Milton headin my way

[flowerseverywhere]

It looks like all of Florida will be impacted. I75 from South of Tampa to Gainesville was packed at 2:30 am when I woke up and checked. We have a lot of emergency preps done, and have checked in with neighbors.
I will have a disabled husband and mother in law to care for. I spent all day yesterday shoring up our preps.
I had gone grocery shopping early Saturday and had no problem getting supplies and filling up the car with gas. Last evening I went for supplies for an elderly neighbor. The grocery store had water, lots of canned food, milk and fresh fruit and vegetables. Of all things toilet paper shelves were clear, bread selection was low, but the deli and in store bakery were still well stocked.
Every container I could freeze water in is in the freezer. Today I will cook some food. Generally we don’t keep a lot in the freezer anyway,
we have lots of water plus two five gallon jugs. All my pots, outdoor furniture etc are in the house or garage.

last minute preps: pick up a transport wheelchair as our wheel chair is too heavy for me to get in an out of the car. Start filling all our glasses, pots and pans etc this evening. I’ll put plastic wrap over them so the cats won’t drink out of them. Take pictures of contents of each room for insurance purposes. Check for any documents to add to what is in safety deposit box. Ours happens to be near the top row. My kids have copies of all our accounts, documents and so on. Coleman stove with extra gas cans in garage. A bucket of water in each bathroom to flush toilets. Hot tub unplugged and will be source to flush toilets too. Battery/solar/crank radio working. Everything charged up and will stay on chargers. Battery packs charged.
I don’t think I have forgotten anything.

I cannot imagine what Tampa and Fort Myers will be like. They are trying to gat debris from last storm out of the streets.

expectation here are 50-75 mph gusts and lots of rain. Flooding should be widespread across the state. We are lucky to have flood insurance. Wish all of the state luck because this has potential to cause widespread destruction and loss of life.

[Tradd]

Good luck

[rosarugosa]

Oh no, Flowers. I hope you folks will be OK. It sounds like you've done a good job planning and taking all possible steps.

[Rogar]

It sounds like your preparations are well thought out. Best wishes.

[Tybee]

You are doing wonderful prep work. Stay safe!

[catherine]

Oh, please stay safe! You sound like you are as prepared as you can be.

I have good friends in New Port Richey, and I am praying for them as well.

[frugal-one]

Scary! Wishing you all the best!

[happystuff]

Wonderful prepping, flowers! Prayers and positive energy that all will be safe.

[iris lilies]

Thank you for this update. We will be thinking of you.

[littlebittybobby]

okay-------one thing: Guns N Ammo. to deter looters. Yup.

[bae]

Stay safe!

[flowerseverywhere]

3:30 am and power is on, internet fine. Everything flashing so we did have some loss. Reports are St Petersburg and Clearwater had about 18” of rain. Tampa about 10. Those areas had gusts of about 100 MPH. It is still blowing like crazy at my house, but no flooding right here. From what I can see from inside I can not see any roof tiles or downed trees. I’ll go out when the sun comes up.

there were many tornados resulting in loss of life. The East coast is getting hammered right now, and there were lots of tornadoes just about the time of landfall on the east coast as it wrapped around central Florida.

orlando has gusts of around 50 mph now.

I can’t imagine what it will be like when the sun comes up and the damage can be assessed. I fear there will be many lives lost.

[rosarugosa]

Glad you are doing OK, Flowers. I have another friend who lives in The Villages, and she seems to also be doing OK.

[Tradd]

Thanks for the update.

[danna]

Hoping all in the path are staying safe! Sending positive energy your way!

[happystuff]

Thanks for the update! Continued prayers for safety.

[iris lilies]

That is a good report.

we all know several people in Florida so we are watching this carefully.

[jp1]

Glad you’re ok flowers. Friends of mine near palm beach in Wellington had a tornado near their house but otherwise are ok and friends in Eustis (hour north of Orlando have had a ton of rain and wind. Minor damage like an external faucet getting sheared clean off by a falling tree but otherwise nothing serious.

[Tybee]

Thank you for checking in and so glad you are okay!

[gimmethesimplelife]

Yes. Glad you are OK too. And I have a friend from my days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon who lives 35 miles NE of Tampa who just pmed me that she's OK. Thank God! Rob

[bae]

I still haven’t heard from several family members who were in the path. Keeping our fingers crossed.

[jp1]

I’m Facebook friends with a couple dozen people in Florida that I went to college with but only a few are in the places worst hit There are two that haven’t yet posted on Facebook or at least commented on or otherwise responded to other posts of mutual friends. Hopefully they are ok. The only other person I know down there is one of my employees. He lives in Clearwater and was planning to go inland a few miles and stay with friends so hopefully he’s ok.

[flowerseverywhere]

There are still many without power but there were 43,000 electric trucks staged around the state

the Tropicana sports complex was to be a first responder center but they were all staying in the distant staging areas. Thank goodness because the roof was ripped off.

quite a few neighbors had roof tiles blown off. Our water is potable. Palm fronds and some trees down. We were very lucky.

say what you want about Florida, they have it together when it comes to disasters. Sand bag stations opened five days before the storm. Trucks started rolling in. Multiple shelters in each county and as they filled they would open up more. I dislike Ron DeSantis because of some of his extreme and Christian leanings, but he performs really well in an emergency. Gives concise reports and surrounds himself with experts. Press conferences frequent, informative and to the point.

[iris lilies]

Another good report flowers so thank you for keeping us up-to-date

[KayLR]

Glad you're ok, Flowers.

About 20 years ago I lived in Bradenton for a year. I loved it. That was the year of four hurricanes, one of which was Charley. I slept through it! My SO was working and I didn't think he'd come home but stay put there. I filled my bathtub, got a pillow and blanket, flashlight and a book and hunkered down in a closet. Many hours later I awoke to SO pushing the door in because I had latched the chain. I wasn't answering so he thought something happened to me. Ha! I was just sleeping. There was a lot of debris and some surge, but Charley was NOTHING compared to Milton.

Since my workplace was closed for a week, I went to the Red Cross and volunteered. (I had done my internship with them.) I took phone calls connecting people looking for family members and helped keep the shelter rosters up-to-date.

I watch Bradenton closely still because although I didn't make many friends in the year I was there, I did work with some very nice people, and I loved the nearby beaches so much. Nice city for the most part.

[flowerseverywhere]

Power outages still number close to 2 million. At the peak it was close to 4 million. All the flooded caused numerous sanitation stations to overflow or lose power and operate on emergency generators.
About 25% of gas stations have no gas. St John’s river which runs between Jacksonville to below the space center is expected to crest in a week.
there is an amazing amount of devastation on the east coast as tornadoes ripped through the Atlantic central to north coast . The gulf coast had the bulk of the damage from wind nd water. Food banks, blood banks, and volunteers continue to try to assist.
We haven’t driven far but everywhere you look there are piles of debris and clusters of roof damage and signs of flooding. The last thing crews need as they deal with the destruction are lookie loos making it more dangerous for workers trying to clean up.

although the damage from this storm was confined to Florida, the numerous Hurricanes have caused an enormous amount of damage, cost, and loss of life up through the Carolinas, Tennessee and other states. The power of Mother Nature is non dicrimatory, sweeping up and damaging everything in its path.

[Tradd]

I donated to World Central Kitchen after Helene and again after Milton.

[happystuff]

Glad you are doing okay, flowers. Sending prayers to all in the area.

[flowerseverywhere]

Thank you Tradd and everyone. What is becoming more clear to me is the current news cycles are failing in accurate reporting. On to the next click bait story

Gas is a huge problem. Many stations have no power or limited or no gas. Many around me had minor roof damage. They were getting people coming to their door offering to repair their roofs at a discount, for the price of their deductible. Several people I know signed contracts without knowing if they were legit businesses, if they had insurance and what materials they used.

when there is a storm surge and heavy flooding rain sewage, gasoline and debris is carried along into homes and people’s belongings. The absolute huge impacts of these last few storms is mind boggling.

tomorrow we have an appointment somewhat close to the worst damaged areas I’ve contacted a church close by and my neighbors and I are cleaning out our food pantries for useful items to donate as well as animal food, as we can get most grocery items here. People have opened their homes, donated money food and time to help. A good way to get items to where it needs to be are churches, especially in the poorer sections. Cuts out the middleman.

the devestation leaves me breathless as stories of the struggling and loss keep coming.

[littlebittybobby]

okay----on the topic of tropical storms-n-hurrycanes, I would like to suggest that "they"(whoever they is) plan on naming the next three hurrycanes "Barack", "Joseph", and yeah--you guessed it: "Kamala", since they are all fitting names for natural disasters. Well, aren't they? Yup. I don't see why not. Hope that helps you some. Thankk mee.

[iris lilies]

Power outages still number close to 2 million. At the peak it was close to 4 million. All the flooded caused numerous sanitation stations to overflow or lose power and operate on emergency generators.
About 25% of gas stations have no gas. St John’s river which runs between Jacksonville to below the space center is expected to crest in a week.
there is an amazing amount of devastation on the east coast as tornadoes ripped through the Atlantic central to north coast . The gulf coast had the bulk of the damage from wind nd water. Food banks, blood banks, and volunteers continue to try to assist.
We haven’t driven far but everywhere you look there are piles of debris and clusters of roof damage and signs of flooding. The last thing crews need as they deal with the destruction are lookie loos making it more dangerous for workers trying to clean up.

although the damage from this storm was confined to Florida, the numerous Hurricanes have caused an enormous amount of damage, cost, and loss of life up through the Carolinas, Tennessee and other states. The power of Mother Nature is non dicrimatory, sweeping up and damaging everything in its path.
You’re right, I can’t really contemplate what’s going on with all the damage and can’t understand the extent of the damage. but your reports do help.

[rosarugosa]

Flowers, your donation strategy is so thoughtful. I don't think many would have thought of that.

[lmerullo]

I hate to share locations on the internet, but I live in Sarasota - right where the storm made landfall.

Son is still without power. Power company just contacted him and said he'd be restored by 11pm tomorrow. There will be celebrating in the streets when that happens!

Warning to all: we have a whole house generator. It was properly installed and vented. Years later, a neighbor put up one of those white plastic fences, and then for "safety" we backed up our motor home and a covered golf cart. Totally unaware that we'd now obstructed air flow, we got very sick from carbon monoxide. this could have ended very badly, but fortunately we realized early enough to avoid disaster. First project is to construct some type of vent or chimney so that won't happen again!

Gas seems to be returning to good supply. The government is providing 10 gallons of free gas to vehicles(very grateful), but when you need to run a generator you also need to have gas in cans. We and friends have been running cans out to my son. He's sharing two generators between three homes.

The most difficult part is this is our third storm in a row and there might be another brewing. Just so thankful we all have homes that survived!

[Tradd]

Wow!

[happystuff]

Soooo glad you are all okay, lmerullo! That is so scary! Sending prayers to everyone that things get back to "normal" so.