It’s Wednesday night as I write this, and Steve (DOS) and I are safely back in Florida after a wonderful Labor Day weekend in Mendoza, Argentina. 
We were on the go quite a bit touring and dining while we were there, so I haven’t updated the post from the trip yet. We had an outstanding flight crew and service on our long-haul 777 flight from Santiago to Miami, and the ‘suite seats’ are truly made for sleeping. Our 8 hour overnight flight arrived into Miami at 4:15am, and we connected at 7am back to Orlando.
Instead, of writing on our Mendoza trip, however, there is unfortunately doom and gloom headed our way this weekend, in the form of Hurricane Irma. I’m taking a time-out for posting on Mendoza for now, but if I have time, and more importantly power, I’ll try to finish up the Mendoza posts this week before the Hurricane strikes.
For now, Hurricane Irma is pounding the Caribbean with brutal force winds of 180mph – the highest on recent record. It’s moving it’s way towards Florida, and should make for a disastrous weekend for us. Here are some pics I borrowed from one of the many Accu Weather channel photos.
We arrived back to Orlando early this morning, and on the way home picked up some groceries. Fortunately we had four cases of water at home, or we would have been out of luck as the shelves were empty. The bread shelves were completely empty at Public Grocery as well, although they had deliveries coming in regularly, and they stocked some bread while we were there.
We picked up some bottled Lipton Iced Tea, some granola bars, peanut butter, sealed deli meats, hotdogs,and steaks. We’re planning on losing power this weekend, but at least we can grill outdoors if necessary. Fortunately I had a spare tank of propane at home by the grill, as everywhere was out of propane fuel.
So not much in the way of posts or photos,but from what I learned from the Hurricanes Charley, Francis, and Jean which struck my house within the months of August and September 2004, I offer the following Hurricane Tips:
- Always have a full tank of gas for the car (most places were out of gas today)
- Always have a spare tank of propane for the grille
- Have plenty of cash on hand, as credit cards won’t work if the power is down
- Charge all phones and other electronic devices due to impending power outages
(Hurricane Charley left us without power for six days, and we were the lucky ones) - Have plenty of bottled water, non-perishable food, batteries, radio, candles, lighter, flashlights, and battery candles as well (safer than real candles and don’t add heat to the house when there is no power for air conditioning.)
- Store any lose items from the yard and pool area as these will get blown around like missiles.
- If you’re told to evacuate – DO IT! Fortunately we are an hour from each coast, so we’re not in the evacuation zone, although the wind and rain will be significant.
- Take photos of each room of the house, and especially any thing of value. This is helpful for insurance purposes.
Below are some of the photos from the Hurricanes of 2004. As bad as it was, I must say I have fond memories of the neighbors, friends, and community at large all pulling together to help each other out. My house had an older roof at the time so I had quite a bit of damage, and was out of my house for four months while the repairs were made. My bedroom, master bath, pool screening, roof, kitchen and living area all had extensive damage.
Anyway, enough of memories from 2004. I met Steve (DOS) at one of the worst times in my life, January 2005 as I was rebuilding, so fate had a way of working out.
I recently had a post for “Pray for Texas”. While continuing to pray for Texas, please now also include “Pray for Florida and the Caribbean”.
Now it’s just a nerve-racking wait-and-see for a couple more days, to see where the path of Hurricane Irma will strike. Considering the Hurricane is the size of Florida, that’s a fair certainty we will all be impacted. Too be continued . . . Welcome Home!