they don’t hit the same area every time. So in all honesty, the “worst to hit the MS coast” one year and the “worst to hit the panhandle” another year and the “worst to hit Texas” in another doesn’t spell the “end is coming” to me at all.

It will likely be apocalyptic but we don't know for sure to what extent. The NIH has published quite a bit on the heath effects of climate change and how it will cause population loss.

Storm strength is only one factor and isn't the most important. The frequency of the storms is increasing and each one comes with Billion dollar price tags. We also have more and more people in these high risk areas like @gotomu212 mentioned so storms that would hit less populated areas are now hitting populations living in places humans never should live (like the spread of south Florida in the Everglades). We also have much more expensive infrastructure than in the past and all that infrastructure is expensive to repair. Fly-over interchanges to allow for more dense transportation, the technology infrastructure of fiber and data centers and all that comes with that.

Every storm causes more financial loss and is happening more frequently. It is unsustainable as the weather gets worse.

 

[luvsJack]

I think the issue is that if you have a $4-$45 billion dollar storm even every other year it’s not sustainable. Storms today come with an enormous price tag because more people are moving to riskier areas, building more expensive structures, all while the risk of even minor weather events creates more damage.

My grandparents lived in Florida in the 60s...you wouldn’t build on the barrier islands then like you do today- they’re barrier islands meant to take the brunt of hurricanes. Just in comparison the population of FL: 2.8million (1950), 20.9million (2015). IL for same period: 8.7million (1950], 12.9million (2015). Florida increased almost 900% while Illinois increased 50% (using very rounded math).

The natural landscapes of these coastal areas just can’t keep up with the population explosion combined with poor land regulation (who thinks it’s a good idea to put a $50million condo complex a 300 ft from high tide??) so add even normal climate and you have a problem, but we aren’t in a normal climate anymore either.

Oh definitely. I barely remember Camille in 1969 but it was devasting to our coast. Katrina was much more so. But one of the big differences was the total number of people and businesses in the area!

 

[DisneyWorldMimi]

I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.

We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City. It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.

When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.

The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.

Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.

The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.

We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.

The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.

My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.

We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.

 

[Southernmiss]

I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.

We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City. It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.

When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.

The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.

Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.

The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.

We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.

The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.

My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.

We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.

Glad you all are okay. Thank you for checking in.

Still much help, supplies and good thoughts being sent to the panhandle from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. #panhandlestrong

We know all too well everything you have described. Y'all are not alone.

May you find hope around you as you all adjust to your 'new normal'. Not easy and there are times that we still have a rude reminder about what we lost.

 

[cruiser21]

I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.

We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City. It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.

When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.

The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.

Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.

The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.

We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.

The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.

My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.

We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.

Thanks for the update. I'll say a prayer for you. The media dramatizes every hurricane before and during, but those of that don't live in hurricane zones ever hear about the aftermath and the toll it takes on families. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[luvsJack]

I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.

We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City. It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.

When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.

The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.

Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.

The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.

We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.

The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.

My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.

We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.

Thank you for checking in. Each of your words brought such vivid pictures and memories. My prayers are with you and your entire area.

 

[LSUmiss]

Glad you all are okay. Thank you for checking in.

Still much help, supplies and good thoughts being sent to the panhandle from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. #panhandlestrong

We know all too well everything you have described. Y'all are not alone.

May you find hope around you as you all adjust to your 'new normal'. Not easy and there are times that we still have a rude reminder about what we lost.

Yep & it will get better & like everything you just have to take it a day at a time. I’m sure y’all do the same as we do with “before Katrina & after Katrina” when talking about time lines for pretty much anything even if it’s not really relevant to the actual topic...like “oh they got married right before Katrina”.

 

[Southernmiss]

Yep & it will get better & like everything you just have to take it a day at a time. I’m sure y’all do the same as we do with “before Katrina & after Katrina” when talking about time lines for pretty much anything even if it’s not really relevant to the actual topic...like “oh they got married right before Katrina”.

Yes, just yesterday, after seeing the 'how often do you fly thread' I was trying to remember when I last flew and thought was it before Katrina or after.

I remembered those who flew with me and realized it was before Katrina.

 

[Kitty 34]

I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.

We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City. It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.

When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.

The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.

Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.

The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.

We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.

The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.

My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.

We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.

Thank you for your update. Glad you and your neighbors fared thru it all right. That must have been so scary to be in the path of a Cat 5! Hugs to you.

 

[DisneyWorldMimi]

A local man wrote this song after Hurricane Michael. This particular video with it shows just what the majority of people are/were going through. There are still places such as a small town called Fountain that is having problems getting some assistance. While assistance is being provided, a number of residents live out in the middle of nowhere with no transportation. If they have transportation, the roads are still blocked by downed trees. These people still have no power and some don't have water because they are on well water. You need electricity to use the well.

One thing that we found disappointing was some of the information being put out was incorrect. This was information coming from local and state officials. One state official stated that GEICO was hosting a cell phone station for those that didn't have service to be able to call their loved ones. We drove to the place where it was supposed to be and the GEICO employees there had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. Then it was stated that FEMA would be giving out sustenance checks out at the Insurance village. They finally came back on and said that your insurance would be the ones issuing these checks. It appears as if FEMA is denying everyone assistance. We applied and were denied. Everything you read about FEMA says that once you apply, a FEMA rep will come out to your house. We never saw a rep at all. I know this works in conjunction with your insurance, but don't state that a rep will be coming out, when it isn't true.

We were contacted by a company to help with tree removal or tarping our roof that were working with our insurance company. We talked to our insurance on 10/15, no one called until 10/21. By then our neighbors had taken part of the tree off the roof and with the help of my daughter's co-worker's husband, had tarped our roof. It came off once, but our neighbor, his friend and my husband got it back on. We have a leak somewhere over our master bath, so we talked to Operation Roof Blue. They were out within a day to evaluate the situation. Still haven't seen anyone from the other company about the tree. But my neighbor was determined to get the last bit that was sitting on the edge off and between him and his friend they got it off. Today, I see him with a chain walking through the back yard. He had hooked up a chain and was going to try and pull the tree down to the ground. He ended up cutting a 5 ft length off. He told my husband that he is bored and needs something to do because he is on admin leave for awhile. He is Irish and just can't sit still. I had to laugh because when he was coming over in the evenings and sitting with us, I noticed that my daughter started having a bit of a lilt to her speech. She was getting a slight Irish lilt. I guess she is like me, even though I was the only child born in the states, my mom said I was the only one to pick up her English accent.

Thank you to all for the good wishes. We will get through this one day at a time and I am just keeping that in my mind. One thing I am extremely glad about is that my mother doesn't know what happened. She was just diagnosed with dementia. Her short term memory is really bad. So none of my family or her caretaker have told her. I don't have to worry about how she is handling this because she doesn't know. She might know about the hurricane, but doesn't know it affected us.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks for jumping in here, Mimi, and sharing your harrowing story. We have tornadoes here, but nothing like the scale of a big hurricane. Prayers and good wishes follow you and all the others so greatly affected by this. God bless you all.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I had to look up the 850 reference. Interesting. Great song. Devastating images in the video.