Hurricane Ian is official behind me

[o2bnMaine]

I (finally) skied again!! We drove from Maine to Florida just before Hurricane Ian was supposed to "land." That gave me enough time to prepare for the storm. It has been the longest between sets for me!! Two weeks!! But it felt good to get back at it today. I stuck to 28-off for the whole set. Wow, it is amazing how out of condition one can get in just two weeks!

If anybody wonders what a hurricane will do to central Florida, here you go. We are very close to the exact middle of the state. Hurricane Ian was forecast to go right over us, but it ended up heading east of us (which means we didn't get the worst of the winds). Typically, the storms de-power by the time they get to us. Our problem was the water. We had high water from two months of storms each evening. That meant the extra foot of water from Ian put things over the edge. That's why the basement flooded... Anyway! Here are some pictures from just after the storm.

These might look bad, but in all honesty, we did not lose anything we need to generate income or enjoy life. Most of the stuff we lost should have been sold or given away a long time ago. The two cars were totalled as they had sewage flood them. That made that decision easy! The mower still runs fine, so it survived. The boat survived. The vehicles we use every day survived. And the dock survived. We lost once section of fence. We have some very minor leaks in the roof. That's about it!!

As you can see in the pictures, the boat/truck got the prime spot to ride out the storm (between two buildings).

[Jody_Seal]

I can relate. we are at the 4 year anniversary of hurricane Michael. cat 5 rolled on shore Oct 9 2018 and decimated Bay county Florida. 25.5 billion in damages. put 50 years worth of debris in our landfill.for every category of hurricane it takes that many years to recover.trust me when I say our asses puckered when we were in the cone of Ian.good luck to you all down in your clean up..

[thager]

Wow, surprised you have a basement in Florida? Can't be that many!

[BKistler]

Lake Howard? On the canal? I have the same reaction as @thager: You have a basement?

I’m on the east side of Winter Haven.

[BKistler]

If my memory serves me, that house was owned by Malcolm Pope, brother of Cypress Gardens founder Dick Pope. Sr. Dick lived on the other side of the canal.

[o2bnMaine]

Basement: it is half submerged. My guess is the floor is about level with our dock! So, the dock was under water... So was the basement!

We are the house on Lake Howard that was NOT owned by the Popes. The house not connected to the walking bridge.

Michael hit you guys so my harder than we've ever been hit. It was just a Cat 1 by the time it hit us.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

I will not minimize the damage from any hurricane or other weather event, we just need to remember that Mother Nature is a BITCH and she doesn't care about us whiney waterskiers. Our job is to prepare as best we can, deal with the effects and move on.This is the roof of my boathouse from a flood a few years ago. Its been completely underwater several times.

[Bdecker]

Glad you are ok and back to skiing. Losing that 380SL and the Beetle must sting though.