So, a week and two days ago, Milton started waking up in the western Caribbean, and by Sunday started alarming people.
Everyone started panicking. Which, by everyone, I mean everyone outside of Florida started panicking. Those of us in the projected path started inventorying our supplies, listing what we needed, and began stocking up. We also started packing clothes in case we needed to leave.
While thousands of online voices told us to evacuate, we prepared. While many asked “Why would you live in a hurricane region?” we reviewed travel routes and evacuation routes, and penciled in plans – no ink yet, because they might change.
While non-local and incompletely informed non-experts started telling us this was the “Storm of Our Generation,” (never mind that Helene was also the Storm of Our Generation,) we kept watching reliable forecasts and governmental sites (like hurricanes.gov and NOAA) to stay informed.
When Milton strengthened and sped up, we triple-checked our supplies, and reviewed what highways we could take to get out if it came to that. We also checked our gas supplies, as gas stations were running low.
When Monday came, they backed their estimates for arrival from Wednesday morning to Wednesday night. We adjusted our plans.
Tuesday saw the track moving further southward. Tampa was still going to get hit, but we were moving from the orange zone to the greenish zone to the dark greenish zone/bluish zone. The colors aside, we went from being in the hurricane to the edge of a hurricane.
When Wednesday morning had finally come, we checked and rechecked what evacuation orders had been issued, rechecked the routes that evacuees would use, compared that to the latest track predictions, and our previously planned routes. We also looked at existing traffic levels. We weren’t going to a shelter, because there are people with medical needs or special considerations that need the space we would take up. We would head for the Alabama/Georgia border, then wait. But the track kept shifting southward, so by midday it looked like we were only going to be on the very edge, so we decided to stay.
Time after this point gets a little timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly. I probably should’ve kept notes as it went on, but I was occupied keeping an eye on developments, news, and just out the windows. An idea for next time, I suppose.
The storm was intense. I’ve been through two other hurricanes, but neither of them was so close to where I was sitting. At one point I went outside, (on the south side of the house, because the wind was coming from the north-northeast by that point,) to see if anything had been damaged/make sure nothing looked too worrisome. I heard the storm. The wind. The gusts on top of the already fast-moving air. The… extremeness of it. I heard the possibility that it could pick me up and carry me off and no one would ever know what happened to me.
I was seriously taken aback by how small and insignificant I felt in that moment.
And we were outside the edge of the hurricane. It was miles to the south.
I was too well informed to not understand the hugeness of what was going on, and how our decisions threaded this needle, at least so far.
So, I went back inside and played video games, watched YouTube, watched Twitch, chatted with people online, played it down a little because nerves were already pretty high, and gently put earlier thoughts to the back of my mind.
In the early hours of the morning, probably around 04:00, half of a tree cracked off the other half and fell nearby. I didn’t hear it, my brother saw it when he went outside to check things and told me, “Maybe you should take a look at this.”
It fell right alongside a neighbor’s house, branches over the living room extension on their place, but it didn’t land on them. That neighbor came out and confirmed, no damage was visible inside, as of yet.
By Friday daytime everything had settled down, so a team of construction workers staying here worked at cutting apart that huge half-tree and dragging away everything that could be easily dragged away, leaving only the heaviest part – the main trunk – to be cut up and taken away.
The neighbor confirmed, again, no apparent damage was suffered, but they’d do a detailed look as time went on. Most houses in the neighborhood were without power, we were one of the lucky ones to have power.
Saturday stores started opening up again, Doordash only offered pick-up service, no delivery. Fast food restaurants were offering drive-through only as they got their stores running again. Power was restored to our neighbors.
Sunday things were kinda sorta mostly normal. Things started resembling pre-hurricane.
But, remember, during the hurricane, we were just on the edge.
We didn’t get hit that badly, I’m sure there are other areas that just got hammered (I don’t know where, I haven’t looked yet,) but here we are.
And now that normal life has resumed, time to get back to it. Streaming is back online. YouTube videos are queued, but I gotta get to recording them. More stories are waiting to be narrated/recorded, but they’re also queued and waiting their turn.
I have some bills coming due that I forgot to keep in mind because of Milton, so any help any readers can provide is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Skåll!!!