In The Storm

Things have been a little busy since this time last week. Hurricane Irma was bearing down on our state. And with the images of Hurricane Harvey fresh in everyone's mind, people were panicked. Lucky for us here in Florida the storm began to die before it made land fall. The damage could have been a lot worse. 
I thought I would quickly share with you my experience during hurricane Irma. I live in the Tampa Bay area so it was only a Category 2 when it finally reached us. The Florida Keys and Miami got hit pretty hard but overall the damage was not as bad as expected.
I took my family over to my parents house for shelter. We played games and watched the news while waiting for the storm to pick up. Eventually, it did. We had wind gusts of about 100 mph. It sounded like a jet engine revving up every time the wind kicked in. After a few hours, my family and I watched the storm from under their screened in back porch. The winds were high but there wasn't much for debris in the air so we knew we'd be alright. 
At some point, a large tree in the backyard gave way and toppled over, taking part of the fence with it. It was an impressive cracking sound as the roots snapped out of the ground. That was mostly it for the excitement around the house that night. Eventually, the power cut out and we all went to bed.
The next day we assessed the damage and started on clean up. I took a quick journey home to make sure everything was still in tact. It was, but the power was out there as well. While on the roads, there were several downed power lines, trees on top of house, and a couple flooded roads. But otherwise, not too bad.   
Many of the traffic signals were out which made driving a bit dangerous. When that happens, the intersections should be treated like a 4 way stop. Unfortunately, not everyone knows this and we were almost hit several times. 
All in all, Florida got lucky and things should be back to normal for everyone a lot sooner than expected. I hope everyone stayed safe during the storm!