As I have some really cool pictures of the hurricane. I thought I’d give a blow by blow.

Some of you probably know, we live in a 8 unit, span create condo building that was built in 1977. We are 6 feet off the water and we are in Zone A evacuation area for hurricanes. This place has NEVER had any flooding in all the 45 years that this building has been standing.

Hurricane Ian hit our place on September 28th, 2022. It has been 7 1/2 months and we still don’t have anything fixed on the outside of the condo building.

So here is what happened: Monday, the 26th, they called for the evacuation of all people in Zone A , which is where we live. Well, we figured for Hurricane Ian they said it was going to have 8 foot water surge but it just sucked the water out of our canal and the winds weren’t that bad either. Hell, we can handle that, let’s stay this time.

Tuesday morning they called for the mandatory evacuation of Zone B. No big deal, Irma wasn’t so bad, we live in a concreate building and it hasn’t flooded in 45 years. We should be good.

Tuesday afternoon they called for the evacuation of Zone C. Holy crap! That is a big area. This is going to be a bad one. Gary figures we’d loose the boat and the condo and he didn’t want to lose the car too, so we put a bunch of our stuff up high on counter tops, dressers etc., grabbed a few important items we couldn’t live without, hopped in our car and got the hell out of Dodge. Yes, Yes, we grabbed the Smokeman too

One of our neighbors, who lived on the first floor also, only had a motorcycle as a get away car, so we offered to drop them somewhere. They decided to stay and weather the storm. They were our eyes and ears during the hurricane.

We left Tuesday afternoon around 4 and decided to drive across Florida to Stewart, about a 2 hour drive. We figured it was probably a less crowded hideout than Miami and cheaper too. As we drove thru the dark, the rain started coming down pretty hard. I made a bunch of phone calls to try and find a place to stay. I found a spot for the first night only but no room in the inn for Smokey. We grabbed it.

Poor Smokey had to sleep out in the car. Luckily the weather was pretty cool so we didn’t have to worry about him. We stopped down and kept him company thru out the day. I did happen to notice quite a few dogs that were walking with their parents. I finally flagged one down and asked them if they were staying at the hotel. They said they were and the reason they picked the hotel was because they allow pets. Huh? So I went to the front desk and asked them if they allowed pets. The guy said no! I asked him about all the dogs that were staying at the hotel. He said “We can’t turn away a service animal”. Guess it’s time to get Smokie one of those orange vests LOL.

While we were in Stewart, we figured we get some items that might be in short supply when we got home. Things like rubber boots, saw horses, blue line chalk, fans, exacto knives, sheet rock nails, a big wet vac with attachments and the all important….gas!

We had to buy a carrier for the gas tanks and Smokie was the supervisor.

This is the tool you want Dad.

So we were all set, just needed to hope that all would turn out okay, that we’d find a place to lay our heads for a few more days, and pray that there wouldn’t be too much damage when we returned home.