This past two weeks has been crazy y’all! The eye of hurricane Michael went directly over my area as a category 1 hurricane. While I know that is not anything compared to those that experienced the category 4 {almost 5} force winds, it was still a harrowing experience for me & my community. This is just my personal experience through the storm & aftermath. Everyone in it’s path is still recovering & some have lost everything. I’m grateful to be able to write this post.
Preparing for a Hurricane
I spent most of Wednesday preparing for the hurricane. The projections were showing the eye coming right over my area, it was just not clear how strong it would be when it came through. Stores in the area were already cleared out of water, bread, & most canned foods.
We had a case of water at the house already, so I just grabbed what bread I could find & some canned items. When I got to the house I filled empty milk jugs with water & two 5 gallon buckets with water. I also moved my chairs off the porch, washed all dirty clothes, & dishes. When I was finished, I redecorated the mantel & wrote a blog post. You know, important things! : D
Lights Out
My husband didn’t get home until just before dark. We had our supper & hunkered down in the living room with the weather on the TV. At about 6:30 P.M. {est} our power went out & a couple hours later we had no cell service. I took this picture while I listened to the wind whip around our house.
I have to say, I was very thankful that my husband is a hunter & camper at this point! We had plenty of lanterns, flashlights, & a gas stove to cook on. My husband even gave me a head light to wear!
I kept occupied with crochet while we waited out the storm. At one point we heard a loud crash & knew something big had happened. Of course, my husband just had to go look out the back door to see what had happened. Not the safest thing to do! That wind was crazy! He finally spotted the huge oak tree laying on its side in the back yard.
We continued to here bumps, bangs, & knocks throughout the evening, but we didn’t go out to look again. Once the winds had finally died down a bit, we went to bed. I really have no idea what time that was!
The Aftermath
When daylight finally arrived, we went out to survey the damage. This is the tree that fell in my backyard. The entire thing was uprooted and was inches away from taking out a power pole. I haven’t measured this tree yet, but I do know the root base is way over my head & my husband’s and he’s 6′ tall.
It took out a number of branches on a pine tree on the way down…
Sadly, it also completely crushed one of our 4-wheelers & a shed that was still in the box.
Our yard was covered with limbs, leaves, odd items, & shingles from our roof. The turbine on top of the roof was missing the spinning part. We finally found it about 3 houses down!
It took me a moment to figure out what was going on with this tree in front of our house. One of the branches was forced into the center of the tree after it snapped.
The cedar tree & oaks in the front of our yard had tons of branches under them. Our cedar tree had several limbs that had broken up higher & were forcing lower branches to touch the ground. My husband had to be lifted up in his uncle’s back hoe so he could cut down the branches.
The driveway was littered with branches & leaves to the point that you could barely see the dirt.
When I looked down the road, I could see people already trying to remove trees that were crossing the road. There were trees down everywhere, which of course meant there were power lines down as well.
We tried to start cleaning up some things the day after the storm, but it was very hot & there wasn’t really a way to cool off without the air conditioner running. By the end of the day, we were a hot, stinky, grumbling mess. Since we had hopes that the power would come back on soon, we didn’t bother hooking up the generator.
Utter Chaos
After the first day went by, my husband ventured out to see more of the damage. You couldn’t even go down one end of our road because of all the downed power lines & trees. Being that I didn’t venture beyond our yard for two days, I had hope that the power would be back on soon. My husband wasn’t so optimistic.
There were 12 power poles in a row down on a highway down from our house. The neighbors tree fell across the lines to his personal power pole & broke it in half. The entire city of Cordele was without power long enough to cause stores to through out all cold items. Schools were closed from Wednesday the 10th to Tuesday the 16th because most had no power.
We didn’t have power until yesterday at 8 p.m., which I was grateful to have. There are still people in the area without power. I’m hoping everyone has their power back very soon!
The Loss of a Special Tree
On Saturday I visited my parents house in town. They had power back already & I needed to work on blog posts for the coming week. They had several trees fall as well & one hit the corner of the house. Luckily their metal roofing only sustained some bends & scratches. Unfortunately, that tree falling lead to the loss of a very special tree in my parents yard. This photo was taken after the tree was cut down & cleared away.
All that’s left are the stumps. The people that cut down the trees told my parents the large oak had center rot & could cause problems eventually. They opted to have it cut down with the rest. You can see that the tree people knew what they were talking about…
There is about a 2 foot deep cavern in the center of this stump…
Dad asked them to cut a slice of the base, so he could make a table with it. This could take up to 2 years to dry out before he’ll be able to use it! I’m hoping to take a slice of the oak in our yard as well.
This tree is special for a number of reasons. I used to climb it as a kid & hide out to read books. There was a swing in it at one point that I spent a great deal of time on as well. As a teenager, I built a bench between the tree & it’s close neighbor. Eventually it broke apart as the trees grew over time.
I also got married under this tree, which is really causing me to tear up as I write this. Today is our 16th wedding anniversary, so, yeah, that kind of stings. We will always have the memories & that cannot be taken away by a hurricane.
Moving Forward
Even though a hurricane only lasts for a moment in time, it leaves everlasting effects. There are people who no longer have a home to return to & some that will never return home. People’s lives are changed forever by natural disasters. This is the first time I have experienced anything like this first hand.
My area is a big agricultural area, growing cotton, pecans, pine trees, & peanuts among many other things. The cotton for most was at the point of being ready to pick. Some farmers now have no cotton to pick. Every pecan orchard I’ve driven by has uprooted trees & it seems every tree has lost a branch or more. Most of these trees are decades old because it takes 7 years for a pecan tree to start producing pecans. This is devastating for some farming families. The hurricane also caused losses for peanut crops & poultry houses. One of my parents good friends lost 200 pine trees on his property.
There have been linemen & women from as far as Texas coming in to help restore power. Some are very disgruntled about how long it’s taking to get power back. I understand, it’s very frustrating.
I also know that these people have left their families & homes behind to come help rebuild. They are working 15 & 16 hour days to get things back up and running. The college I work for, South Georgia Technical College, was the home base for many of these crews. There were tents & trailers & meals provided to them when they needed to rest & swap out crews. It’s hard & dangerous work, so it’s best that they do it right the first time, even if that takes a little longer.
Making the Best of It
It’s heartbreaking to look around and see the devastation. Being the optimist that I am, I have to look for the good in the bad.
People are coming together to help others in their community & people are coming from other communities to help as well. It’s a beautiful thing! There were students from an FFA club in Warner Robins out in front of our Walmart yesterday. They were giving away free hot dogs & water – wonderful!
My husband has decided to use the downed cedar limbs for grilling. I’m looking forward to those meals!
During the time the power was out, I read 3 books, cut out tons of bags to sew, crocheted, & started filling in my crochet notebook. It was kind of refreshing to be away from the computer for so long!
I’m so thankful to still have my family & my home.
Please keep all those affected in your thoughts & prayers. If you feel you can help in some way, even if it’s seems small, please do. I want to send out extra thoughts to our neighbors in Albany. They were still recovering from the tornadoes that came through in January of 2017.
Y’all have a great weekend!
