topic JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE in Community Chat

JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Mindy D — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:46:41 GMT

I'm in the Miami area. Just north of there, in Broward County, Florida. We were expecting a direct hit from a Category 5 Hurricane Irma. Thank G-d the storm veered slightly west. I have 29 giant windows on my home and no shutters or impact glass. Accordion shutters were about 30K when I priced them years ago. We've been thinking about impact glass, but it costs so much. We were set to sleep at our next door neighbors', as they have steel window panels. This is really just a moot point if the eye of a Category 5 hits you. A Cat 5 means TOTAL DEVASTATION. We are so lucky. The eye passed over one of the keys, Cudjo Key. We haven't found out if anyone stayed behind and was killed. I hope not. We were without power until last night. There was no breeze and the indoor temperature was the worst in my many years of after hurricane experienced. We were going to drive to a friend's home that had power, but our oak tree fell into the street, blocking all the residents in. We couldn't leave until we found someone to remove the tree. We waited and waited. When the tree was cleared; my husband went outside to start the car and the car wouldn't start. At that very moment our power came on. My husband had become sick with heat exhaustion. This illness has nothing to do with exhaustion. It's brought on by exposure to high heat and loss of body fluids and electrolytes. It causes vomiting and other symptoms. The next step would be heat stroke. Heat stroke is much more serious and kills quickly. It has nothing to do with stroke. You could hear the screams of joy from the open windows on our block when the power came on. People were dizzy and throwing up. To make matters much worse, our water was under a boil water order, so we've had no water to wash with. We have enough bottled water for drinking. We were lucky. The stores were out of water. Our water is not expected to be safe for an estimated 48 hours. The day before the storm, my husband's older iPhone died. The guys at the local AT&T were due in to board up the store. They helped my husband get a new IPhone 7S. Thank G-d again. During the storm our DIRECTV satellite dish flew off somewhere. They'll be here to give us a new one on 9/23. It's great to use the cell phone and an iPad for watching TV...we get Directv on them even without the dish being hooked up. Luckily, we took out cash before the storm because ATMs were out of money or not working where power outages were and bansk were closed. A few eateries have opened, but they are cash only and people have run out of food. We have to throw out all of our refrigerated foods. Luckily we had gotten some gasoline. Many couldn't get gas at all. We couldn't get C or D batteries; everywhere we went was sold out and we went to get them early. Our storm radio was a great thing to have. The battery candles from Candle Impressions were awesome. The old towels I keep for water coming in helped. We have some costly damage. We have insurance, but I'm not sure what this will cost. We got our first mail yesterday. A bill! Of course, what else would you expect. My husband is at a friend's in Dade County showering and hopefully getting his car fixed by our friend. I have no idea where anything in our house is right now. I hurriedly packed for an evacuation that could last weeks. We scrambled to put things in plastic bags to protect them all over the house. We searched all over for papers we'd need if we were gone awhile. We even protected the ashes of our parents. We brought down many items from the second floor. I scrambled to transfer valuables to luggage to take with us. My prayers are for everyone that went through Irma or Harvey. Even through all this I AM SO HAPPY TO BE ALIVE.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

stellabystarlight — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:31:07 GMT

Yes, you are so lucky to be alive. From reports I am hearing, the West Coast of Florida may not get power for another 3 weeks. How those people must be suffering! What a catastrophe - just hope it never happens again! Stay well and safe!

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

MalteseMomma — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:40:34 GMT

My heart,thoughts and prayers are with you all {{{{{hugs}}}}}

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

qvcfreak — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:46:00 GMT

Praise God that you and your DH are ok. It could've been much worse. Think positive and hang in there. It can only get better.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Kachina624 — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:50:52 GMT

Sounds like you've had quite an experience, and one you'll not want to repeat anytime soon. Hope your life will soon be back to normal and thanks for relating your experience.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

OfCourse — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:54:34 GMT

All the best to you and your husband, @Mindy D!

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Mominohio — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 23:21:28 GMT

@Mindy D

I'm so glad you are alive and well, and so very sorry for what you have experienced. I'm sure that even though the worst is over, you still have a long road ahead of you in repairs and getting back to normal. I hope all goes as well as it possibly can for you and everyone that has been affected by these unbelievable storms.

You noted so many things in your story, that I hope others will read and learn from. I'm in no way chastising you as your sharing here could be of much help to others, but there were so many things that you did not prepare properly for, and you now see the light and how important it is to be proactive.

The cost of the glass and shutters sounds like something many people could not afford to do. That is totally understandable, as we all have only so much money to work with, and storms like this aren't usually so far reaching and severe, it would seem that there would always be something more pressing to do with limited funds than that.

Your story, and that of others on these boards the last couple of weeks, really brings to point though, that so many people wait till a disaster is on the horizon before they do the simplest things.

Batteries, water, gasoline reserves at home, cash reserves at home, food that needs little or no preparation, generators and the like are not going to be plentiful once a storm has been spotted and is in the forecast. It is the same here with ice storms and snow storms.

I hope more people after watching these disasters unfold on television (or living through them) will be more proactive and not wait to get things like this in order, and have a regular stock of such things. I am glad you had the flameless candles, as we have used them in power outages too and they give me great comfort to have safe lighting (not worrying about actual flames left burning overnight) all through those totally dark nights.

Preparedness has been such a bad word, and people who live by it have been ridiculed in the past, but I think many will take stock of doing things differently in the future.

We all have to make plans and contingencies. We have to know the things in our area that many give us the most cause to have to be prepared and set a plan in place.

I can sympathize with you dealing with everything a jumble and a mess right now, as you had to pack up and move so many things, hoping to avoid the water and wind. We had some horrible rains here this summer, and I was afraid the lower level of my home was going to take on water, and had to move a number of things up higher in the house. It seemed to disrupt things quite a bit and seemed to take much longer to put back together than it did to tear it up! I wish you an easy time getting things sorted and back in place.

Your statement about having to look for important papers should be a good warning to others too. Several years ago, I went through the several places we kept our important papers, went through them and discarded so many things that we really didn't need, and made one file folder for those most important (wills, birth certificates, SS cards, titles to cars, deeds to property, insurance information and policies etc.). I now keep it in the safe, and everyone in the house knows where it is , what is in it, and it is now easy to grab if we must leave quickly, or will be safe (hopefully) during a fire.

Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I'm sure it will open the eyes of many, to consider things they never even thought about before, because of your harrowing experience.

Prayers for everyone going through this nightmare.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

GCR18 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:43:53 GMT

Great news. You can't take life for granted. Most stuff can be replaced. I read in the paper that eight people in a nursing home died. I think it was in Holiday. They had no electricity, the windows were closed and it was extremely hot. It's not known if they had a generator and it quit. The police are looking at pressing charges.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Poodlepet2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 11:11:28 GMT

@Mindy D, so glad you made it! I am writing from the West Coast in Punta Gorda: we had to evacuate at the last minute because of storm surge that never happened....thank G#d!!!! We didn't lose electricity which is amazing.

Mindy, the whole state is a mess. Places are beginning to flood that hadn't flooded before because of sheet flow. Tourism-which our state and the Carribean lives on-is gone.

It's a different Florida.....

First things first....now that your AC is on, get some sleep. We lost power at my son's where we evacuated to, and I'm still catching up on sleep I think....or maybe it's minor depression setting in.

At least after Charley, we could take haunts to other places to escape the destruction here...once again, the entire state has taken a hit-North Florida is flooding!

We will make it through this MindyD: the biggest problem is getting gas and supplies through.

Love and Hugs,

Poodlepet2

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

AuntG — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 11:14:35 GMT

Yes, so glad for you too.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Poodlepet2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 11:15:38 GMT

@GCR18, the event at the nursing home happened in Hollywood Florida: it's horrendous. The mayor is launching a criminal investigation. That nursing home had 30 citations against it including failure to maintain a backup generator.

There is a Holiday Florida located on the West Coast in Pasco County. Hollywood is on the East Coast.

Hugs,

Poodlepet2

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

dex — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 13:11:22 GMT

I am happy that you at least have power and that you can begin to put your life back together...you survived a nightmare and I had no idea how bad it was and still is for the people who lived it until you posted.I hope that there will be a lot of help for everyone that needs it and that your life can get back to normal soon.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Zhills — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 14:14:31 GMT

Winn Dixie yesterday afternoon. Without power since IRMA.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Zhills — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 14:49:07 GMT

A couple of things popped into my head today as I started to reflect on Irma coverage.

1) The national media is not the place to turn to for reliable coverage of an approaching hurricane. The depth is simply not there. It's all about loud music, flashy graphics, and gloom and doom. They are not concentrating on how a hurricane is going to impact YOU. The coverage is way too much big picture, and not nearly enough Tampa Bay. I guess that's fine if you are in Missouri, but if you live here. Local news is the way to go.

2) There are no Indians or Chiefs protecting Tampa Bay from getting hit by a hurricane. It's a nice local legend, but when a storm is churning south of us, all bets are off.

3) I am proud of all of you for your awareness and your preparedness. There was a true feel of worry and concern last week, but I would not classify it as panic. When a hurricane approaches. Be a pro. We live in Florida. Hurricanes are part of our deal. Be prepared. Have a family plan. Don't buy into hype and hysteria. It is just wasted energy that should be used to get your family ready!!

4) Thanks to Irma, I've been sleeping like a college kid this week. Up every day at Noon. Need to get back into a normal groove We all do!

WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Poodlepet2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 16:16:38 GMT

@Zhills-agree aabout local news: best source for news-if you can get it!

Hugs,

Poodlepet2

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

LolaMontez — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 16:34:12 GMT

Glad you and your husband made it thru the storm OK.

We are on the West Coast about 60 miles north of Tampa in Hernando County.

We were in a mandatory evacuation area and went to a shelter that accepted pets. It is a school that is built to withstand storms and tornadoes.

They put all the pets in crates in one hallway away from the people. We all had to take care of or own pets. The sound was deafening when all those cats and dogs got started howling. Yikes! I don't think my Yorkie has recovered yet. The power went out Sunday night and we didn't get it back until late Wednesday afternoon. Many people around us still don't have any power and there is lots of flooding from the rising Withalacoochie (sp?) River that is causing some people to have to go to shelters even today. There are promises that all the power will be back on by Sunday night for our area.

TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR FOOD COLD:

We don't have a generator, so before the storm, I started freezing as many bottles of water as I could stuff in my refrigerator-freezer. I did have some meat in there and didn't want to lose it. The larger the bottles the better, but I used large, medium and small. . . whatever I could stuff into the space. I put them in the door, too.

When we returned home on Monday with the power out since the night before, everything in the freezer was still frozen. I removed two bottles from the freezer and put them in the refrigerator and kept doing that as they melted, leaving the cold water in the fridge, too. Believe it or not, we did not lose any food at all. Everything stayed cold or frozen from doing this. I did throw away a small bottle of mayo just to be safe and some veggies that were past their prime, but that's it. Even the milk stayed cool enough! I was amazed this worked so well so I thought I would pass it along.

I also have a butane stove that I used in the kitchen for coffee and breakfast and a coleman camp stove and coleman oven that I cooked on out in our screen room when it got too hot to cook in the house. We had scrambled eggs, salmon, pork chop hobo meals, and chicken. I took all these meats frozen from the freezer as the days wore on trying to use them up before they defrosted, but they were frozen when I took them out.

We were in a boil water zone, so I boiled tap water for washing dishes in a small dutch oven and filled the other side of the sink with cold tap water and added bleach to it.

We had plenty of bottled water to drink. We were hot, but kept ourselves cool with cold showers -- it's ok to shower with tap water during a boil water order -- just don't drink it. We also had washclothes that we kept wet and cooled ourselves with. The dog even allowed me to put one over her and she stopped panting. You can also put your feet in a container of water to cool yourself a bit. We sat quietly by the open window and listened to the local news station and suddenly the power came back on. YAY!

When the power came back on, I removed the bottles from the freezer and put them in one side of my double sink to thaw so I could empty them. The one gallon water bottle took all day and night to thoroughly thaw even sitting in the sink (ac was on by this time).

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Poodlepet2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 17:34:20 GMT

@LolaMontez, we lived in Pasco-Gulf Harbors-but looked in Hernando. How's the water running there-high?

I always remember sewage being a problem-especially by this one fish house we used to go to that was a landmark.

Our pups are still spooked but stayed by our sides during the duration. We too had to evacuate at the last minute, and thankfully our son had a high safe house in Cape Coral. Getting out of there was another issue: when Harvey was making landfall, our neck of the woods experienced historic flooding, so going into this, we had saturated ground.

I remember many people who had waterfront in Hernando had houses for wild parakeets: did they return?

Glad you are ok: please keep in touch!

Hugs,

Poodlepet2

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

LolaMontez — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:05:02 GMT

@Poodlepet2 wrote:
@LolaMontez, we lived in Pasco-Gulf Harbors-but looked in Hernando. How's the water running there-high?
I always remember sewage being a problem-especially by this one fish house we used to go to that was a landmark.
Our pups are still spooked but stayed by our sides during the duration. We too had to evacuate at the last minute, and thankfully our son had a high safe house in Cape Coral. Getting out of there was another issue: when Harvey was making landfall, our neck of the woods experienced historic flooding, so going into this, we had saturated ground.
I remember many people who had waterfront in Hernando had houses for wild parakeets: did they return?
Glad you are ok: please keep in touch!
Hugs,
Poodlepet2

I am near old town Brooksville on Route 41 in Hernando and we are pretty much back to normal with not too much damage in our neighborhood. Lots and lots of trees came down on power lines and that is still not all resolved. Trucks came from as far away as Illinois and even Canada and Texas to help get the power back on. The water is still rising and flooding out homes along the Withlacoochie River. They are being evacuated to a shelter right now. We had to drive through some pretty deep flood water to get home from the shelter because we missed a turn and got lost like dummies. We did have a boil water order, but that has been removed now. I don't know anything about the wild parakeets. I don't think the grocery stores and restaurants are fully operational and read online that our Winn Dixie store is still closed. I fully expected our house to be gone when we got home, but we got lucky, praise the Lord.

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

Poodlepet2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:25:50 GMT

@LolaMontez, I loved Brookesville: we looked there but it was too far out from DH's employment at the time....I remember it as being "hilly"-and the beginning of horse country.....are you in a subdivision or in "the country"?

Praying for Our Dear State and Texas,

Poodlepet2

Re: JUST SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE

GCR18 — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:21:16 GMT

@Poodlepet2 wrote:
@GCR18, the event at the nursing home happened in Hollywood Florida: it's horrendous. The mayor is launching a criminal investigation. That nursing home had 30 citations against it including failure to maintain a backup generator.
There is a Holiday Florida located on the West Coast in Pasco County. Hollywood is on the East Coast.
Hugs,
Poodlepet2

@Poodlepet2 yes, that's it. I had my Hollywood and Holiday mixed up. My parents had a condo in Pasco county, so I had a general idea where it was. Awful. I wonder what would have happened if they didn't call an ambulance for someone. It's just too close to home. I had to admit my younger sister to a nursing home this year. She's in CT though.