PRELUDE - Getting ready for a hurricane is the worst part. After you've got the house all boarded up it's dark inside and you can't see out easily. First the rain, then the wind and the wondering about what's happening outside.
The last time I tested the generator was back at the end of February, at least six months ago, back then it started on the first pull. We're using ethanol-free gasoline treated with Stabil so the fuel does not go bad when it's not being used. The gas engine started on the second pull of the starter-cord, came to life very quick, stabilized and purred like a well oiled machine. I let it run for 15 minutes and then stowed it for use in case of power outage during the hurricane.
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| Upper Level Windows, South-facing |
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| Heat Index was 112, We cut, then hoisted and screwed plywood over the Upper Level Windows |
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| Galvanized steel over the end gable to prevent rain from entering |
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| Bedrooms boarded up |
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| More boarded up windows |
9AM SATURDAY, SEPT 9th, 2017 - It started to rain. Up until today the weather has been beautiful but today we've got gray skies and morning thunder showers. We're not expecting the effects of the hurricane until sometime after 12PM. Rainfall according to our new rain gauge = 1/2" per half hour, in a few hours it's going to get very interesting rain-wise. Back to stuffing things into the van and battening down the hatches.
9:45 AM - S N A K E S ! ! !
Mary saw her first Coral snake, he was near the screen door in the car port, the same place I saw one a couple of years ago. This time he was outside, slowly crawling along the screened-in porch concrete foundation. No picture this time but we both got to get a good look at the colorful bands on the second most deadly snake in the world as he meandered along looking for food.
10:15 AM - more snakes (shown above)
This time a 3.5-foot banded water snake decided to show up on our patio, we were able to clearly watch him slither around the porch before he exited on the west side and headed towards where the coral snake was previously spotted. Notice his eyes are round which indicates he is not a venomous snake such as a water moccasin or rattle snake which are not uncommon in this area.
11:00 AM NHC (National Hurricane Center) Path Prediction
We've been hanging our hopes and plans on these NHC maps of expected paths for Hurricane Irma.
11:59PM Saturday - total rainfall today = 1.21"
1:30 PM -
Lots of rain. We've had 1.02" of rain since this morning and we're not yet impacted by Irma. Best guess right now is 8PM Sunday night as to when she'll be knocking on our door.
5PM- Nap over, time to swim!
After an afternoon nap we awoke to a beautiful afternoon. The rain had stopped and the sun was lighting P2. We went for a lovely swim in the pool. We've currently got the heater on so it will raise the temp to 92, just in case we lose power for a while and don't have any heat, we don't want the pool temp to fall to 80. We're planning to pull the power on the pool prior to the hurricane just in case of weird power loss, don't want any surges damaging our equipment.
7:30 PM - Not much wind yet
We've had some gusts but not real wind, max we've seen today has been 7mph, typical is 2-4mph. It's been a relatively typical day.
BOTTLED WATER
Mary finished bottling R.O. water in quart mason jars. This just made a lot more sense than buying a bunch of bottles to use and throw away. Our mason jars are reused from California fun projects, still delivering "green" value.
12:45 AM SUNDAY NIGHT
We're now getting some strong gusts of wind but nothing steady, seeing regular 6-7 mph
Rain Saturday (yesterday capped at 1.17")
Latest prediction data pushes the storm a little farther West.
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| Sunday Morning 10 AM |
9:45 AM SUNDAY MORNING
It was quiet last night. Occasional gusts of wind but usually just 2-5mph showing on wind speed gauge.
One lonely Sneetch (Ibis) showed up this morning, he ate a bit, then took off and flew into the pool screen, he appeared unhurt and flew away. We've got a few peacocks gathered on the car port trying to stay out of the rain.
Total rainfall today so far: .62 inches
Windspeed currently: 0-2mph
It is raining outside. We've got the pool heater on so we can go swimming this morning before the weather worsens this afternoon.
10:35 AM SUNDAY MORNING
Total rainfall today so far: .88 inches
Windspeed currently: 6-7mph
Sky is dark gray, very dark for this time of morning.
We just returned from a walk all the way around P2 grounds. The banana plants have weathered the winds fine so far, they all appear to be in good condition. We noted that the newer broad leaves on several banana plants have adopted a shreddy look that causes them to be less of a wind sail.
We're still planning to go swimming even though it's raining heavily. There is no thunder or lighting currently.
11:05 AM R A I N ! ! !
Total rainfall so far: 1.46 inches
= 1.16 inches per hour rate of rainfall
According to the latest 11am release by the National Hurricane Center our physical area should start experiencing the effects of the tropical storm conditions that surround the hurricane in the center.
New NHC map of expected hurricane path. We're not out of the storm but we're in a much worse position than two days ago.
11:55 AM SUNDAY (The Big Day, the day the storm is supposed to churn past us, finally!)
Total rainfall so far: 2.23 inches (almost exactly 12 hours since the counter reset at 12 AM).
= .75 inches in 50 minutes
Our swim was very nice. No thunder or lighting. The pool water temp was over 91 degrees thanks to our pool heater. We ended the swim when wind gusts made it seem dangerous for trees possibly falling.
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| Nooty and Suzy, peafowl ducking out of the rain to eat seed and bread at our window |
Peacocks have been coming and eating all morning. They are very wet from the storm. They're spending a lot of time out on the open land looking for bugs and critters to eat.
Our favorite peafowl, Hooky, Nooty, Suzy and Beeg-Beeg have all been by to eat treats. We counted six large blue male and one female (Suzy) on their way back to the TSA tree farm nearby.
12:15 PM Wind Gusts and Rain
Mary has been monitoring web cams all around Florida in the hurricane affected areas. This screen shot is from a web cam in Fort Lauderdale. Wind speed there is shown to be 59 mph currently. Note that the surge has not become a factor at this time though it's still early in the landfall event.
1:25 PM Rain has slowed
Current total rain for today: 2.42"
Less than .16 inches in last hour.
Current windspeed: 4mph
Current News Headlines
2PM Sunday -
Rain = 2.47 inches total today
Windspeed = 5mph
Latest NHC prediction for path of Hurricane Irma as it moves through Florida.
WIND UPDATE
Currently the Weather Channel says we're having 40mph wind while our own weather station is reporting 4-6mph and we're not seeing large wind effects blowing the bamboo plants. It seems like the forecast information coming from the Weather Channel is much greater than what we're experiencing.
That's us at the marker located at about 1 o'clock on this map relative to the eye.
Current conditions in Florida according to the Weather Channel shown above. Here in Melbourne it's barely raining and the wind has died down. We're very thankful for the inaccuracy of the Weather Channel information because it means it's much less harsh in reality for us.
3:45 PM Sunday Update of Conditions as measured at P2
Total rain: 2.64 inches
Wind speed: 3-6mph
4:30 PM Sunday, Post Sex Update
Things are not as bad as the media is posting. Look at that van, it's not underwater, it's not a flooded street, it's some plant debris in the street, this is not disaster!
4:36 Power went out good bye
We are on UPS power, not long till we lose internet, our laptops are on internal batteries
We'll post again when power is restored.
6:06 PM Power is back, not sure how long it will last.
NHC 5PM Update
In Mikes latest weather page update he says winds are down to 110mph in the hurricane area which means lower in the outer tropical storm area which is affecting P2 by dumping torrential rain on us.
6:35 PM Update
Total Rainfall today = 5.18 inches
Peak Wind = 16mph (as measured at P2 weather station)
Current Windspeed = 9mph
11 PM Update
Total Rainfall today = 8.63 inches
Peak Wind = 22 mph (as measured at P2 weather station)
Latest NHC hurricane path
The hurricane came inland more than was anticipated but is supposedly heading back to the west according to this latest map.
Total rainfall Sunday: 8.87 inches measured at P2.
Monday 9/11/17, 8:00 AM
I got up and looked outside on the screened in porch. Tree carnage was everywhere on our property, limbs down, mountains of leafy stuff and thousands of acorns whose lives were cut short by the storm.
First thing was to get the generator fired up and get some coffee brewing. Then plug in the two refrigerators and cool them back down.
The Harbor Freight Predator 4000 generator started on the second pull of the rope and ran flawlessly for two hours before it ran out of gas. I used a Kill-A-Watt to monitor voltage, frequency and current consumption on the generator which has two 13-amp circuits. In the future I'm buying a generator that can handle 20 amps on each of the two circuits, this would power the two refrigerators on one outlet and allow a microwave or small window air conditioner to be powered by the other circuit.
3:40 PM Monday
The storm blew all night. We lost power again shortly after 11 PM and got it back today at 3:40PM.
After inspecting our property we had no damage other than downed branches and pine needles by the billions. Thousands of acorns were brought down prematurely by this deadly hurricane.
We had one large oak tree down across the driveway. Mary's Makita Saw came in handy slicing it up into smaller pieces. Our very good friends Jason and Steve came to our rescue with their gas powered tree cutting equipment, they made short order of the work removing the tree (Jason literally removed a lot of the oak for firewood, with our blessing).
Our back patio was covered with tree debris and limbs, some as large as four inches in diameter. One bounced off the porch roof as it fell to the ground, it made a loud boom-bang sound but we could not see any damage to the roof.
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| Peafowl exploring patio after the storm |
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| Patio after Irma redecorated with tree debris |
STORM HIGHLIGHTS
As the storm ramped up on Sunday the wind was from due East as the Weather Channel predicted.
Around 11PM Sunday night I noticed the wind was solidly coming from the North which indicated it was quite near and we were getting the rotation from the top left corner. This was some of the most scary wind, the sound was like a big turbine winding up then whisssssssshhhhhhh it would discharge and blow very hard for a few seconds.
By 2AM the wind was very strong and coming directly from the south, this meant the center of the storm had moved north of us and we were getting wind from the bottom right corner.
The storm really ramped up and started to blow hard around 5PM on Sunday. It blew all night.
Monday morning we still had strong winds outside, too strong to walk safely among the trees, many of which still have heavy fallen branches that have not dropped to earth yet because they're hung up in the upper story of the trees.
