all of this was in our driveway the next morning.

The next day, our yard was covered in debris and limbs, the pool was full of the same, the back yard covered entirely. no trees down and I was so thankful for that. I cleared the mess above while bob worked on the pool, it is more than i can do to lift limbs and things out of the pool. 

As I stood staring at the mess, I realized we could not back out of the garage because the drive was full of oak limbs. I also went into panic mode when I realized our huge, new heavy hurricane double door is electric.  2 years ago it was taken out by hurricane Ian and replaced with this. I cannot lift it and thought bob could not either. I was wrong, he did get it open, I backed the car out and went to find ice and when i came home he wanted to close my car in the garage. I refused; my Kia lived outside for 3 days until power came back.

I learned that if you use a rake and pitchfork you will struggle to get out of bed each morning but after 4 days in a row, on day 5 and 6 you will not be sore. 

After the power came back

3 Sweaty gowns, 5 sweaty underpants, 3 sweaty Bob tank shirts, were washed with the sheets/pillowcases, TOGETHER, for the first ever time in my entire LONG LIFE. (we are still under water conserve, use washers/dishwashers/flushing only if you have to, no watering, filling pools etc, turn off water while brushing teeth/take short showers) because our sewers and water pump facilities are overwhelmed and already so much water, we can't add to it.

Helene is # 9 hurricane we have been through in my 40 years here. the first was Elena and in 1985. We moved here in 1989 and since then have been through. In all of those we had the same clean up and some was more, 2 took down trees, but we never had damage to our house.

This one was the scariest but might have been because we are both in our 80's and unable to cope as well. After all the others we cleaned it all up in 1 to 2 days.

these are all labels of our trials by hurricane. From the bottom of the west coast of FL to the top of the state, the beaches are devastated. We live 7 miles from our beaches and the storm surge has shut down every west coast beach there is, many drowned in their homes. 

and now we await Hurricane Milton, who is speeding across the Gulf of Mexico aimed right at the big blue dot which is US... Ready, Aim, Fire! 

I AM NOT BACK ON THE BLOG TRAIN YET, I WANTED THIS FOR MY FUTURE REFERECNES AND WILL DO 1 OR 2 MORE. I JUST AM NOT ABLE TO READ AND COMMENT ON OTHERS BLOG AND THIS IS MORE FOR MY INFO THAN THE PUBLIC.  

WE ARE FINE.        

       Hurricane Helene side swiped Bradenton on Sept, 26 2024. At 5:39 pm Helene's eye was 100 miles from us, and she was 400 miles wide, we were side swiped by her and might not have survived is she came on shore. We have been through 6 hurricanes, 1 tropical storm in our 35 years in this house. This was the most terrifying of all of them. We had no damage to our home, we have had much more damage than this storm, but we were the lucky ones. At 6;36 we lost power, and it was down for 38 hot, humid, dark hours. From noon on the 26th the winds howled, and roared with 50 mph gusts, after dark the winds were coming in gusts to 80, that made our 100-year-old oak tree bow down to the ground, the wind made sound like a giant blowing in a giant sized coke bottle. 

I did not sleep for about 30 hours. bob slept a little, but my fear kept him awake. In the past he took his hearing aids out and slept through all the storms, this one was more ominous, and he left them in.  we are surrounded by trees; huge trees and the noise was much louder in the DARK.

I am afraid of the dark, have been since birth. the entire house was BLACK DARK, my ears working overtime. I paced, I turned flashlights on and off, we had 6 flashlights but no lantern to let burn, I lit the oil lamp but was afraid of fire for the first time ever. I blew it out. around midnight when it was at its             worst, with flashlight in hand, I gathered the 3 portable chargers and sat them and the watch I had purchased the week before (there is no clock in the house except phone and electric) on the counter and suddenly remembered this lamp is powered by USB. I grabbed it and plugged it into the little black charger, and I HAD LIGHT. I could carry it from room to room, and it was just enough, when sitting in front of the mirror in the nook, to give light all through the house. When the living room lit up, Bob came down the hall to see why we had light. 

He wanted me to turn it off, and YOU all KNOW I did not. That sweet little lamp gave me light for three nights.

If you know me well, you know that I have a scenario player in my brain that projects any and all things that could happen and probably will. I cannot turn it off.     I died by tree several times, I was trapped and not dead several times, the floods came, and I clung to trees, the phones died, and I could not call for help, there is more and none of it happened except in my mind.  

I also thought I might die from heat collapse, the heat and humidity felt HOTTER in the dark and each night I felt like I might die of suffocation. All windows were open, but no cool air.                                                                                    

 EVERYTHING IS WORSE without power! The heat/humidity was the worst part.

Beau suffered, he panted, he paced, he kept looking at me like, why am I so hot, do something. I fed him ice; I used wet washcloths to wet his face and ears. He would sleep for a while after that and then pace. He was much better off than the 3 pitties next door. They would leave the house and ride in the AC to places that had AC and food and be gone leaving the dogs shut in the house without the windows open. He told me he would give them ice water before he left.  Each time the dogs barked, I suffered with them.

We slept on wet sheets, sweating so much they were drenched each night

I cooked the meat that was in the fridge on the grill outside and put in bags. we bought 3 bags of ice each day, and I kept a cooler with water bottles and a few things, and a bag in the freezer to keep the meat I cooked. I DID NOT Eat any of it because I did not trust it. I have never cooked on our propane grill, but had to do it, and I am terrified of propane, Bob turned it on and off for me, but what a mess i made cooking frozen fish and frozen philly cheese steaks on an aluminon pan. I will purchase a pot/pan just for sitting on the grill because the storms are coming more and more often.

We lost about 700 dollars' worth of food in the fridge. Beaus' yogurt, 2 dozen eggs, 1 gallon milk, 1 gallon soy milk, 5 different cheeses and a door full of condiments.         the fridge was full because I had bought things 3 days before.

If that was no bad enough, my phone advised me DO NOT DRINK THE WATER. Boil it first. We still can't drink the water; they filled it with Clorine.

Added to that we found that Beau will not drink bottled water, I boiled water every day so he could drink it, and at first, he did not want that, but did finally get used to it.   All of our other dogs drank water from the pool if outside and were not picky about the taste.     

I AM NOT BACK ON THE BLOG TRAIN YET, I WANTED THIS FOR MY FUTURE REFERECNES AND WILL DO 1 OR 2 MORE. I JUST AM NOT ABLE TO READ AND COMMENT ON OTHERS BLOG AND THIS IS MORE FOR MY INFO THAN THE PUBLIC.  

WE ARE FINE.