Hurricane Helene sept 26. 2024

       Hurricane Helene side swiped Bradenton on Sept, 26 2024. At 5:39 pm Helene's eye was 100 miles from us, and she was 400 miles wide, we were side swiped by her and might not have survived is she came on shore. We have been through 6 hurricanes, 1 tropical storm in our 35 years in this house. This was the most terrifying of all of them. We had no damage to our home, we have had much more damage than this storm, but we were the lucky ones. At 6;36 we lost power, and it was down for 38 hot, humid, dark hours. From noon on the 26th the winds howled, and roared with 50 mph gusts, after dark the winds were coming in gusts to 80, that made our 100-year-old oak tree bow down to the ground, the wind made sound like a giant blowing in a giant sized coke bottle. 

I did not sleep for about 30 hours. bob slept a little, but my fear kept him awake. In the past he took his hearing aids out and slept through all the storms, this one was more ominous, and he left them in.  we are surrounded by trees; huge trees and the noise was much louder in the DARK.

I am afraid of the dark, have been since birth. the entire house was BLACK DARK, my ears working overtime. I paced, I turned flashlights on and off, we had 6 flashlights but no lantern to let burn, I lit the oil lamp but was afraid of fire for the first time ever. I blew it out. around midnight when it was at its             worst, with flashlight in hand, I gathered the 3 portable chargers and sat them and the watch I had purchased the week before (there is no clock in the house except phone and electric) on the counter and suddenly remembered this lamp is powered by USB. I grabbed it and plugged it into the little black charger, and I HAD LIGHT. I could carry it from room to room, and it was just enough, when sitting in front of the mirror in the nook, to give light all through the house. When the living room lit up, Bob came down the hall to see why we had light. 

He wanted me to turn it off, and YOU all KNOW I did not. That sweet little lamp gave me light for three nights.

If you know me well, you know that I have a scenario player in my brain that projects any and all things that could happen and probably will. I cannot turn it off.     I died by tree several times, I was trapped and not dead several times, the floods came, and I clung to trees, the phones died, and I could not call for help, there is more and none of it happened except in my mind.  

I also thought I might die from heat collapse, the heat and humidity felt HOTTER in the dark and each night I felt like I might die of suffocation. All windows were open, but no cool air.                                                                                    

 EVERYTHING IS WORSE without power! The heat/humidity was the worst part.

Beau suffered, he panted, he paced, he kept looking at me like, why am I so hot, do something. I fed him ice; I used wet washcloths to wet his face and ears. He would sleep for a while after that and then pace. He was much better off than the 3 pitties next door. They would leave the house and ride in the AC to places that had AC and food and be gone leaving the dogs shut in the house without the windows open. He told me he would give them ice water before he left.  Each time the dogs barked, I suffered with them.

We slept on wet sheets, sweating so much they were drenched each night

I cooked the meat that was in the fridge on the grill outside and put in bags. we bought 3 bags of ice each day, and I kept a cooler with water bottles and a few things, and a bag in the freezer to keep the meat I cooked. I DID NOT Eat any of it because I did not trust it. I have never cooked on our propane grill, but had to do it, and I am terrified of propane, Bob turned it on and off for me, but what a mess i made cooking frozen fish and frozen philly cheese steaks on an aluminon pan. I will purchase a pot/pan just for sitting on the grill because the storms are coming more and more often.

We lost about 700 dollars' worth of food in the fridge. Beaus' yogurt, 2 dozen eggs, 1 gallon milk, 1 gallon soy milk, 5 different cheeses and a door full of condiments.         the fridge was full because I had bought things 3 days before.

If that was no bad enough, my phone advised me DO NOT DRINK THE WATER. Boil it first. We still can't drink the water; they filled it with Clorine.

Added to that we found that Beau will not drink bottled water, I boiled water every day so he could drink it, and at first, he did not want that, but did finally get used to it.   All of our other dogs drank water from the pool if outside and were not picky about the taste.     

I AM NOT BACK ON THE BLOG TRAIN YET, I WANTED THIS FOR MY FUTURE REFERECNES AND WILL DO 1 OR 2 MORE. I JUST AM NOT ABLE TO READ AND COMMENT ON OTHERS BLOG AND THIS IS MORE FOR MY INFO THAN THE PUBLIC.  

WE ARE FINE.