Hurricane Frances Aftermath
Well, we made it through the storm with only mild damage. But most importantly - we made it through the storm!
The screen enclosure surrounding our pool came crashing down. It laid over the pool and in the yard. To see how the winds twisted and ripped the aluminum was impressive to say the least. It was a twisted mess still somewhat connected together. The funny part is that with everything that came down, one door was left standing in the closed position. What a little trooper that door was, refusing to leave it's post. We saved it. :) What a bear to get all those pieces apart and out of the yard.
The wooden privacy fence is leaning, cracked and looks like it's ready to call it a day. It's still standing enough to keep the dogs in the yard. That's a good thing, because trying to leash 3 dogs and take them out to do their dog duties is not a fun thing.
The roof suffered some mild damage. Missing quite a few shingles. The good side of this is that we really needed to replace the roof anyway and couldn't afford to right now. Thank you Frances for at least helping us out with getting this home improvement project taken care of for us.
Riding out the storm was not a fun event - and definitely one I don't wish to do again any time soon. At 11am Saturday morning, we lost power. It was time to fire up the radio and flashlights. Throughout the day, we continued to get as many belongings as possible into waterproof containers and garbage bags. Half the time I think I walked around in circles just not quite sure what to do any more. At 8pm Saturday night, the announcement came across the radio to get into your "safe room". I wondered how safe it could really be if the roof and walls got ripped away. So off we went - 2 adults, 3 dogs and 1 cat into the bathroom closet. With no power, it quickly got quite hot in there. Throughout the night, we expanded our safe room to include part of the bathroom as well. We had a mattress nearby in case we needed to take cover under it. We set up cushions and a sheet to cover them on the floor of the closet (err, it's a walk in closet). It was about as comfortable as you can make a small space, I suppose.
By 10pm, the winds were noticably picking up speed. Every now and then we would get brave and venture out of the bathroom and into the living room. The winds and noises of objects pelting the roof were much louder out here. I kept my trips to the living room to a minimum so I didn't freak myself out too much.
As midnight drew closer, the winds were howling over the roof. Some people say it sounds like a train. I never heard a noises that I would say sounded like this. I would more relate it to the low roar of a jet - that just wouldn't let up. It seemed like non-stop hours upon hours without a break. It was a situation where you just wanted a break from the sounds just to catch your breath. Part of what makes the ordeal so difficult is that the windows are boarded up - you can't see anything that is happening. All you can do is listen to the sounds. We could hear things pelting the wood covering the windows. Every once in a while you'd hear something that was a bit louder than the "normal" sounds. Those made us nervous. Then there were the sounds on the roof. You could hear things skipping and bouncing on the roof. My mind began to conjure up images on branches and tree limbs bombarding the roof. I wonder if one would make it's way through and start causing the roof to rip apart.
By 1am Sunday morning the eye of the storm was making landfall. The radio broadcasts told people to buckle up because the worst was yet to come. We got a bit lucky around 2 or 3am since we did get a bit of the eye of the storm and we had a brief break from the chaos. We got brave and actually went into the garage to make sure everything in there was okay. We even peeked outside to see what damage there was. At this point, the screen porch was still standing (thank goodness, because if it was down at this point, I would have been freaking out during the second half of the storm). There were quite a few tree limbs and branches throughout the back yard. We actually ran out to try to place them in a more secure spot (between standing trees and the fence, wedged in there..... and some in the garage). We didn't particularly want the house to get torpedoed by these items.
The winds picked up again, so back to the safe room we went. I tried to sleep, but could only get small naps in. The second half of the storm didn't actually seem as bad to me. I think partially because I was somewhat used to the noises, and also because I was just exhausted by this point. The dogs pretty much slept through the entire thing (2 of them thanks to the fact that we gave them a mild tranquilizer that we got from the vet). I think they just liked the fact that we were all camping out together. I'm just glad they weren't nervous.
By 7am, the worst was over. The winds and rains still persisted, but the violent winds seemed to have subsided. We ventured out to see how we made out. At this point, we were able to see the damage. I think we actually took the worst damage of the neighborhood from what I can see.... but honestly, we didn't care. We were just happy we made it through.
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