As I write this, I have had power in my home (other than my backup solar power) for less than one hour. I am using my phone for Internet access, and that has only been possible for about the last 30 minutes.
If I had to sum up Florence in a word, it would be “long”. If I got 2 words, it would be “long and wet”. We got 30 inches (76 cm) of rain; about half of that in 12 hours, over the course of 3 days. The storm was relentless and the trees didn’t do well. Many power lines were taken down by trees. Roads and bridges were damaged by flooding. It was the worst hurricane I have ever experienced. I’m sure glad it weakened before it got close or things might have been a lot worse.
Most of what I’m dealing with is from temporary flooding in my yard. Two of my out-buildings got water in them, so many things need to be dried out. However, my house is a couple feet higher, so nothing critical got flooded. There was no damage to my house or its contents.
I have a pretty decent sized battery bank that is charged by solar panels. Generally, it gets me through these storms and the sun comes out after the storm and recharges the batteries, allowing me to keep my refrigerator, phone, radio, and some lights going indefinitely. However, in this storm, the storm clouds stayed around long enough that my batteries were virtually depleted before we got any decent sun to recharge them. I estimate, even though it has been sunny for about 2 days, it will take about 3 more sunny days to completely recharge my batteries.
I am grateful that things were not worse, but I’m here to tell you that Florence was a bad storm. I haven’t been out to the beaches to see what kind of storm surge damage was done, but I have heard it was bad.
I hope everyone knows that you don’t really need to worry too much about me, as I’m a pretty self sufficient individual and I’m a good swimmer. 🙂 On the other hand, I want to thank everyone for thinking of me. I appreciate your concerns. I sat down to write this blog entry as soon as I got access to the Internet. I hope everyone else is okay. A lot of people around here are just returning to their homes, some people still don’t have power, and we’re all still digging out. Don’t expect to hear much from me for a while.
hi Doug
Very pleased to hear the storm has passed and that you are safe and well
Andy
Hi Doug & Andy,Florence has now reached east Europe he has crossed the Atlantic in Eastern direction.
Tomorrow we expect in Holland stormish weather,winds speeds about 100 km/hour.In my part of east Holland 70/km p.hr.Ha..ha..ha.with some rain.Thanks for the pictures,which show the ravage at your home groun and telling you are in good condition.
Sorry,Florence reached west Europe.
Hi Hennie
We’ve had strong winds and heavy rain here in the uk for the past three days
Glad to see you made it thru Florence Doug. As you said so glad it weekend, would not want to know what it could have been. Going to be a slow recovery for many sections of Brunswick Co. Stay safe my friend on future ventures to the wild, lots of stuff still hanging in the trees.
Hello Doug…
Thanks for the update on your situation. Has the electricity been restored? I can see from the photos that you’ve got lots or clean up to do. And, I would imagine it is not the time to be exploring the marsh byways quite yet. Very glad to hear you’re ok and your house came through ok.
I am glad that it was not as bad as the new channels made it out to be. And also glad that you did not suffer any real damage. Hope to see more of you in the future and i know i have said it many times, but hope maybe we can connect next sink season and do something in the way of a series to be released over time though the summer. always liked you and enjoy your vids, your one of the few on the net that gets the whole mud and quicksand and muck struggle and not just want to play in it and wallow which to me is boring – ergo why i need to get something of me out there to share soon.
take care and stay well and trapped in tiny gear in inescapable mud or clay or what ever!
Like everyone else, I’m glad you are safe and good luck with the clearing up 🙂
Thanks, everyone. I am going to spend this entire weekend clearing debris and removing trees from places they don’t belong. I do have power, but my cable Internet is off-line again, so I have to use my phone to access the Internet. I’ll update again in a couple of days.
Just a quick update. Everything has been back on for at least a week, now. I’ve just been super busy getting caught up in the office and fixing things around here.
Just FYI: The news did not exaggerate how bad this storm was. I just happen to be in a spot where flooding isn’t a big issue. I’m also not right on the ocean, so I don’t get storm surge. There are many people around here who can no longer live in their homes and near the rivers, there are many homes still underwater. You don’t have to go even a mile from where I am to find a home that has been destroyed. Heck, my next door neighbor’s house is messed up because his roof got torn up and it rained into his home.
I’m that guy with the steel roof, solar panels (charging a bank of batteries for backup), a gray water system, storm shelter, etc.
For a category 1/2 storm, this was much worse than anyone would have expected. It was a huge storm, and it essentially stopped right over the top of us.
I wish I had the time and money to completely rebuild my home. I’d make it able to withstand a 180mph wind (300kmph), and it would be super energy efficient. But alas, I just don’t have the time or the money for that, right now.