REALITY CHECK BY ARLENE CZECH SURVIVING HURRICANE IRMA
Our story begins just before September 1st. Irma was running along the Islands below Florida—but we were warned she might come up to us. No problem, we thought: weve been through Andrew, Charlie, and Wilma before. Wilma was the worst for us a Category 3 with winds of 135 mph and some rain. After Andrew I had roll down shutters put on
all existing doors and windows except the garage. So far the house has had no serious damage.We had some damage from Wilma as the neighbor’s sections of wood- en fencing came out of the ground and flew in one piece against my aluminum shed and my doggie screen porch. No damage to either. Sooo being confidant we would be able to “weather” this one we moved all the loose items from around the outside. Not having a pool, we didn’t need to worry about water levels, etc. Irma meanwhile continued to push through the various small islands and came upon Puerto Rico and Cuba as a Cat. 3, 4, and 5 storm. It varied with where she was, land or water. Upon hitting the water between Cuba and the Keys our weathermen became very nervous as to her behavior. They felt that the warm water would help her build strength and she did! As a Cat 4 inflicting much damage she exited Cuba and entered the Straits between Cuba and us. She came into the Keys as a Cat 5 and then aimed up to Marco Island and Naples. Now, the weathermen are scaring us with predictions of flooding when she comes. They estimated as much as 15 ft. of storm surge would come in on the beaches where we live. Back in the 60s when Donna came ashore on our street she only came up to the middle of the second block, and we are at the end of the third. No problem we say, but the TV is demonstrating how this still will happen. So for the first time we are evacuating. 15 ft. is just too high for me! Dog friends 10 miles inland invited us to join them. Shelters were not accepting dogs, except for the handi- capped—besides we have more than one. They had 16 where we were going, so no problem. So we packed up the Van with food, clothes, etc. and got in. It would not start! Never fails, luckily we also have a Honda Fit for run- ning around locally, and unbelievably the dog crates and all supplies and suitcases were neatly tucked in the Fit and so off we went! This was two days before Irma hit us. The weathermen warned us that we would be right in the eye of Irma! Irma had a diameter of 200 miles so she covered
all of south Florida. The eye was to come in on Marco Island and go straight up through Downtown Naples. The home where we stayed had Hurricane Windows and I can attest to the fact they are great! We could watch from inside and believe me the 149 mph wind of the North wall of the eye was unbelievable. Up until the eye came the Cat 3 storm lashed at us, the power went out and trees were flying all over, breaking down or being uprooted, making a mess. There were fences flat down or torn apart, roof shingles flying and pieces of houses torn off. When the North wall got past us the eye came. Hardly any rain or wind and the sun came out briefly. I have always heard this but now I believe it. We even took all the dogs out to go and then right back in after about an hour for the rest of Irma’s South wall. From that point on it was a matter of just weathering the rest of Irma. The surge was still predict- ed for 15 ft. However, it never happened. It was just a mere 1-2 ft surge, Thank Goodness. Power was out, wires were down everywhere and the tree branches littered the roads as well. Our friends had generators they ran for 5 days to keep up some semblance of normalcy and it worked. Hours later after Irma passed through we were able to see the damage and it was mas- sive. Weathermen advised us not to try to go home due to the danger of power wires down. It was extremely nerve- wracking, not knowing how our house made out but we waited one more day. The next day we and the man of the house we were in went to our house. Delighted it had very little damage. Don’t get me wrong our shingles were all over, but nothing
162 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , N OVEMBER 2017
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