Survive a hurricane (Conclusion)

It is never easy to make a decision about what to do in a situation like a hurricane. Life is the most important thing. Survive. I had watched the movie "Cast Away" on HBO on Tuesday. Tom Hanks' character went through a lot of shit in that movie. I realized that I would want to stay alive, and rain and wind and knocked over houses would not kill me. But I also had a cat (Pumpkin) to worry about.  I could leave her alone in the house and packed myself up and head out.  I have never traveled with her so I did not know how she would do in a cat carrier on the road. Also, where do I go?  Hurricanes are big and Tropical Storm winds (>39 mph) cover a wide swath. Just look at the radar from Thursday afternoon. We were already on the edge with rain and winds, and the eye was still 15 hours away.

Photo of my TV at 3:21 PM on Thursday

The good news about hurricanes is that you have a lot of time to think about what to do. The bad news is that you have a lot of time to think! The first thing was to secure the house regardless of whether I was staying or not.  I have hurricane awnings that I use. If I am staying, I usually park the car against the garage door. I figured 100 mph winds may have more trouble flipping the car into the house if it is already against the house. Luckily, I have never had winds that strong in the past.

Front of my house with car against garage door

The south side of my house has awnings and I was able to secure those too.  I also got out a lot of towels and sheets to place next to doors. Rain has a tendency to leak in from the strong winds blowing up against the house. I also cut back a tree on the corner of the house and trimmed back my bougainvillea. So I got the house ready and then I had to make the decision, do I stay or do I go?

BJ's house from the South East

My niece Lori was offering me a place to stay with my cat. She lives in Oviedo but I knew if the storm followed the forecast track, they were going to have hurricane force winds too. A lot of my friends on FaceBook were telling me to be safe. Heading north was out because the storm was so strong and it was heading north after it hits Florida. Most of my neighbors were staying. There was a mandatory evacuation for beach-side, but I lived on the mainland, although the ocean is only 3.25 miles away as the crow flies. I do have Elbow Creek in my back yard so storm surge could bring water up to the back of my house. And then I made my decision, I was going to stay and ride it out, even though it was a Category 4 and heading right towards us.

I understand that all the channels on TV want to give out information about the storm, but it gets very monotonous after a while and they repeat themselves over and over again. Plus, it does not help with anxiety when they are telling us we are all going to die if we stay. Way to help us out! Don't you think we are questioning our decision? Don't you think that anxiety is high? Why don't you ask me to come stay in your luxury mansions in Orlando instead of threatening me with death? I had to watch something else.

Two things helped me get through this wait for the storm. One was FaceBook. Being able to post about the situation was nice and my friends giving me support and encouragement were even nicer. I thank them all! The second thing was having a DVR with some shows to catch up on. Marvel Agents of SHIELD and Westworld were two I watched. It allows me to escape the impending doom for a moment.

But, I needed to keep informed of the storm's current progress too. The winds were getting stronger (over 30 mph) and were starting to howl. Kind of eerie. The newscasters were starting to say how a major hurricane had never hit Brevard County and the Space Coast in the history of storm tracking.  It was like the sportscaster saying that a Field Goal kicker has a string of 76 PATs, or the golfer has not miss a 3-foot putt in 14 rounds. They jinx them and the kicker or golfer misses to stop the string. This was like that, they were going to see history made with this storm named Matthew. Then Matthew had a wobble. I had posted a photo of the storm at 11 PM and made a comment on FaceBook that the small movement may have saved us.

Hurricane Matthew at 11 PM on October 6 with a jag to the East

At one in the morning of Friday, my power went off. I knew it was going to happen and I was prepared with flashlights, lamps and even candles. But my phone still had power and I still had access to social networks and the internet. Of course, my WiFi was down but the phone towers were still standing. I was able to post and message family and friends. A lifesaver for sanity as the howling was getting louder and the trees were whipping around so much they looked like they would not make it. Lots of them did not.

I had checked at 2 AM the NWS forecast for Melbourne. Six hours earlier they had the top winds at 110 mph at 7 AM. Now they had them at only 68 mph at 7 AM. The worse was still to come but it was not even hurricane force. It looks like the eye was staying out in the ocean. I knew things were better so I decided to get some sleep. It is hard to fall asleep when the house is creaking from the winds.  The great news for my house was the winds were out of the North.  All my neighbors were lined up on the North side, taking the brunt of the hurricane winds.

I kept checking the house every two hours for leaks. I wanted to be able to cover any holes before they got worse. Everything was looking great. The morning came and the storm was leaving. I had survived. We were lucky or maybe we just are never going to get hit by a Major Hurricane. I always wondered if the Cape existed from thousands of years of storms coming up the coast and turning to the east...

Now it was time to assess the damage...

My backyard had lots of branches

My neighbor to the South had two palm trees laid down on his house by the storm

I had one branch of my bottle brush tree knocked out

Elbow creek was much higher than normal

My neighbor to the North had a new pond from Elbow Creek overflowing

Elbow Creek was so high that the neighbors to the south had a manatee in the water behind their house. Usually, it is just a drainage ditch with not much wildlife. This manatee had to swim through the pipe that goes under Laurie Street. I hope it swims out before the water recedes.

I am not saying I made the right decision or not, but things worked out this time. It is hard to explain the anxiety of waiting for the storm. I have included a track for Matthew. It appears the eye of this storm could see, avoiding all land masses in its way. Between Cuba and Haiti, left of the Bahamas, right of Florida. I am thankful! Matthew did not have his eye on Brevard...

Hurricane Matthew Track