As Hurricane Matthew headed for the East Coast of Florida, the tension and stress of locals started to rise. Contrary to the laid back no hurries no worries attitude, as the storm approached people were starting to realize things could get serious.
I went back and forth from watching the local news and the weather channel. Matthew could make landfall in Florida as a Category 4 and I was tracking it's every move.
By Tuesday ( 3 days before the storm was scheduled to make landfall) stores were already running out of bread and water. I stocked up on the hurricane essentials (water, candles, batteries, flashlights and canned goods) we had plenty of food, being an athlete your never short of supplements or protein bars, so we planned on weathering the storm.
We live 10 miles from the ocean, so when we built our house, the builder provided us with hurricane shutters. These shutters have collected dust and sat in the corner of the garage until last week. Wow, what a process! The shutters are an all day process, and you realize how much stuff you have when you start having to get everything inside.
As I continued to track the storm and ask our neighbors and locals what their plans were, I decided we needed to leave, and later convinced Ryan as well. The storm was intensifying, and Florida was under a state of emergency! 1.5 million Floridians already had been evacuated and when Florida Governor Rick Scott said this could be catastrophic, and if you don't listen to authorities you could experience immense human suffering! Red Flag LET's LEAVE! With hotels being sold out we were very lucky to have numerous friends reach out and offer us a place to stay. So thank you, everyone, and especially Kerry and Mike Morgan who brought us in!
As we anxiously sat in Tampa, we waited to see what destruction Matthew was going to do along the coast. Palm Bay and Melbourne got extremely lucky. What looked like was going to be a direct hit to our coast, Matthew stayed just far enough off in the ocean that there was no serious damage. We arrived home to inspect the damage the next day to find only a few branches in the yard and everything else just as we left it. With that, we headed to off to Melbourne beach to inspect the damage and to our surprise it looked great. Ryan and Igor even managed to fit a surf session in. : )
Chevron Gas Station Beach Side
As I continue to track and monitor the aftermath of the storm, my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who has been affected and especially North Carolina.