The Evil Princess and I have had good luck ducking bad weather. Sometimes we were out of town teaching when the hurricanes hit, and sometimes our town was in the crosshairs of one and then it diverted.  This time, it hit dead center at Category Three, and with magnum force: the strongest storm in these parts since they started keeping records.

We had to be elsewhere, working on a homicide case. We arrived home two days after the storm.

We were lucky again. Some damage to siding, carport torn up, a few trees down and no target frames left standing on the range.  Alba the rescue dog was safely ensconced within the brick walls of the best boarding kennel in the area. Power was out in most of the area, but ours came back on within hours of our return.

The Emergency Response Team was out in force, and did a wonderful job.

Trees were down, taking power lines with them.

The President came to view the damage and make a speech.

Our hearts go out to the many people who were hit harder than us.

In the aftermath, I was chatting about it with another resident who happened to be an atheist.

Me, speaking in gratitude: Thank God.

Atheist: Thank the Emergency Response Teams.

Me: They’re angels as far as I’m concerned.

Atheist: No, they’re electrical engineers and technicians!

Me: Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to…

18 COMMENTS

  1. I spent 40 years in Florida watching spaghetti models every year as it filled up with too many people. I don’t miss it one bit & will take the occasional blizzard any day.

  2. The power crews from all the surrounding states are to be commended. When disaster strikes, they are already mobilized and ready go to support recovery in the affected areas.

  3. Mas, I am glad that you and the EP managed to “slip the punch” of the storm once again. Hopefully, that cat will continue to grow more lives! 🙂

  4. Mas, good to hear y’all are safe and sound. Things can be replaced, people can’t.

    From a lifetime of living on or near the Texas coast, hurricanes are a familiar part of my life experiences. Hurricane Ike left me without power for two weeks in the hot Texas summer. No AC, not even a fan. Many a can of beans were eaten during that time at room temperature. Luckily we had not lost running water which in my experience is more important than electricity. I still count my blessings.

  5. We’ve been watching the news here in the UK and i was thinking that i hope you both were okay and thankfully you are.

  6. Glad you’re on the minimal damage end of things. Our thoughts and prayers 🙏 were coming your way when we watched the path of the storm. We were very fortunate in Deland.

  10. The following is my opinion.

    God is responsible for First Causes. Humans are responsible for second causes. Farmers put seeds in the ground. God makes them grow.

    An Atheist believes that everything came from nothing, that life came from non-life. It takes a lot of faith to be an Atheist.

  11. Linemen are generally the unsung heroes ~ cursed about how long they take; forgotten as soon as the power comes back on.

    But the folks who have lived “without” and learned to cope, appreciate what it takes to make all that happen. Not just the women and men on the ground, but also the ones in the background coordinating the logistics to make it possible.

    My family has lived in Grand Isle, La. since 1972 and most recently Ida smashed hell out of them. The infrastructure rebuild was monumental, but it was done and it’s now better than ever.

    Glad ya’ll made it without too much damage or loss.

    • We were in Grand Island, Nebraska, in 1980 when seven tornados came though. We had minimal damage, but our power was out for 10 days, and water and sewer for two weeks.

      The lineman who reconnected us lived three blocks away, and lost everything but his family, who were in their storm shelter. We did *not* curse him.

      Vaya con Dios, Mas.

  12. what worries me is you said the “president” came out to view the damage. i don’t think Trump was in that area at that time…

  13. Memphis doesn’t have hurricanes, but trees go down and we lose power several times a year in storms.

    Another problem is so bad here that a friend told me that a few of the linemen trying to restore power have been robbed.

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