A very old stray {The Old Fella Story}

There's a lot of cleanup to do yet down here as well, Burch. In our motorhome community, we had about 20 houses damaged. Considering that we are all manufactured houses, we only lost ports. Most homes have RV ports and carports. The ones that were damaged typically didn't have anything under them, like RV's. There was one port that was twisted all to heck and the one next to it got the same treatment. The one was a total loss. From the looks of it, that may actually have been a small tornado that ripped it up. The people were not there. That would have been scary. The only damage to homes themselves was mainly facia, skirting, but no windows blown out or anything. The residents who stayed said it was the worst they had every seen, and many have lived here for 30+ years. I lost some panels up high at the transition from the carport to the RV Port. Most of the panels were laying on the floor of the port and my neighbor picked them up for me. I had a guy put them back up for me, but about half of the panels are totally missing, so I will have to have someone finish that for me. At least with what was put back up, the rain cannot blow through down onto my cars. We were flooded and I had water on two sides, but since I am not sitting on the ground, it did not get into my house or my shed. That was lucky. The canal is right behind my house. I don't think any house was flooded inside. My neighbor lost all his ductwork underneath his house. His was the flexible pipe with insulation and it all got saturated from the water under his house. It took him a couple days to get it all pulled out and replaced. We have some trees in the community, but only lost branches. Our white plastic fencing around our community was damaged and some residents  got together and got it all fixed back up. There are some posts that need replacing which we will have to do, but at least we are all enclosed again. We only lost power for about 9 hours one day, then 3 the next, so all the food in my freezers is okay. I keep a pan of ice cubes in each freezer, so I know if there has been a big thaw, but all was good. One neighbor down the street lucked out and had no damage, but their house in Augusta, Georgia, got hit by Helene the week before. They lost 15 trees in the back yard and almost as many in the front. In the front yard, uprooted trees pulled up their water pipes, so they had no water, and no power. A tree fell on their one garage and destroyed his shop and a car. The bus garage, however, that has his Tiffin Allegro Bus and his custom Prevost was not damaged. They were on a cruise at the time and it took 3 weeks of nonstop work with heavy equipment to get things back in order once they got back. Their house itself was spared. 

I was in Virginia with my daughter, but had I been in Florida, I would have gone to my son's over in Melbourne. His house is concrete and his roof is strapped down. After a certain year here in Florida, all new houses built had to meet stronger standards. They did get the storm there, mainly tornados, but he fared well. Hopefully we won't see any more storms of that magnitude any time soon.

Glad you and yours were safe, Burch. Hug those furbabies!

Dale