Hurricane Irma

We did a lot of cleaning before the storm hit and took pictures of every room in the house in case we needed to document our stuff later for the insurance company. This is how the boys have spent the entire weekend - insisting on a slumber party in their big brother's room. 

Sunday morning the authorities wanted us to keep people off the road, so Daryl did a Facebook live video from our living room to broadcast out to church folks, reflecting on Psalm 46. 

The power went off here about 9:30pm on Sunday night. And then later the storm shifted. Facebook on our phones was how we were getting updates. Instead of heading for Tampa as we thought earlier in the day, Irma came straight up the spine of Florida and the eye went over us in Lake County. Hands down it was the worst hurricane experience of my 36 years in Florida - the pounding wind and rain was scary, especially when one of our pine trees fell down the side of our master bedroom about 11:30pm. Daryl and I were still awake when the eye went over us and the total quiet - no wind and no rain - after all the noise was too eerie. 

When Monday morning came, we realized that thankfully our storm damage was minimal. Two big sections off the top of one of our pine trees fell. One got caught in our tree line and the other bigger piece only damaged one small section of fence and a tiny section of rain gutter. Lots of limbs and branches down throughout the yard. We spent most of the day cleaning up the front yard. 

We took the dog for a walk later in the day throughout the neighborhood and up to the church. We lost our neighborhood sign - Lantana Estates. Most of the neighbors had the same kind of minimal damage we did. Lots of trees down, but most of them missed people's houses. Thankfully the only damage to the church seems to be a section of fence that fell into our retention pond and some soffit and fascia damage in between our preschool and our Family Life Center. 

With no power in the house, Daryl fired up the propane grill and warmed up soup and toasted bread in our driveway for dinner! 

Tuesday morning dawned and still no power. Estimates from the power company were saying it would be another 5-7 days before we got it back. We did our best to make arrangements for calling off some church activities by cellphone and email and trying to arrange a contingency plan for Sunday worship. We also did some more yard cleanup - one of the church trustees swung by the house with his chainsaw and chopped up our tree mess in the backyard! So thankful for Michael. 

And shortly after that, Granddaddy arrived with a generator and gas all the way from Tampa! It was awesome to power up the refrigerator, a couple of fans and charge up all of our tech.