Now please Jose, get your act together and go out to sea.
For those returning home, I-95 has some lane closures around Dillon, SC (just south of NC border) that were announced. Travel safe people.
We made it through Irma down here in south FL. We were lucky- only had a few tree branches down and one tiny palm tipped over. Lost power around 5pm Sunday but somehow it came back on at 11pm! Most of our town is still without power so I currently have a bunch of kids sleeping over to enjoy the AC.
My D19 was able to talk to her friend in St Thomas for a little bit on Friday- he said all of the people we know down there were safe.
SIL’s house in Daytona Beach had minor damage to a door. Fence was blown down, also. Her power came on overnight. She lucked out!
The overlords have cancelled the meeting!!! We are going to Disneyland!!! Not really, I am just happy to not be a burden on the Floridians recovering from Irma.
Roommate’s parents’ place in Clearwater made it through fine. Some minor damage to a few of the condo buildings but nothing severe. Something did flood but it sounds like it was a detached storage unit.
Gainesville Health and Fitness has opened it’s locker room to anyone who is out of power and needs a shower.
Condo in Siesta Keys/Sarasota came through OK. A couple of units had some roof damage but no water damage, so everyone was lucky. My husband was going to head there on Friday (previously scheduled) but may delay. There is still no power. I can’t get over the devastation in so many areas-my heart goes out to those who are going to have to basically start over.
Taking DS16 back to Charleston in the morning . Curious to see if there is any damage
Just got power back. So nice to take a shower and eat something besides PB&J. Now I can catch up with everyone’s news.
I got home today. A 4.5 hour trip from northern SC to the coast took 8 hours due to bumper-to-bumper, crawling traffic on 1-26 and 1-95.
@bookworm, hurrah for power!
Out again…
Reading some good and bad things about the Virgin Islands - both British and American - and the other islands. Supplies coming in, power catamarans arriving from St. Croix to evacuate folks (mainly the elderly and families with young children for safety reasons) of St. John. Most arranged privately by people on St. Croix and St. Thomas. That’s the good. The bad - sounds like very little official presence - little police presence, little FEMA, people don’t have food/water, power will be out for months, not weeks or days, etc.
As much as I feel for all the people affected by the hurricanes, the people in Texas and Florida, my $$ is going to the USVI where I have roots. I know of some private groups trying to get resources and supplies in but transportation/delivery remains a huge challenge. If anyone knows of dependable relief efforts close to the source where money will go to help those who need it not administrative overhead, please let me know.
This is sad. 
@doschicos Tim Duncan(former NBA player) is heading up a relief effort for the USVI. He is a very low key, nice person. He even admitted it was hard for him to speak out but the people there are hurting. He is a native.
Tim Duncan also spoke about how long it took to get power back and reopen schools after Hugo. He lived through that as a child and doesn’t want it to be so bad this time around.
Bvirelief.org for donations to the British Virgin Islands. I have visited the islands for over 40 years and sail at least once a year. I am very emotionally upset about the situation and have been active in working with some private groups bringing supplies over in their own boats from Puerto Rico.
Anyone inclined to donate should go to the Virgin Relief website. Richard Branson (who owns Necker Island there) is building a relief fund with NO overhead or Admin fees…he is covering all that. All donations 100% to relief and rebuilding.
Our Tampa area did not suffer much- store et al closings, a bit of yard work. Newer part of town with good infrastructure, not near water and luck. Next time we will leave as soon as it might come- Midwest vacation… PS- thankfully hurricane season is not in winter.
In the making-a-difficult-situation-even-worse category, a friend told me of her son’s experience on Hilton Head over the weekend. He’s one of the property managers for a large condo complex. He stayed during the storm, posted updates and videos on Facebook, in an attempt to keep owners informed. After the storm passed, he posted updates on the various buildings and areas of the property as to flooding and damage; he commented on the individuals who were in inspecting buildings and what was being done for the mostly minor damage that was sustained. A few buildings were not going to be inhabitable for this week. He has nothing whatsoever to do with any rentals in the complex. Those are handled by rental companies, realtors, or the owners themselves.
He started getting comments from people who had rented units for this week and how upset they were that they were going to miss their vacation week. One man posted that he had driven 7 hours prior to seeing this young man’s FB post about the particular building he was supposed to be in this week and told my friend’s son that he should think about updating FB more frequently and with better info! Who in their right mind would drive for 7 hours to an island that had just been hit by a hurricane and that had only been reopened to residents after a mandatory evacuation that same morning?! For a vacation? Human behavior never ceases to amaze me.
Some people are just whacked, @alwaysamom !!