Post Hurricane Irma update

It has been a little over a week since Hurricane Irma moved through Florida, and I'm sorry it has taken us so long to say, "We are OK!"

We got up with the sunrise that Monday morning with the wind still blowing and found our house was sound, but our yard was filled with limbs.  Our oak tree in the front lost three large limbs, two of which were blocking our front door.

I started clearing the debris that morning, and worked all day Monday and Tuesday hauling branches, cutting logs, etc. from our yard and our neighbors yards.  It was exhausting.  The most wonderful part of those two days was when Jim Austin, a man I didn't know, saw me sawing branches with a hand saw and pulled over with his chainsaw and said, "I couldn't let you try to cut those like that!"  He cut ALL of my big branches and what I thought was going to take all day took 30 minutes!

Schools and colleges closed for the week, and our offices did not reopen until Wednesday.  One nice benefit is that the Governor suspended all tolls (and they are still suspended) so we can move around a bit easier.  There are many work trucks from around the country here to help get power back to everyone.

We never lost power, but random houses around us were without power for up to 8 days.  The stores reopened when they got power back, but a lot of their dairy and meat shelves are bare.

Thank you for praying for us.  Almost everyone here is saying, "I'm grateful, it could have been much worse."  God graciously spared us more destruction, and we continue to pray for those who lost much more because of Irma and Harvey.