Yes! My prayers were answered that the damage would be light and there would be no loss of life in our community. We planned for the worst and hoped for the best! Our house, shed, carport, car, and fishing boat on its trailer in the carport sustained no damage. The big boat was stored on land at Cut’s Edge Marina just around the corner from where we live. The canvas on that boat was partially ripped off and torn, but in the scheme of things, if that’s all that happened to us we are very LUCKY! It’s not bad compared to what could have happened. Most importantly, our friends are all safe and sound. The park fared pretty well through the storm with some carport roofs being torn back, downed trees, a deck roof blown off, a shed destroyed, a couple of roofs torn back, but no major damage like we anticipated. There doesn’t seem to be any water damage to the homes in the park from storm surge either. The worry now is the lack of electricity in a warm climate and rotting food in the fridge. Luckily, we cleaned out our fridge completely before we left, but others might not be so lucky. Let’s hope that FP&L does their magic and brings the power back quickly. God bless us all! Our friends and close neighbors, Mark and Jan, weathered the storm in a sturdy home that kept them safe. They have been our “eyes” in the park. To be able to see pictures and find out firsthand how things turned out at home is so comforting when we are so far away. We can’t thank you enough from the bottom of our hearts, Mark and Jan! You’re the best!
We heaved a sigh of relief when we heard the report today, but we will keep all our friends and neighbors in our prayers as they begin the clean-up. Bob worked on finishing his outside projects today and I did some work on our community newsletter to get it to the publisher on time (if there still is a publishing house).. Calls and texts poured in all day inquiring about the state of our home and and our vacation plans that were on “hold”. Through all of this, they knew we were safe here in New Orleans. My concussion issues from the fall I had the week before we left have improved greatly this past week. I think these extra couple of “quiet” days without moving from campground to campground made the healing go quicker. I want to give a huge THANK YOU to my 2 extraordinary nurses during this ordeal. The first one was my triage nurse, Jan, who kept me calm during all the blood and helped me to get my hairdo back. The second one was my recovery nurse and outstanding husband, Bob. He did an amazing job of taking care of me and taking on all the responsibilities at home. His care and compassionate “nagging” kept me on the straight and narrow when I tried to do too much. I couldn’t have gotten through this without either of them. I love you both!! (You too, Mark, for all the scouting reports you gave us from back home.)
We talked with other people in the campground who have come from all over the state and everyone has such an interesting story to tell about how and why they evacuated. Many people were in the same boat (or camper) as we were. Humankind comes together with compassion and unselfishness during times like these. Our hearts are warmed by the acts of kindness people show one another. It’s truly amazing!
We reworked our itinerary so that we could continue on our trip. We made the necessary calls to cancel, change, and add reservations and when all was said and done Hurricane Irma threw off our itinerary by only 2 days. So we may have to skip a visit to Austin on this trip, but we’ll see how much extra time we have while we’re in San Antonio. Our destination tomorrow is Beaumont, TX for one night and then on to San Antonio for a few nights. We’ll spend some time tonight getting everything ready to go. It’ll take some time to get my head wrapped around that idea, but we are anxious to get our vacation really started. See you on down the road!