Since my 5th heart surgery was the week before Hurricane Irma hit SW Florida, my wife decided we would stay and be close to the hospital and doctors. Actually there was no place to go, the east coast at Ft Lauderdale is bad, Tampa, Orlando offered no respite, only Tallahassee or out of state. However it has taken many 2 days of sloooow travel to reach Atlanta.
We are in a very secure house with shutters......but, the wind speed at Naples airport was 130, over our house 102. The electric and cable went out at 1:00 on Sunday and the eye went over us in Naples just after 4:00. The place is a mess with trees and debris everywhere. One of the cell towers is down and the cell capabilities are down by 73% -- calls or texts are spotty. The electric came back on late last night and it is better to sleep in air conditioned comfort rather than on outside temp of 82 with high humidity. Flooding has occurred in some areas, but not much -- the big thing is it will take months to clean up and years to grow big Banyan trees which are a staple of and line much of SW Florida roads and residential communities.
Naples does not have any hotels open this morning, Costco, Sam's have gas, but stations do not, Publix food stores, Home Depot, Lowes and one restaurant are working on back up generators -- that is it. No stop lights and some people just cruise right on through but the police, emergency workers and service people brought in from corporate offices have been fantastic, calm and very supportive of common sense.
With something this big and windy, the Islands and Keys are also a mess -- plan to vacation somewhere else.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts, this is really not a bucket list item to have. Only because of medical circumstances. Stay safe and 'get out of the way'.
We are in a very secure house with shutters......but, the wind speed at Naples airport was 130, over our house 102. The electric and cable went out at 1:00 on Sunday and the eye went over us in Naples just after 4:00. The place is a mess with trees and debris everywhere. One of the cell towers is down and the cell capabilities are down by 73% -- calls or texts are spotty. The electric came back on late last night and it is better to sleep in air conditioned comfort rather than on outside temp of 82 with high humidity. Flooding has occurred in some areas, but not much -- the big thing is it will take months to clean up and years to grow big Banyan trees which are a staple of and line much of SW Florida roads and residential communities.
Naples does not have any hotels open this morning, Costco, Sam's have gas, but stations do not, Publix food stores, Home Depot, Lowes and one restaurant are working on back up generators -- that is it. No stop lights and some people just cruise right on through but the police, emergency workers and service people brought in from corporate offices have been fantastic, calm and very supportive of common sense.
With something this big and windy, the Islands and Keys are also a mess -- plan to vacation somewhere else.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts, this is really not a bucket list item to have. Only because of medical circumstances. Stay safe and 'get out of the way'.
