Good Riddance to Hurricane Ian!

Hurricane Ian slammed into the southwest coast of Florida last Wednesday with the eye passing about 60 miles south of where we live here in Lakewood Ranch. Given that this was our introductory hurricane as transplants to Florida, I thought you might want to hear a bit about what we experienced and how we weathered the storm.

Hurricane Ian, approaching the west coast of Florida

Hurricanes were always front and center when Laurie and I were considering Florida as a retirement destination. We were reassured over and over again that hurricanes rarely if ever hit the Tampa and Sarasota areas, and the people who told us this (and the articles we read about it while doing our research) had data to back up that position. Indeed, it has been over 100 years since a hurricane had a direct hit on the Sarasota/Tampa area. So, we felt pretty good about moving here, knowing that we wouldn’t be immune from hurricanes, but that having one impact the region in a significant way would likely be a rare event.

Before I go on, let me be clear – areas just an hour’s drive south of us received a direct hit by Hurricane Ian and were absolutely devastated as a result, while we got sideswiped by it and only experienced minor damage in our neighborhood. So, there is no comparison at all between what we went through and what those down in Punta Gorda and Ft. Meyers Beach endured. Many of the folks 60 miles to our south lost everything – their houses, their communities, their livelihoods and some their lives as well. Our area experienced thousands of downed trees, signs, and fences but little to no structural damage and little flooding as well. We were extremely lucky despite the fact that it was a very close call.

Laurie and I spent quite a bit of time (and money!) preparing for a potential hurricane over the past year. First, we bought a motorized hurricane screen to protect our covered lanai so we could store all of our lanai furniture there during the storm, but also so we could see out of the house during the storm. You see, all new homes in Florida are required to come with hurricane shutters, which are made of aluminum and go over all the windows and doors with glass in them – these are really great at blocking flying objects, but they also do a fantastic job of blocking all natural light from coming into the house and making your home feel like a dark cave. If you are the least bit claustrophobic, then hurricane screens are a good investment!

We also bought a natural gas-powered standby generator that would power our whole house and all appliances (including the air conditioner!) in the event of a power outage. Also, all new homes built in Florida are built to strict building codes that ensure houses can withstand strong Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, which helped as well since our house was less than one year old. Many of the houses close to the waters of the Gulf were built decades ago when building codes were less stringent, which explains why so many of those homes were destroyed during the storm. So, we felt pretty good about our chances should a hurricane head our way.

When it was clear the hurricane was going to hit close to us, we headed to the grocery store before the crowds arrived and filled up our freezer with food, topped off the gas in our car, and watched videos on how to attach hurricane shutters to our windows (all new to me!). We then traveled to El Paso for the weekend for our nephew Chris’s and his bride Eugenia’s wedding. While there, we nervously watched the weather channel and became more and more concerned as the hurricane track shifted to the south and closer to Sarasota. Thankfully, we made it home the Sunday before the storm with no problems.

On Monday, we put up our storm shutters, secured our lanai furniture and made final preparations for the storm before the wind started picking up on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Ian made landfall and the wind started blowing in force. The power went out that afternoon and our generator (which we named King Donald after my father - my sister gave us the idea when she named her's Queen Shirley after our mother!) fired up and the lights and everything else came back on 15 seconds later – what a relief! As the afternoon wore on, the winds got louder and stronger. It actually sounded like a freight train running non-stop right next to our house for hour after hour. It was a bit unnerving to hear and see the power and force of those winds - Laurie and I even put on our noise cancelling headphones to get some relief from the noise.

We ended up with sustained tropical and hurricane force winds in Lakewood Ranch throughout the storm. Reports from wind stations showed sustained winds of 65-75 mph at times during the storm, with gusts of 90+ mph and one recorded gust in our area of 120 mph. It also rained throughout the storm, with rain totals around 7 inches in Lakewood Ranch (less than we were expecting).

We woke up on Thursday to more wind and rain, but things were definitely winding down by then and by late morning, everyone was emerging from their homes and assessing the damage. Our damage? Pretty minimal – our pool pump isn’t working for some reason, and we lost a couple of screws off our lanai cage that need to be replaced. Oh, and two of our trees are leaning about 45 degrees so they need to be up righted and reset in the ground. Not a bad damage report for a Cat 4 hurricane! We pulled the storm shutters off late morning and put all the furniture back on the lanai in the afternoon. There were cheers all around when the power came back on Thursday evening, 26 hours after it went out. Gas and ice were impossible to find for a few days and grocery stores were pretty much picked over, but at least they were open, and life began returning to normal.

So, what did we do during the storm when we were sheltering in place inside our home? We had relaxing music on a good part of the time. We were watching the updates on TV until our internet went out. We celebrated our generator coming on automatically when the power went out by drinking a bottle of Decoy sparkling wine, along with a nice bourbon for me later in the evening. And we cooked! Laurie made dinner on Wednesday night – noodles with pork, shiitakes, and green onions, one of my favorite meals! On Thursday I fired up the grill and made BBQ tri-tip with grilled vegetables. And since the weather was so nice after the hurricane (Ian did a good job of taking all the humidity and hot air with him!) with highs in the low 70’s and no humidity, it actually felt chilly on Friday, so I made Italian vegetable soup to welcome the weekend and bid Ian good riddance.

While we were extremely lucky with this hurricane, it did reinforce the notion that preparation is really key, that a standby generator is essential in Florida and probably the best money we have ever spent as a married couple, and that you should never, ever take mother nature for granted or ignore her. Here’s hoping that that was the last hurricane we see this year, and for many years to come! And also hoping our Florida neighbors down south whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Ian are able to recover quickly and get their lives back to normal – our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Our tilting trees, courtesy of Hurricane Ian

Bent metal street sign in our neighborhood - definitely hurricane force winds required to do that!

Overturned construction trailer, with a porta john as the main casualty!

Community fence obliterated by Hurricane Ian

Flooding on Interstate 75, about 45 minutes south of our home