Milton Evacuation from Venice

 

Now that Milton has left the state of Florida and unfortunately left so much damage, I am focused enough to give a recap of the week.  Also, I want to thank all the readers who were kind enough to leave comments on Instagram as I updated that I was safe.

As the forecast and track became more and more dire, we had to make a decision on Sunday whether to stay and miss a planned trip, or evacuate early to get out in time and safely.  It is not an easy decision to evacuate and face the traffic on the highways, gas shortages and just leaving your house not knowing what you will come back to.  Luckily I live in a newly constructed cinder block house that is built for a category 5 hurricane and it already withstood Ian fine.  Right when we left, an evacuation order was issued for our zone due to flooding concerns too.

We packed the car, grabbed the dog because you can’t leave a dog in a kennel that will lose power and drove 13 hours in the middle of the night on Monday.  We made it to Atlanta (usually a 6 hour drive), found gas at one lone pump and went to bed early after a long day at the hotel I had reserved in advance.  Watching the hurricane hit from afar is not a great feeling and seeing the eye pass over Venice is surreal.  

We did not lose power, completely (just flickers off and on), so by watching our cameras, we could see that screens and a support from our pool cage are down and there was definitely a power surge because the dining room light somehow turned on.  We feel lucky about this for sure, because for many in Venice it was much worse, especially the beach areas that were already damaged from the Helene storm surge.

We now spend time with family and friends in Michigan before we head back to clean up our place and also help our community with ongoing cleanup.  

Please pray for recovery for all our favorite spots in Venice, Sarasota and Siesta Key.  Floridians have got this, but will need help, even if it is good thoughts across the miles.