The Florida hurricanes have been particularly relentless this year. Hurricane Debby in late August flooded our downtown office three or four feet deep, rendering the building uninhabitable at least for now, and destroyed some electronics. Our home out of town was mostly spared, some siding off and some windows broken. (As comedian Ron White says of hurricanes, “It’s not that the wind is blowin’, it’s what the wind is blowin’.”)

Less than two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene hit us harder. The roof is completely off the pole barn and one wall completely down. Pieces of the roof blew into my neighbor’s property and up into my trees, one of which makes a whistling sound when the wind hits it. “Florida wind chime,” so to speak.  Another neighbor hundreds of yards away saw his carport wind up in my front yard.  We have some trees down on the back of the property that I’m not too worried about, but my favorite live oak in the front yard is looking like Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree since Helene.

Now comes Hurricane Milton.

We were teaching in Texas and Louisiana for Debby and in San Diego for the Gun Rights Policy Conference for Helene. The Evil Princess and I are debating firing up the generator and riding this next one out, or taking the opportunity to visit relatives elsewhere. Days without power are the main vexation apart from the cost of repairs.

And hurricane season still won’t be over for a while.

36 COMMENTS

  1. I spent over 40 years in the Tampa Bay Area and we always worried about the “Big One” that would roar up the bay. Milton may, unfortunately, be it. All of the old fishing shacks, citrus groves, and vegetable farms have been turned into luxury subdivisions. If the predicted 15 foot storm surge occurs, everything west of I-75 and downtown Tampa will be under water. I pray for all my old friends and acquaintances, and hope they have evacuated or can safely shelter in place.

    • Hopefully the worst of Milton will be over for Florida by Friday morning, or sooner. Possible wobble of the storm path wants watching now. Search and Rescue may have their hands full soon. A little more help from everyone can help a lot. May God protect people and livestock.

  2. I hear ya. Lived in Florida 67 years and seen a few. This one is gonna be really bad on the coast but on the bright side you’ll be on the “good” side and it might weaken a bit before it gets to you inland as well. Stay Safe!

  3. Mas,
    Sorry to hear about the damage to your home and office.
    You can come visit April and I out in California. Yesterday was 97 degrees, but it was a “Dry Heat”.

  5. Might be good to follow the advice you always give us – Avoidance. When you know a fight or disastrous storm is imminent, simply choose to avoid it. Please don’t let a predicted act of nature take you out. Keep yourselves safe Mas.

    • True. In Florida, there is no place to hide from wind and water. No basements, no caves, no hills. To be safe, you would need to be in a metal cylinder, like a submarine, that floats.

  10. So sorry for your misfortune this season, so many friends are in the same situation or worse. A close friend closed on his home there on the 19th and his furniture arrived a few days later. After Helene left 16 inches of water in his new home, he found out his insurance policy was not in effect until October !
    Prayers and good vibes for all in this mess !

  11. Ya’ll stay safe and if any doubt, get the hell out. Milton is a bad one. Might affect the Big Bend but then again, might not. Either way, take good care. Sending positive thoughts that Milton stays away.

  13. I’m sorry to hear about your property being damaged by the hurricanes. But I am glad that you and the ‘Evil Princess’ are okay. And I hope that the next hurricane will miss your home.

  16. Sounds like an excellent time to visit people who are elsewhere located. Buildings can be replaced. People … not so much. Be safe.

  17. Category four or five. We live in Louisiana and I would not stay around if we had one that be coming in to our city.
    God bless and Godspeed.

  19. Good luck if you ride it out down there. I’ve got some family on the predicted northern section of the route Milton is taking, they’re buckling down too.

  20. Mas, I feel your pain. All my life has been spent living within 60 miles of the Texas coast and hurricanes were a headache every summer. I have been through several storms with always some property damage, but losing power (no AC) in the Texas heat is no fun. I spent two weeks after one hurricane with no power. I thought that was bad, but those poor folks in North Carolina will be doing without power for months due to the lose of the transformer and connection equipment which are not off-the-shelf items. The storm surge is lethal in hurricanes and North Carolina got its own storm surge from the sky. Pray for those folks.

    Evacuation is not always a solution either. When I was a kid, one of my Dad’s customers (South Texas) left town and took his family to San Antonio to escape the storm. They checked into a motel, unloaded the car, and then went out to eat. While they were eating supper, a tornado came along and leveled the motel. When my folks had an RV, they would load it up and drive inland about 150 miles to escape the winds. More than once while they were sitting in a parking lot eating a meal they saw tornadoes form from the storm. It’s simply a roll of the dice.

    Whatever you do, Mas, stay safe and put the odds in your favor.

    • TW,

      Your evacuation story reminds me of a Japanese man in WWII. On August 6th, 1945, he was on the outskirts of Hiroshima. He survived the atom bomb. He decided to leave the city, and got on a train. That train took him to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nagasaki. He was there on August 9th, 1945, when Nagasaki got bombed. He survived.

  21. Don’t ride leave. Someone once said “if you expect trouble don’t go”. Or something like that. But do so quickly.

  25. GLAD YOU AND THE EP ARE OK. ITEMS CAN BE REPLACED BUT NOT LIVES. YOU MAY WANT TO DO A CLASS OR TWO HERE IN AZ, WHERE IT’S ABOUT A HUNDRED EACH DAY BUT A VERY NICE 75 AT NIGHT. PRAYERS WAY UP FOR LIVES LOST AND ALL AFFECTED CITIZENS. EVERYONE STAY SAFE AS POSSIBLE !

  26. We’ve got kids and grandkids in SE Georgia. So far they’ve been bracketed. Praying their luck holds. I sure wish they were here in the Texas Hill Country.

    Vaya con Dios.

  27. Sorry about your suffering the slings and stones of outrageous hurricanes. By any chance is the oak tree just suffering from the annual loss of leaves? Hope so.

    Sort of wish a wind would blow the leaves from the oaks around my house elsewhere. Am being shelled (no pun intended) by falling acorns daily at the moment. It’s making replacing the deck floor hazardous.

  28. Checked out the Washington Times website and discovered there’s a possible indicator of when you should beat feet: the Waffle House Index. If the local Waffle House(s) are closed, it’s best to flee.

    Apparently, the chain has a rep of staying open if at all possible for the aid & comfort of the folks in their locations.

  29. Stay safe. If you need to leave, GO. I have some family members that live in Asheville, NC. We haven’t heard anything from them since Helene hit. Please, take care.

  30. I have a friend in East Tennessee who got slammed by flooding from Helene. His house is located on the side of a mountain so his home did not get flooded directly. However, Helene damaged numerous roads, it knocked out the power (for a while), it knocked out the County water service (destroyed the pumping station) for days, and it damaged some structures (including a farm bridge) on his lower property.

    He told me (via cell phone) that he has not seen hide or hair of FEMA yet. I told him that, if he was a new “immigrant”, just crossing the border, he would be on the gravy train. However, as a native-born American Citizen, he was SOL.

    Unfortunately, the American Citizen is not part of the constituency of the Democrat Party.

  31. Living on the upper Texas Coast for 57 of my 74 years, I certainly understand your feelings. Stay safe, dry and hope y’all get back on your feet soon over there.

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