Hurricane Ian 2022: our first Florida hurricane

 Last week was a blur. 

Anticipating Hurricane Ian was more horrifying than the hurricane itself, at least for those of us in Central/Western Florida. It arrived on Wednesday evening 7-8 PM, and it left the next morning sometime after 2-3 AM. I know because I did not go to sleep until after 3 AM, when I knew for certain that the wind gusts and the howling had died down for at least an hour. 

On Monday evening, my 26-yo, who lives in Venice, Florida, decided to come stay with us, even though by that time, we were being told that Hurricane Ian was headed for Tampa. We live 24 miles east of Tampa, but far enough from any threat of storm surge. Now that the storm is over, he made a very wise decision to stay with us because the hurricane made a sharp right, just south of Venice, which was also hit hard and is still dealing with flooding.

Tuesday was a day of anticipation. We did not do school because we focused on last minute preparations and a lot of communication with people not in Florida. We had food, drinking water, flashlights, ice, and gasoline for the generator. We brought all the loose items on the covered patio into the house and garage. We locked up the sheds. We brought in the garbage pails. I prepped some food that we could eat without having to cook.

Some of our neighbors were covering their windows and putting sandbags in front of their doors.  

Not the hurricane. Just a usual afternoon in Plant City.

My husband had to be at work all day Tuesday, and by the time he came home, it was pouring. That's  normal. I felt better when he told me they decided to close the plant Wednesday. 

Wednesday morning a little wind and rain arrived. 

This was 8 AM.

I expected there to be more rain, like a pouring down rain. Only the wind picked up. 

This was 11 AM. 

Three hours later, it increased; and this is still not Hurricane Ian.

I think I started getting nervous because some people (not in Florida) were sharing their own fear. It was not encouraging. And I was listening to the news coming from my father's TV in his room, and they weren't helpful either. Very sensational. Their predictions were that this was going to be the most deadly hurricane in Florida's history. The image of the path of Hurricane Ian, in deadly RED, covered the entire center of Florida, which panicked those particular people outside Florida, who brought it right back to me. 

When I was young, I experienced a hurricane while living in New York City, but I never remember being afraid. Now I was full of anxiety. I worried about the roof coming off. I worried about the walls crashing down. One person asked why we did not get out of there, when there was nothing we could do about it now. I considered all of my neighbors who were sheltering in place. Surely they knew something. 

But in the end, as the winds became stronger, I drew strength from reading my Bible and praying. I kept in touch with a friend back in California, via text, who was very encouraging. Also, another sister in Christ called me and reminded me that King Jehoshaphat, who called on God because he did not know what to do, but his eyes were on God, was instructed by God to send his choir to the front lines where they sang praises to God. Then God completely destroyed their enemies. And I knew I needed to just look to God and praise Him in order to remove this silly fear of the unknown. And so I did many times that night. 

Now, this was the last time I went outside and got video. It was 5pm. There was a loud squealing noise coming from the house every time the gusts picked up, and my husband went out to see if it was coming from the roof. But he said everything looked secured. 

My kids handled this really well -- better than me -- and they played board games and actually had conversation.

Then at 7PM, the power went out. Hurricane Ian arrived.

No power, no water, no internet, and shoddy cell service. And the wind howled and the gusts picked up. We estimated that the gusts were as much as 60 mph for a time, but mostly 50 mph gusts with 30-35 mph steady wind, and coming from the High Desert in California, we are used to that.

Meanwhile, we used our flashlights, and the kids continued playing games.

If only I could have removed the sound, I may have never felt unnerved. The wind sounded like a freight train continuously going by overhead. But I must say, never once did our house shake. It was solid. And it did not rain as I had imagined. 

The kids and I tried to sleep in the living room, but it seemed to be the loudest part of the house. I put the pillow over my head to drown out the noise. When there was no more squealing racket for an hour, I discerned that the storm had moved on. It was 3:10 AM when I went to bed and slept for three or four hours. 

THE AFTERMATH

Ignorantly, I did not expect to see what we saw Thursday morning, which is odd since I was prepared for the roof to blow away. Instead, all of the damage was related to fences and vegetation. That's all. 

This tree lost a limb, which blew across the street, 

and the roots came up and it is now leaning over.

Finally, one positive outcome from the hurricane was that when the fences came down, we literally met our neighbors. No, seriously, we met a great couple next door and helped them clean up their yard. Neighbors were cleaning up their yards immediately the next day.

Hi, Neighbor!

For the next two days, I used the griddle to cook outside and to boil water to wash dishes. It truly was extra work and I was on my feet all day; I have great respect for pioneer women. 

Later Thursday, my husband and I went to find gasoline for the generator, which we used only to power the freezer, fridge, and cell phones (which were useless because if you wanted cell service you needed to stand out on the leech field in the yard), and we found one neighborhood gas station that still had gas and long lines, and everyone was ornery. We filled up our gas cans and got out of there quickly. 

Overall, we went without power and water for 48-hours. When the power went on, Friday night, it was like Christmas Day. We had water! We washed dishes, ran the dishwasher, and took showers! 

Unfortunately, many people are still without power even today. And still many have it worse. 

My husband said we learned a lot of lessons this last week. I learned that we have more than we even deserve. 

And I also learned that I'm no pioneer woman.