That Was A Terrifying Night

Last week, Hurricane Milton slammed through our area. Ward Manor was maybe twenty miles north of the eye as it made landfall and marched across the state. The TLDR is that Ward Manor weathered the storm with minor damage. It was still terrifying to listen to that wind howling outside as we sat in the dark counting down the minutes until the worst passed.

There were some lessons learned. First, I need to make sure I test all of my gear before the fecal matter impacts the turbine. Second, I need to fill my gaps faster. Third, I need to improve my storm checklists. Still, the preps we did have in place allowed us to be in a much better position than many of our neighbors. And allowed us to have stuff to hand out when we were in a better position.

Below is the log I kept during the events.

Saturday 10/5

This is when where the “blob” started becoming dangerous. The Wife and I rely on a local weatherman we trust, and when he starts giving out warning signals, we take notice. Warning signal – hurricane likely to hit somewhere on the west coast of Florida. Where? Models aren’t sure, but damn if the track looks like it’s going right through Ward Manor’s Area of Operations. Originally it looked like a strong tropical or Cat 1. Worrisome, but we just weathered that kind of thing. Here’s the issue. If I’ve learned anything is that with a warm Gulf, storms can intensify quickly. Very quickly. A Cat 1 projected to sideswipe us was one thing. A Cat 1 crossing the Gulf on a beeline? That’s something else.

The issue was that we really hadn’t done any of the purchases that we planned out after Helene. Part of that was my misreading of Amazon’s Prime Days in October or whatever they’re calling them. I thought it started on the 6^th. No, I have no idea why. It meant I stupidly delayed the purchase of the portable AC. By Saturday, there was none that would work for us that would get to Ward Manor until after Wednesday. We pulled the trigger on the one we liked and hoped it would be here in time to help. If not, we have all our fans.

Food and water – including hurricane snacks – were topped off. Making sure every powerbank and battery were charged was started. I also started planning the shifting of our stuff so that everything comes inside Ward Manor’s walls. When did we get all this extra stuff? We also went a little spendy on some extras. I may have picked up another Streamlight Siege lantern.

Sunday 10/6

 We made the decision to call the handyman we’ve been working with to come and put up the upstairs storm screens. The downstairs ones we can do on our own, but the upstairs we need assistance. Plus, it’s a matter of better to have them up and not need them, than need them and not have them up. Since we were laying them out for the handyman, we put a couple. Which just reinforced the idea that I would like either automatic or at least pull down hurricane shutters. Stupid HOA rules.

When the handyman was putting up our screens, we found out we were ten wing nuts shy. Run to Lowe’s. Completely out. So, we ran up to Lowe’s. Completely sold out. Well, let’s try the Ace store. Fortunately, they had some. We bought what we needed to make sure there was some for others. The neighborhood FB pages were blowing up with people looking for wingnuts. We also ordered more so that we’re not in this predicament next time.

Boo – our hairless – got a bath because EBC showered him with vomit. Disgusting but somewhat hilarious.

Monday 10/7

 I had to travel up to Tampa for a work thing for going back to my old job. Since there was no gas down in our neck of the woods, I hoped to get some at a couple of stations on the way. Rolled into one station and was heartened to see no bags on the handles. That lasted until I tried to pump gas. No go. Try another pump. Nope. Try one more. Oh, hey, it has supreme. I’ll take it.

 While I was gone, BIL and SIL dropped off the portable AC we bought about a year ago. We were very grateful. We have another coming after the storm, but it was nice seeing it in the garage.

I left work a couple hours early to go prep. It was a lot of pulling stuff from around the house inside the garage. As much as I disliked it, we had to make the decision not to bring the Ward Wagon into the garage. We have too much stuff, and Manatee county suspended trash  service for Tuesday and Wednesday. The Wife and I put up the two most obstinate screens. One that was clearly cut just a bit short. New curse words were invented. We also ordered more bolts because some of ours were in desperate need of replacement. We also cleared the back porch. Damn we have a lot of stuff.

Going to bed, I was a mess of pain.

Tuesday 10/8

While we worked, we did more storm preps. Primarily, we did our laundry, and starting to put together some quick go bags. The Wife talked with her niece who lives in Bradenton. Although she wasn’t in an evac zone, she was kinda close to evac zones. The Wife finally talked her to come to Ward Manor with the great niece. Great, they’ll be behind our walls. But that’s two more people (okay one and a half since the great niece is pre-K). MIL and I made a run to the Publix across the main road for a supply run. They had the main supplies we needed, but paper towels, toilet paper, and bread were gone. They had cases of store brand bottled water, of which we picked up a couple.

This is when the track put the storm right on course for Ward Manor’s area of operations. And it looks like its projected to come into our area Wednesday night / Thursday morning. Um, yeah, that doesn’t look like we’re in for a fun night.

 Proof positive that telemarketers have no brains, The Wife and I each had someone call asking if we wanted to sell our rental property. Really? You want to give me a sales pitch while I’m trying to make sure my home is ready to weather a storm? Needless to say, The Wife and I released some pent up stress on those telemarketers.

We decided to not put up the last screen to give the cats a bit more time to enjoy the back porch.

Wednesday 10/9

 The morning was filling up the tubs and my buckets with water. We also filled up the various water bottles up for a bit more drinking water. We had a brief moment of hope when the storm bobbed south, but it quickly came back to aiming at Ward Manor AO. I spent some of the morning making videos of various rooms to record our possessions. I pulled down all the flashlights and put in batteries. I also put batteries into a cheap storm radio I picked up about six months ago only to find it wasn’t working. Feck. After this, I’m getting a better damn radio.

About 0900, we went and retrieved The Niece and Great Niece. The roads were more deserted than I expected. MCSO and state troopers were out. Much respect to those folks. They’re going to have a longer day than we will at Ward Manor. After ensconcing The Niece in one of our workstations so she can keep working, The Wife and I finished putting up the last storm screen. I put the locks on the garage door. Ward Manor was in lockdown.

MIL was nice enough to watch Great Niece for a couple of hours so The Wife and I could grab a quick power nap. Afterwards, we put down some instant dams we picked up at Lowe’s. Those were a pain in the ass to activate and put in place at the front door.

1830 – Extreme wind warning issued for our area. The storm looks like it’s coming directly at us. We’ve had a few power flickers. The Brother lost power. The Wife’s nephew lost power. Manatee county has pulled first responders off the roads.

1900 – Expect the worst to last for the next two hours. There’s something helpful and annoying about having a four-year-old who is completely oblivious to what’s going on except that she can’t go to the park.   

1945 – power goes down after several flickers

2030 – landfall south of us. Not sure if that’s going to extend our window of danger

2130 – oh good, all the fire alarms are going off. Poor vampire cat. She was scurrying around the house to find a place to hide from the noise. Think it’s a low battery in the one in mil room. Switched out and hope for the best

2300 – looks like the worst has passed. Trying for sleep

Thursday 10/10

0400 – woke up to thankfully almost no wind noise. Geek Aire fans were limping along. Craftsman fan was going. Saw that the Trop lost its roof. Nothing about water restrictions.

0600 – house woke up and morning chores done. Cracked the front door. No damage to cars or front of house. FB post reported someone did not secure their trampoline and it ended up on a neighbor’s roof.

0730 – Daybreak; did a look around the house. Some of the mounts for screens were nowhere to be seen. One of our gutters looked like the wind twisted it up pretty decent. The oak in the back yard is leaning pretty strongly, but it’s toward the pond. The trees on the other side of the pond took a hit. Some are gone from view, and a couple of the big ones are leaning at an almost 45 degree angle. The Wife and I took down the screen on the back porch to give us more light. She also took advantage of the relatively cooler temps outside to open up the front screen door.

0800 – Well goddamnit fuck fuck fuckety fuck. Guess who bought the wrong damn cord to hook up the batteries to the box? If you guessed Derek, you win the prize. Well, at least I can wheel the batteries in and we can plug stuff in. Which is good because we need to use the small drink fridge for insulin for one of the cats.

0930 – Power kicked back on. That was a hell of a surprise. Kicked the temp on the AC up a bit so The Wife could enjoy having the screen doors open for a while longer.

 1030 – Take the great niece to the local park to let her blow off some steam while the ladies of the house went to a local coffee cart. Ward Manor came off extremely light compared to some of my neighbors. Not outright destruction, but siding was torn off, trees knocked flat, and other damage.

1130 – The Brother asked if he could come down due to his place having neither power nor water. While he was traversing down to Ward Manor, we were busily trying to get our house back in order.

1630 – We have an early dinner. Niece and Great Niece will stay with us for at least another night as they have no power at their apartment. BIL and SIL report their power is back on. The Wife’s nephew and his wife are still without power. We lent them our portable air conditioner as they have a generator and some power banks.

Friday 10/11

While The Brother, The Niece, and me worked at the day jobs, The Wife went to check on a friend who she hadn’t heard from since the storm.  It was disconcerting to have her out of contact for that long. After work was more putting the house to right. We also received word that trash would be picked up on Saturday. No yard waste, no recycle, just the trash. The Brother received word from his roommates that the house had water and power, so he departed after dinner.

Places were starting to open, but with limited supplies and staff. The big issue was where to get gas and where to get groceries. Gas stations had lines that were measured in tens of minutes waits. Some had Manatee County Sheriffs Office out directing traffic.

Saturday 10/12

The utility that handles The Niece’s apartment complex said that they expected to have 95% of the county back online by Thursday. Needless to say, this caused some disconcerting feelings as she was not expecting to have to stay with us for over a week. Looking at people desperately hunting gas made me feel glad that: 1) all the workers in the house are teleworkers, and 2) I decided to go with batteries instead of a generator.

An interesting note was the sighting of an osprey in the trees behind the pond. First time I’d seen an osprey in our neck of the woods.

Sunday 10/13

About midday, The Niece saw her home network come back up, which meant her apartment had power. It was then furiously pack up and take her over to pick up the car from her SO, so that she could head home. While The Wife and MIL were running that errand, the handyman came by and took down the upstairs screens.

By1500, Ward Manor isn’t fully back to pre-Milton, but it’s close enough.