IRMA

[topgun2]

It is looking like IRMA will be round two.  Best of luck to all and especially our kindred Oliver owners in the Florida area.  Most of the "old timers" have been down this road.  But, this appears to be a bit of a different beast.  Please be careful!

 

Bill

[SeaDawg]

Thanks. We have been down this road many times, but it's been awhile. We're trying to help neighbors who have never experienced a storm like this.

And, help our daughter and friends get ready. Paul is at the sand pile with neighbors as we speak. My truck holds a lot more bags than their cars...

Thanks for your thoughts. You won't see a lot of me for the next few days.

Sherry

[Hap]

Thanks. We live on a small barrier island on the N.E. Florida coast and we are leaving this morning for Mckinney Campground in Atlanta. Many years ago we stayed on the coast while on vacation and lived thru a class 1 hurricane, and I've always said never again. We feel blessed to have an Oliver trailer to live in during these events. Hope everyone in the path of IRMA stays safe.

 

Hap

 

 

[topgun2]

Hap - from the latest forecasts it appears that IRMA is basically going to follow right behind you.  Asheville is expecting local flooding and downed trees on Monday into Tuesday.  Make sure that you are on high ground!

 

Bill

[ScubaRx]

...we are leaving this morning for Mckinney Campground in Atlanta. Many years ago we stayed on the coast while on vacation and lived thru a class 1 hurricane, and I’ve always said never again. We feel blessed to have an Oliver trailer to live in during these events...

 

At this point (0150 - 09/08/2017) Central GA and the Metro Atlanta area in general are expecting tropical storm winds between 40 and 60 mph with gusts up to 70 mph to occur starting about 2000 - 09/11/2017 (Monday).

 

Based on the predictions as of this morning (Friday), I would be remiss to stop in Atlanta, rather, I would plan to continue West at least another 150 miles.  My greatest worry would be the tornado's that are often spawned from these tropical storms.  A 70 mph broadside gust of wind on your Oliver might not put  it on its side, but a tornado would.

 

Good luck and please stay safe...

[Hap]

 

 

We are on high ground, our worry here is the large trees surrounding our site at this park. When we drove up yesterday, the freeway was very busy with most cars from Florida, but now I understand, the roads are packed. We've been in extreme winds with the Oliver with little more than some rocking of the trailer, so that does not worry me, but the trees and tornados do. When we leave our house on our travels, a lot of people ask if we worry about our belongings while we're gone and I always tell them that we do our best to prepare, but after that, we hire God and Mr. and Mrs. Allstate to do the worrying for us. Hey, life's an adventure.

 

Hap

 

 

[topgun2]

Speaking of adventure - my wife and I always go to the North Carolina beach during the second to third week of September.  We rent a beach house for a week and generally just do beach things.

 

Knowing that this is the peak of hurricane season we have always purchased "trip insurance" - obviously we should have started self-insuring years ago because we have never had a situation where we even came close to collecting on that insurance (good thing).  However, it looked like this year was going to be a bit different.  So, here we are preparing for our trip to the beach while others are fleeing the beach and the latest reports are that IRMA is going to move even further inland towards Tennessee.  Go figure!

 

All one can do is keep an eye on the forecasts - they seem to change often - and take all precautions necessary.  Hope that everyone is safe out there!

 

Bill

[SeaDawg]

Well, looks like it may be pretty nasty in Tampa Bay tomorrow night.

Since we may not have power or cell towers for a few days to a bit longer, I'd like to thank all of you who have messaged me, and also ask that you not be worried if you don't hear from us in a few days. I will be in text only mode to conserve power, and we'll rotate whose phone is on, for same reason, after the lights go out.

I'm making a similar post on Facebook. Thanks for all your good wishes, thoughts, and prayers.

Talk to you later in the week.

Sherry

[KarenLukens]

We are praying for all of you :)

[MikeandGerri]

Heading out this morning to take our Oliver (and ourselves) to safer territory!!  Gust of 70 mph is not what I like and the trees can become an issue!!

 

Stay safe everyone Irma is a beast!!!

[topgun2]

My wife and I arrived on the coast of North Carolina late yesterday afternoon (about 30 miles as the crow flies north of Wilmington).  Sorry - no Twist this time.  But, we are in a house right on the beach.  The wind is blowing a bit - I'd guess at about 30 mph - and the surf is fairly heavy with a good rip current.  Temperature is in the mid to high 70's.  There are heavy clouds with a rain prediction for this afternoon and tomorrow.  We took a walk on the beach early this morning and will spend the rest of the day reading and messing with a jigsaw puzzle.  Glad to hear that IRMA has not been as bad as originally predicted.  Surely do hope that all made it through this thing with little to no problem.

 

Bill

[Hap]

We've been at McKinney Campground for several days enjoying the great fall weather and visiting with all of our family in the Atlanta area until early this morning. We pulled out around 7 am when the rain and wind started to pick up and the large pine trees surrounding us started to sway. We're presently parked at a large rest station near Macon, Ga. with all of the truckers and a few fellow RVers. We have high winds and heavy rain but have not put the jacks down and the OTT only rocks slightly when we have a hard side gust of wind. Our fridge is stocked up, the batteries are holding up well and the generator is full of gas when extra power or recharging is needed. Our neighbors that stayed on the Island emailed and said that our home has held up well and we hope that holds up for another few hours until the winds pass Amelia Island by. We feel really fortunate all the way around. We plan to head out first thing in the morning. The storm should be past us by then. Maybe after cleaning up the yard, we can head out on our planned trip to the New England states for a few weeks. Time will tell.  We pray that all of our Oliver friends stay safe during this storm.

 

Hap

[Mike and Carol]

Harvey evacuees were offered free camping at all Texas State Parks and many commercial parks. I hope Irma evacuees are offered the  same.   Mike

[SeaDawg]

I finally have enough bandwidth to say that we are all ok. The storm moved east late, and we only had force one or maybe two. Not sure. I turned off notifications, and ent with my gut, and the radio.

Lots of trees down, including ours, and our daughter and neighbors. We're busy trying to help everyone we can. Everyone is tired. And also grateful that we didn't experience a huge storm surge.

No one I know has power. The county is littered with down wires , poles, and major debris and trees, as we expected

 

This morning I made coffee on the camping stove. Another neighbor made pancakes.

We'll get on

Hoping.g all of those affected worse than us rebound.

It's a huge, and ugly, storm.

A huge grateful thanks to first responder s and power company employees. We love you,veben though I sit in the dark. It is what it is.

Sherry

Working off my brick. No power anywhere available.

Signing off

[topgun2]

Still 25-35 mph winds here.  With the beach house on piers it was actually pleasant going to sleep last night as the whole house gently rocked back and forth.  Heavy rain this morning but it is forecast to clear by noon.  We are so glad to hear that Hap & Sherry are OK.  As has been said - one can rebuild most things but not life.

 

Bill

[SeaDawg]

Our county is a mess, but a lot of help from everyone. We saw trucks from Union, Illinois in the parking lot near our inland condo this morning. Since virtually everyone in the county lost power,it was a huge and welcome surprise to see trucks from 18 hours away. Thank you guys!!!

We very grateful that our home is unscathed. Trees down, and at our daughter s home, near the neighbors roof. We'll get it done.

We're actually home tonight. No power anywhere, but we can deal. our dog is a bit upset with all the moving around.

 

So many people had it worse than us.

We're helping neighbors now, and hope to move beyond the neighborhoods when we can.

So many places got it way worse than us.

Thanks for all your positive thoughts, and prayers. just a mile away, it's far more ugly.

I'm so grateful.

[Hap]

SeaDawg

 

Yesterday morning while on the way home to Amelia Island we stopped for gas in Waycross Georgia which is about 40 miles north of the Florida and Georgia state line. While there a huge convoy of out of state utility trucks passed heading south at a high rate of speed with police escort both front and back. The Waycross police were blocking all major cross streets to let them by.  There's a lot of resources moving in.

 

We are lucky and just have to clean up of our yard full of downed limbs and debris. We are also working on an elderly couples yard and driveway next door who are still at a shelter nearby. Lots of neighbor helping neighbors on our street.

 

We have the Oliver fully stocked and backed into our driveway as we wait for our power to be restored.

 

Keep us updated.

 

Hap

 

 

 

Hap.

[Maverick]

Dominion Energy has sent hundreds of employees and equipment from Virginia to Florida to aid in the restoration process.

 

 

[SeaDawg]

I think I heard that our state had 70,000 out of state workers here, with trucks.

Just want to say, Florida folks love all of you unnamed pros who sacrificed time at home with your families to bring the power to our homes, and more importantly, to hospitals, fire stations, and traffic signals.

We're all good here. A few cuts and sprains in the neighborhood, from working in the dark, but we really only dealt with first world problems here. Lack of ac and power, no cell phone charging, etc, for only five to seven days for most of us.

It's still way worse in other parts of our state, and in the islands in Irma's path. Here, we didn't get the horrible sustained winds that other areas received.

My heart goes out to the inland dwellers who caught so much unpredicted wind and rain. And even more to the Islanders...keys, Puerto Rico, vi,Cuba, Barbuda, and so many more.

We here at least had messed up yards, trees, but homes to return to. So much worse elsewhere.

Sherry