I don't mind saying it scared the living hell out of me.
Francis sat 15 miles offshore and battered the living daylights out of us all day, until all the electric infrastructure was destroyed, then moved onshore at night.
I live about 10 miles from the shoreline.
The surge breached the barrier islands and wiped out Indian River drive for a long stretch.
Sitting in a totally black, boarded up house while the storm raged outside was no fun.
I built the house myself, and it came through fine, although it shook like hades.
My business was not so fortunate.
Oh gosh, that looks terrible.
I hope you had insurance, I'm sure you did.
I still haven't decided which is worse, hurricane, earthquake or almost tornado which are what I have experienced so far. I think all are frightening and particularly when they hit at night which seems to happen to me most of the time. Wind can be very frightening. When I first moved in here, before I had cable installed or Internet we had a big storm with 80+ mph winds in the middle of the night. [obviously I had no clue it was coming] Being in the dark with no electricity and the walls shaking is horrible. Bottom line I guess all of Mother Nature's storms can be devastating, but this category 5 could be the worst.