As promised, Irma rolled through our city around midnight on 9/10 & continued howling throughout the day on 9/11. Unlike Matthew from last year, Irma's winds were stronger & the tidal surge was worse. Jacksonville & surrounding areas were badly damaged. Several downtown riverfront buildings are still closed. I think all counties in the state of FL were affected one way or another. Here are links to 2 slideshows of the damage nearby:
Nearby Beach Damage
Jacksonville Damage
Irma didn't stop w/FL she went up the gulf coast into GA as a Tropical Storm. The county where our country house is located was directly in her path.
The good news is that we were spared any damages to our home(s) & structures at both locations. We didn't have any electrical line damage in the city or the country so only without power for 3 days in the city & only about 24 house in the country (thanks for neighbors that kept us informed). We were lucky. We are in a small neighborhood in the city & a very rural area in the country & prone to be last to get power at either house.
We had generators running here in Jax (until the big one died on Wed. morning. Greg went to his shop & brought another one home). We had running water, some lights in the house, ceiling fans & could keep freezer & fridges running. If power had not been restored after 24 hours in the country I was prepared to high tail it up there w/a generator in tow. Did NOT want to lose all that beef in our big chest freezer up there.
Like last time, we had lots of limbs down & a ton of debris to pick up at Jax house.
We went to the country over the weekend to inspect things there. Like I said, house & buildings were fine but we are now without shade on the pond.
This post was originally supposed to be an update on the country tree progress. One of those that I was so proud of was one of the FL acorn oaks. It was literally a twig when I planted it never expecting it to actually live. (I planted about 10 of them & only 2 survived.) Here are pics showing 2 years worth of growth for one of them.
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| 2017 |
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| 2015 |
And, this is what it looked like when we arrived on Saturday:
The other surviving FL acorn oak had the top taken off but wasn't leaning. Also had 2 of the pine transplants blown over:
Got them all staked & hoping they will make it, especially the oak. We also had to cut away some blown down small trees in the branch blocking the driveway & of course pick up a few limbs there as well.
All in all we were very fortunate, again. Hopefully all those storms brewing in the Atlantic will keep their distance for the remainder of the season & for many years to come.
