Almost Home

When we left California it seemed that our trek across country would never end. Now, as we approach our final destination in southern Florida, it doesn't seem so bad. We have certainly taken a leisurely route. We refer to it as the "Three Thirty Rule" meaning we will travel no more than 330 miles or arrive no later than 3:30 PM. Certainly our trip has taken more days than it could have, but the quality of our days has been so much better. (IE... we aren't bitching at each other ...... as much!!!)

Our travels up to Jacksonville

We arrived in the Jacksonville area on Friday, and spent the weekend with family before moving on to our home near Labelle, FL. We were anxious to see the resort, as Hurricane Irma went right over it. And everyone had reported that although there was damage, it was not anything like it could have been. The staff of the resort has been (and remains) very busy cleaning up debris and broken limbs. The pines, oaks and palms are all a bit thinner than they were, and limbs seem to droop a bit more than in the past.

Last year I took a picture of the palms reflected in the mirror of our motorhome. I took a second shot of it last night. It shows the impact of the hurricane on the palms. They look so sad.

Here is another before and after shot. The first is a picture of our lot with the huge oak at the back and a pretty Bismarck Palm in the front. Compare this picture to the one I took this evening.  What a difference.

   

It's Not the End at RiverBend!

I haven't posted in a while due to Internet issues we experience when we are on the road. Most campgrounds now have WiFi, but all of the campers collectively are trying to suck a swimming pool worth of connectivity through a garden hose. We get a trickle at best.

However, now we have Internet at the new house. We don't have much in the way of furniture... but we can get online!

So, I will go back in time to a few days following Irma's landfall in Florida on September 11. There were 13 residents of the RV resort who weathered the storm in the resort's clubhouse. They soon were without power and water, and cell phone connectivity was sketchy. However, we did get reports that all was well. There was little structural damage throughout the resort, no flooding and only the plant life was damaged by the storm. Within a few days staff from the resort took pictures of each of the 315 lots and set up a drop box online so that residents who were far away could see their property.

These are pictures from our lot:

 

The Royal Palm (on the left) lost most of its fronds. However, one of the onsite managers said that within a few days he could see new growth coming up on the Royals. Our Bismarck Palm (center) is very droopy and looks like it lost fronds. The fan-like palm on the right has some fronds broken in the middle. I wish I could have been there when the picture was taken. It would have been interesting to see if straightening the bent fronds and splinting them would have kept the fronds alive. 

The center part of the picture with all of the leaves (and a stray pot) was actually just sand. This area used to be grass and we had pavers installed in all but this one area, where we planned to put in some fake grass sod. We may have to add some more sand before we get around to adding our "grass". 

Considering all of the trees that are behind us, this pile of limbs is not all that impressive.  I had nightmares that the tree would fall in the storm. The tree was one of the reasons we picked this particular lot. We like the shade it provides!

This view of the back of the lot shows more damage with fallen limbs in the foreground and by the oak. That oak 3' or more in diameter and it seems to have lost a lot of smaller limbs. It isn't on our property, and may not even be on the resort's property. We had intended to clean up around it anyway, our cleanup just may be a bit more extensive!

In June we had pavers installed on our property wanted a paver walkway behind our "coach house" (storage building). The original shrubs were removed as they had grown tall and leggy, and were in the way of the pavers.  We replaced the shrubs with Podocarpus. This one is leaning. It looks like at least one of the shrubs was broken. 

Our coach house sustained no visible damage. But, it is strange to see the neighbor's coach house. We will have to give the podocarpus some time to recover, grow and bush out.

This is a shot of our neighbor's property and his storage cabinet. It is possible that the cabinet caused some of the damage to the shrubs we had planted in the spring. 

Our 

The Aftermath

We watched in horror as Hurricane Irma slammed into Marco Island on the gulf coast of Florida. This was expected but being a dreamer, I always hold out hope for a last minute change. In the week before the storm as I watched projections, I had finally begun to relax as I saw that Irma was going to skirt along the western edge of Florida, the projections inching ever so slowly westward. But as we watched, Irma took a turn to the east, bearing down on the RV resort that we call home. NO! This wasn’t the last minute change I wanted. She wasn’t supposed to go that way!  What was left of the eye of the storm, now Category 2,  passed right over the resort. 

The RV Resort is just west of Labelle, FL.
This is a screen shot of the storm on Sunday at 8:29 EDT

There were 11 (or was it 13?) residents of the resort who stayed and rode out the storm in the club house, which was built as a hurricane shelter. 

We received a few updates on FaceBook:

Sunday 6:28 PM “The eye will pass over Ft. Myers in the next 1-2 hrs. Wind about 70 mph here at 6:15PM. Big tree blew down in front of the clubhouse but because wind was from east fell away from clubhouse. Power went out 2 1/2 hours ago. The emergency gen started but did not transfer power to the clubhouse. Lots of debris. Lakes over flowing.”

Sunday 9:09 PM “We’re OK here but we got clobbered. Will let u know when we can see tomorrow.”

Monday 3:31 PM “… sometime after 6:30 the worse of the storm went by. We had gusts in excess of 100 mph, you could not see through the rain going sideways out the back windows of the clubhouse. These gusts I believed did the most damage. They tore at already weakened trees, bushes, awnings and anything round. We watched as leaves disappeared from tops of trees and branches continued to fall. When we went out this morning, it explains why there was so much more damage then they saw around 3:30. The Royals, bigger trees uprooted, some awnings completed torn from coach houses not just the canvas. It will be a massive clean up job.”

We have had a few more reports and some pictures. One property owner was able to share pictures on Facebook. 

Another property owner managed to upload some videos showing damage in Fort Myers and at our resort. How comforting for us to see so much that wasn't damaged, but how sad to see the trees.

We are all anxious to see our individual lots to reassure ourselves that everything is OK. All of this will come, in time, as power is restored. 

But, the good news is that we are safe and our friends are safe. Life is good!