Thank you so much for all your welcomes!!!
NO, i am not in Florida. I live in MI.
Other friends down near Orlando, just left and are driving to Colorado.
When HUGO was on his way, we were handed, at the gates of the base, and door to door, papers detailing what was coming and what to do. We had been through hurricanes so figured we would be ok.
Grandpa left Charleston and got hotel room in Columbia. Brother stayed at Grandparents house. A huge oak came through the roof there.
Grandma stayed with us. We put mattresses on the floor in the hallway. The storm raged for hours until the eye came through. All our neighbors came out to look see. It was eerily silent. Trees were down, electric lines. Cars overturned right in the driveways, thrown out on the lawns.
Anything standing before, was on the ground.
The next morning, the base and all the surrounding areas looked like a bomb had dropped.
There was no power. We had gas and water being on the base. But the water tasted like pine. Thankfully we could cook and flush the toilet.
Clothes were washed in the tub. Everything was rationed. The schools and banks were closed for 6 weeks.
Martial law was the norm, on base and off. NG and military both walking around with guns.
The base printed a one page “Airlift Dispatch”, like a newspaper, every day and walked it door to door daily. So we had ideas of what was going on.
We hooked up a small camper tv and vcr to the car battery for 3 hours every night. We were the only ones in our area to be able to do that.
Folly Beach became an island.
Every day on the base, a flatbed trailer came through handing out whatever they had One day it was a gallon of milk. The next day ice. The next day loads of oranges construction and electrical workers had brought from Florida literally in the backs of their pick ups.
Everything everywhere was destroyed. Thats about the size of it. One thing the base personnel liked, was due to the banks being closed so long, we could write a check for anything we needed on base. We were all given a chance to apply for damage reimbursement.
I wrote a 3 page poem about the storm, my neighbour read it on the radio. The newscaster cried.
Everyone went to bed at dark, nothing to do and no electric. We got up at daybreak. The children in the area had great fun floating down the street in a wading pool.
With my later EMS/fire career, i saw the best and worst of people and loved the job 100%. I miss it.
With DMAT, I helped with drills and normal community events.
I was packed and ready to go to Katrina, but my employer wouldnt release me to go as others were going and the manpower was needed at home too.
I can tell you, if I was in the path of this storm, I would have left as soon as it became a Cat 4.
At home I am also prepped and ready, and carry a bug out bag in my vehicle.
Its pretty quiet out here unless we get a bad storm or a snowmageddon..
When I go to the big city couple hours away, I know for certain what would happen in a crisis there and I want to be as far away as possible.
That’s a really neat story! Thanks for sharing!
Welcome to FR. I'm in northern Minnesota and understand about winter storms. But I've never been in a winter storm that I thought was life or property threatening. I feel really bad for these folks and can't imagine what that might be like.