Hurricane Irma!

Well, Hurricane Irma is one for the books.  It was the strongest Category 5 storm on record. As we returned from Williamsburg, we learned that we were in the bulls-eye for the storm.  We watched, and we waited....and we prepared.  We considered evacuating but frankly did not know whether trying to drive to Atlanta and getting stranded with no gas .... and then riding out the storm in the van with three kids.... was such a great idea so we decided to hunker down and ride out the storm.

The storm's path kept changing, first up the eastern seaboard of Florida, then straight up the western side....before in the end it fooled everyone and came straight over Orlando.  Thanks for nothing!!!

We had purchased tons of water, filled bath tubs, got food, batteries etc.  We ordered a new lantern and batteries from Amazon and paid for one day shipping....only to have UPS drop the ball and not deliver it until AFTER the storm.  Oh well, even UPS has to prepare we guess!

The weekend was fairly normal as the storm wasn't coming until Sunday night.  We diligently were doing laundry and dishes throughout Sunday in order to avoid having a lot of dirty stuff when the storm hit....only to have the power go out as we sat watching a family movie at 8:15ish on Sunday night.  GREAT.  Just prior to our power going out though, we had a fun video chat with friends all over Orlando as we all sat waiting for what the storm would bring us.  It was a fun group chat - thanks Allen!

With nothing much to do in the dark, we headed to bed.  The storm was supposed to be the worst overnight and with Hurricanes come tornados, so we decided to spend the night as close to the kids as possible in case we had to make a fast dash to the kids' bathroom (the only interior room with no windows in our house!!!).  Karis slept with Kaleb and Zachary in Zach's room while Amy and Addison slept in Kaleb's room.  Or should we say the kids slept.....while the adults laid awake listening to the storm.

For anyone who hasn't lived through a hurricane, it is hard to explain the noise and fury of the storm.  It is INCREDIBLY loud - even Zachary commented on how crazy loud it was.  In addition to the wind, rain, trees - the wind howls through the pool screen.....Add to it the frogs and animals raising a cacophony of noise.

So far, so good - this is before the winds started and the front trees behind Kaleb's head in the background were going wild, thrashing from side to side

During the middle of the night, we both got up and wandered around the house looking out windows.  At the front door, we stood watching the huge trees in our front yard whip around wildly from side to side, while the wind gusts blasted rain against our front door.  At times, we weren't sure that the front doors would hold shut.  Thankfully they did.

The next morning, we got up to assess the damage.  We were blessed - no damage that couldn't be repaired by the amazingly handy Karis Z.  A few shingles, 5-6 screen panels torn out of the pool screen and a brace bar torn apart on the pool screen.  The yard looked like a liter zone with tree branches everywhere, but after not too long the big ones could be moved out of the way and the others were "eaten" by a quick rounding of the lawn mower.  By early afternoon, you couldn't tell we had a hurricane.....

One bar, and the pool screens ripped out but all in all, it isn't too bad

Except when we took a bike ride around the neighborhood and saw tree after tree down, some on power lines, some completely blocking the roads, but thankfully hardly any on houses.  There was one area about 2-3 blocks away that had a slight depression on the road where all of the water congregated, flooding 2-3 homes in that area.  It was heartbreaking to see that.

This tree took a power line down with it

A flood amongst dryness everywhere else....our hearts went out to these folks.

The road was completely blocked with this tree

Our power remained out....10 days.  After the first day of no power (which means no water in our house because we are on a well - thus no showers and no toilets), Karis said that it was simply too hot and not feasible to stay there any longer...but again we were blessed when Mom's power came back on Tuesday.  Thank you God!  We started the camp-out with her that night.

Living in other space when you're not on vacation (thus, we did not properly pack a suitcase) was been difficult.  We go back and forth to the house each day (sometimes multiple times per day), and still managed to forget essential things like a work suit, matching work shoes (one brown and one black...that is what you get for trying to get clothes in the dark!), underwear, etc etc.  But we are blessed, because other countries don't even have A/C or running water in some places!  We did wonder though why we'd see 5-6 trucks all travelling around together, can they not split up and fix twice as much?!  But then we reminded ourselves to be grateful that they were all working so hard to fix the power - many from out of state.

Six trucks outside of Mom's subdivision - can ONE come to our area? :)

Our power finally came back on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning (Tuesday the following week....).  We were practically the last in Orlando to get power.  As we don't live in a subdivision, this likely means that we will always be on the bottom of the totem pole.  Perhaps it is time to invest in a generator!

Impossible to see, but this is the truck that finally came late at night on Monday night to fix our power.....sometime that night in the wee hours it came back on, so on Tuesday when we came back to the house we had power!  YEAH!!

Speaking of blessings, over the course of the week we were were blessed by our friends in more ways than we can count.

1. Brad never lost power, and brought over his generator on Sunday so that at least we could keep our fridges running and not lose all of the food.
2.  Mom let us camp out at her place, and insists on giving up her bed to us (against our kicking and screaming) - she is amazing, hosting both us and a close friend Ivalee.  Pancake breakfasts, homecooked tomatoe soup, and a Mom/Grandma's love!  We took them out to Sweet Tomatoes for Friday as a treat, along with the Js and the Cs

3.  Jeff and Niesha had us over on Tuesday night for a perogie feast - nothing better to raise one's spirits than home-cooked Canadian food....and some car racing games after supper!

4.  Grodacks hosted us for Wednesday night supper, along with the other folks who didn't have power.
5.  Sabbath found us over at Cochrans for potluck lunch

6. While Saturday night we watched with baited breath the American Ninja Warrior finals with the Touchards.

Touchards rescued a baby kitten during Hurricane Irma - "Mayday Irma" was a big hit with the Z children!

7.  Sunday, the Biris opened their home for the kids to come over and be entertained, while Addison got a much-needed nap.

We are blessed indeed - we hope to pay it forward some day!  We love you all!  Lastly, God topped it all off with a beautiful rainbow after the storm passed - what a reminder of his love and protection