HURRICANE IRMA AND OTHER THINGS
We survived the hurricane, with no damage to us or our home and we have power! Of course, we had LOTS of tree debris to clean up, but that's ok. Actually our neighbor's tree came down. It hit her truck and cracked her windshield, and came over into our yard brushing our AC unit and the house, but caused no damage, thank goodness. This is all good news considering we have 40-50 large trees around our property. Interestingly, a couple years ago when we were building, we had a tree company come in and trim/thin the trees. The owner who is in his 80's knows his stuff! He said the key was thinning the tops so that air can flow through. Thus the tree doesn't act like a wall of resistance and can stand up to high winds. Those thinned trees have now gone through two hurricanes with very little damage! The debris is all smaller limbs and leaves that blew down. Across the road however, is a very large maple that is leaning across the road and now only about 9-10 feet in the air. It WILL come down soon and hopefully no one will be under it when it does. The city is concerned about those that have already fallen not those about to fall. When it comes down it will completely block our dead end street trapping several families. It's on a large wooded property that is owned by an older woman. Sadly, she is not able to take care of it and it is also standing in water so not really accessible. Well, we shall see how it all turns out.
We were in a mandatory evacuation zone, so we left, but the funny thing is the home we went to is a NEW home, and it leaked! So we slept with a bucket by the bed to catch the dripping water. It also had plant damage, but that can be expected with newly planted bushes and trees. While our house had no problems! Go figure. Of course, our house was custom built to withstand 150 mph winds because we weren't taking any chances. The inspectors kept commenting about the high standards and praising our builder's quality. That's a good reference! All new homes in FL are now required to withstand 120 mph winds, but that's really not enough we felt. We've seen MANY NEW homes here with roof damage from this storm, and the winds only got to 90 mph or so in our area. Something is not right with that!
Sadly, the entire downtown area of St. Augustine is flooded. It is all low-lying and right on two rivers and the ocean. They expected some flooding, but not this much. The city is blocked off by authorities until the water recedes to safe levels. Schools are closed until Thursday. This will be expensive for sure!
I went out and picked up my artwork from the Art Studio before the storm and won't return it until we get the all-clear.. The Art Studio is directly on the ocean and no one is allowed on the island yet. The building is turn of the century, but had hurricane resistant windows, and the doors were sandbagged. Hopefully that prevented any damage. We shall see. Another of the locations that shows my artwork is also on the island, but it is elevated and not right on the beach, so I think it is ok. Again, I must wait to see for sure though. Patience is a requirement when you live in hurricane areas! At least we have time to prepare unlike tornado prone areas.
I am taking this down time to paint, and blog. Have I mentioned eating? LOL! What is it about stressful situations that makes us eat? I try to stay busy so i don't eat too much. One of the things I am doing is listening to a livestream conference on submitting an email to prospective galleries. I am sure it will be quite interesting, and I will give a report as soon as I can. In the meantime, everyone please stay safe and if you ever get an advisory to leave for a storm, PLEASE LISTEN. Things can be replaced, PEOPLE CANNOT!!
Enough on that topic. I am getting my new "PAINTINGS FOR SALE" page fully loaded now. Please take the opportunity to look through it and see if there is anything you would like to add to your collection. I use PayPal for your convenience. Enjoy, and Thanks for looking!
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| "TOP HAT AND TAILS" "Scenes of St. Augustine" SOLD This is 15 Bridge Street, in St. Augustine, FL. Unfortunately this is one of the houses in the downtown area that is prone to flooding. These beautiful old homes really suffer in times like this. |
