Surviving Hurricane Matthew

What an exciting few days. Living on the East coast of Florida put us right in the path of Hurricane Matthew. My daughter-in-law, Becky, and my grandkids, Sofia, who is 13, and Anderson, who is 9, had planned a trip down here from KY since it was Fall break up there. Her niece was flying in from California and her sister was flying in from Michigan and they had plans on staying in Cocoa Beach, going to the Halloween party at Disney World and then to Universal. Matthew really changed up those plans. Cocoa Beach, along with all of the barrier islands, was evacuated so the beachside condo was out. Since the hurricane was scheduled to hit Thursday night the Halloween party at DIsney wasn't going to happen either. And her sister was flying in on Thursday so that didn't happen. They did manage to go to Magic Kingdom on Wednesday and because of the hurricane coming the park was not crowded at all. They were with me Thursday night during the hurricane and then Friday they went to Orlando and got a hotel room so they could get to Universal early this morning (Saturday) before they flew home this evening. What an adventure.

I have lived here almost 50 years and this hurricane had me a bit worried. I have plywood for the windows. My son, Jason, came over on Thursday morning to help put them up. I don't have plywood for the windows on my sun porch so I wasn't in total darkness. Once the plywood goes up it gets very dark in those rooms that are covered.

See the hole in the middle of the plywood on the right? It's the kitchen window and the hole is for looking out into the front yard to see what is happenig. 

Early into the heavy rains I realized the ceiling in my spare bedroom closet was cracked and water was dripping in the closet where my most treasured Christmas decorations and some stamping supplies are stored. We quickly moved everything out of there and into my stamp room which was a good thing because a little later the ceiling came crasing down.

My stamp room overloaded with the stuff from the other closet. What a big mess!

Our Hurricane dinner. We had not lost power . . . yet! 

I watched my backyard fence blow down.

We still had power but lots of wind and rain so there was card playing, games, reading and even yoga to pass the time away.

We did lose power at 5 AM Friday morning. And as of now, Saturday night I still don't have it back. It's so interesting that carrying a lantern into a dark room you still automatically reach for the light switch. Having no electricity means you have no air conditioning in addition to no lights. And by now food in the refrigerator is going to have to be thrown away.

After the strong winds moved on we went outside to check out the neighborhood. It was still windy and raining and quite exciting.

Later in the day we went for a drive. Some of the hardest hit areas were actually just around the corner from my house. We saw so many downed trees and power lines.

So for the second night I am staying with a friend who has gotten their power back. I am really hoping mine comes back by tomorrow. My son and daughter don't have power back yet either. And my daughter is getting married Monday morning at 7 AM in an outside wedding.  Very thankful that the hurricane has moved on and we will have a nice day for the wedding.

Today was spent cleaning up debris, fallen branches, putting the house back in order and even doing some stamping. It's been a long, hot day and I'm ready to call it a day.

Thanks for stopping by and goodnight all,