*Yikes* TS "Debbie (Downer)" Hits Sarasota...

[Joshua_me]

The power of nature is amazing.

I'm reminded of a bumper sticker I once saw that read, "Nature Bats Last".

Ain't it the truth.

I've lived in Sarasota for over 20 years, now, and it was easy to fool oneself into believing that storms either went to the North or South of us...

But.

Debbie Downer snuck up on us right under our collective "RADAR's".

Not to worry, we're fine... the power going on and off was annoying- but, that was just the beginning.

It's almost 6AM as I type this and I am looking out over our backyard. Our screened-in pool cage has collapsed, (with many pieces of screen hanging off our neighbor's trees..) And speaking of trees, a near 100 year-old Oak that straddled our property line has fallen. And while it's heartbreaking to see it, (and the shade it provided) go, it's a wake-up call to realize that if it had fallen 20 feet to the East it would have taken our roof and probably half our house with it, in the middle of a 7 hour long torrential rain.

We could have lost *everything*.

It's a humbling experience, to say the least.

My prayers go out to all of the FL residents that weren't so lucky.

Something tells me there are going to be a LOT of stories coming from the victims of this storm that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Hug the people you love, and remember how quickly things can change.

Sign me,

A "shaken-up" Joshy.

 

[kaligal]

I had a tree fall through the house once. What a mess. Insurance agents are worth their weight in gold when something happens!!

Glad to hear you got through okay and praying for all.

Nature bats last. That's very funny.

 

[mikelan6]

Stay safe guys!

 

[Cherinva]

I'm glad that you are ok...storms are a big thing around here...lucky for us, the way the coastline is, South Carolina gets it before we do and sometimes that helps us here.

I was surprised when I watched the news this morning...the last thing I saw was on Saturday, when they (the news folks here) thought the storm was going west into Texas

 

[WaltD4Me]

Very scary.........stay safe! Sending good thoughts for calmer weather.

 

[hockeymomNS]

Oh no, stay safe all.

 

[LilGMom]

Glad to read that you are ok and despite some exterior pool damage your house is ok. And hopefully she'll hurry up with her trek onto land and die out soon.

As a long-time FL resident I think we get ho-hum about the low grade hurricanes and especially about the ones that are "just" tropical storms. Sometimes those can do just as much damage as the quick moving higher grade hurricanes because they often move soooo slow and dump soooo much water and push sooo much water. I agree with you that we'll probably see quite a few stories about how this one just kinda sprung up on people and people weren't expecting it to such a little fighter. Heck, just two days ago they still had one possible path as being it heading to TX.

 

[NitroStitch]

I'm shocked at how much damage SRQ has had. We've been lucky so far, though I had a hard time finding a non-flooded road to take to work. So sorry about all the damage you've had!

 

[NitroStitch]

Well, now we have a HUGE tree in the back yard that's down. It's too dark to tell, but I think it's just got some upper branches resting on the top of the house. We think we may not have any or much damage to the house. DH was just about to open a door to the back yard to investigate the weird noise we were hearing when it came down. He'd have been right where the tree came down, had he gone out 15 seconds earlier.

Yeah, we were VERY lucky. Whew.

 

[Joshua_me]

Well, now we have a HUGE tree in the back yard that's down. It's too dark to tell, but I think it's just got some upper branches resting on the top of the house. We think we may not have any or much damage to the house. Yeah, we were VERY lucky. Whew.

Be careful when you are inspecting the damage, especially if you have standing water on your property (and under the fallen tree). But really, be careful in general.

We got ahold of our "tree guy" today, and while he's understandably swamped with business, (pardon the pun) he reminded us that snakes and balls of fire ants and sorts of nasty things live up in the trees, and it's very easy to step into a big puddle and not see what might be waiting to chomp onto your feet.

(How poisonous snakes climb up into tall trees is beyond me, but I took his word for it.) <cue "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book here>

Just a word to the wise. If it's an option, let the professionals take care of it.

Watch out for your children and pets as well, of course. Not that they're hiding in the puddles - Oh, you know what I mean.

Take care, and good luck.

 

[hockeymomNS]

Oh gosh guys, I'm so sorry.
Please be careful.

 

[NitroStitch]

Be careful when you are inspecting the damage, especially if you have standing water on your property (and under the fallen tree). But really, be careful in general.

We got ahold of our "tree guy" today, and while he's understandably swamped with business, (pardon the pun) he reminded us that snakes and balls of fire ants and sorts of nasty things live up in the trees, and it's very easy to step into a big puddle and not see what might be waiting to chomp onto your feet.

(How poisonous snakes climb up into tall trees is beyond me, but I took his word for it.) <cue "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book here>

Just a word to the wise. If it's an option, let the professionals take care of it.

Watch out for your children and pets as well, of course. Not that they're hiding in the puddles - Oh, you know what I mean.

Take care, and good luck.

Thanks for the tips and warnings. I'm phobic about snakes, so I don't need any encouragement to stay away from the tree AND the yard. (I'm convinced snakes can end up absolutely anywhere, just because I don't want them to!)

We're lucky that we're renting the house we're in, so our landlord will either be removing the tree or hiring a professional to do that (far more likely, given the size of the tree). We were just really lucky where it fell - things could have been so much worse.

Hopefully your tree guy will get to your yard sooner rather than later. Good luck to you too!

And thanks, HockeymomNS, for your best wishes too!