Evacuation to Deland

Day 39-40 – Nov 8-9– Evacuation and waiting for a hurricane

Weather – Lots of rain – windy – I think there’s a storm coming… Still warm.

Well, it turns out that there is a tropical storm/Hurricane on its way. Tuesday morning, we woke up and it was a lovely day – Sun was out at times, a little bit of wind. What storm I thought. I went up to the top deck to have a look around, however the gate to the pool was locked. I recall thinking that the maintenance guy had over reacted (You know, because obviously I have heaps of experience about these things and know better right…). There were clouds and rain off to the north east – the direction that the storm rotates, so I knew some weather was coming our way. 

High tide is first thing in the morning at the moment – around 8:30am, so I wondered down the beach to check things out. The wind was picking up and the waves were smashing against the beach already. The concern is the tidal surge – even at this early stage the beach is already coping a battering and I’m seeing further erosion.

I can imagine a situation where some of the buildings that are too close to the beach, with already damaged walls or buildings could be in danger. Katie and Rusty were both pretty nonchalant about the whole situation – it’s not even a cat 1, was the common refrain at this stage. I on the other hand was gee’d up from watching the cable news and weather stations. Fox35 – what a channel. Dramatic music, people yelling, everything so dramatic - FLORIDA BRACES FOR MONSTER STORM.  News guys reporting and deliberately standing at an angle… By 9am I was convinced that I needed to go out and buy a whole bunch of supplies while simultaneously needing to be evacuated and also convinced the biggest hurricane ever was about to hit, with eye of this monster hitting directly over our condo. I then looked out side and it was sunny and calm. So maybe the weather station was a little bit premature. Anyway, Rusty and Chi came over and we all decided to hold tight and just monitor the situation. Katie and I went out for Lunch at Boston Fish house. We got hit by a big rain shower, while driving but then it was nice and calm. 

Lunch was really good – I made sure to ask the waitress what the fish was in the fish sandwich – and I got options – and choose grouper. Smart choice. It was actually really good. Katie had a fair bit of work on, so after lunch I went over to Rusty’s and we had a swim in their pool with Wiley. The pool at their condo is 30c, it’s like a warm bath, and it’s quite deep at one end – so it’s lots of fun. The rain pelted down a few times, and so you get these cold spikes on your skin and then you can go back down into what feels like hot water. I love that feeling. We didn’t get out until we were quite prunny! We had planned to do dinner at our condo, so I went back home to prep. When I got out of the car up on the level three guest parking area I was hit by some pretty strong winds. Rusty’s place is on the other side of the road, so it’s really shelted from the wind, up on open parking lot I really felt the force of some of the gusts. It was hard to stand upright at times, and I had to be careful with the car door. The storm was coming. I went inside and made sure to move all the furniture in from the balcony – it was coming in sideways now. 

Katie was in a meeting and asked if we needed to evacuate – I said no, we’re doing dinner here and well see how we go tomorrow. I needed some more chicken wings for dinner, so Rusty and I went off to Publix (The supermarket), it was about 5pm and it was getting very dark from the clouds, and the rain was really coming in. We got saturated just running in. It appeared everyone had the same idea as Publix was pretty busy. Rusty dropped me off home with all the food, and when I walked in Katie told me we were leaving. Apparently there was a 7pm curfew and they close the bridge if the wind is above 39mph sustained. And there was a mandatory evacuation order to leave the coastal area by 4pm Wednesday. As Lucy was staying in Deland, the decision was made to just leave then and there. Rusty and Chi were less concerned and decided to wait until the morning. We packed and left the condo around 6:30pm. The wind wasn’t too bad at this stage, although there were some impressive gusts – the rain however was full on. The road between Deland and New Smyrna Beach (Hwy 44) has a 65mph limit, we had our hazard lights on, the windscreen wipers on full and were going at 30mph and it appeared we were sailing in rough seas, not driving on land! Thankfully we made it into DeLand without incident, where it was calm and dry. Lucy was very excited to see us and Bun Bun – who she had left behind! As I write this, it is Wednesday morning, we’ve face timed with Rusty and he’s checked the condo. They are coming over in the next hour. The storm surge is smashing against the sea wall at our condo which is further back than others. They are saying the Storm has already become a Cat 1 Hurricane, and by the time it hits New Smyrna Beach tonight, the winds will be up around 50-60mph sustained. Already on TV there are sea walls in Daytona Beach that have collapsed and buildings that are damaged. I suspect we will see a few buildings that are closest to the beach, fall into the sea. It’s reasonably calm and dry here at the moment. However, the water is up already, so we suspect the dock will be under water by the end of the storm. We’ll get some winds here overnight -possibly up over 60mph, but it’s the water that is the concern. Katie has friends on the Saint Johns river, who are already basically underwater, and their house will most likely come under threat from the water.

Not sure about power here, however Kathy and Mac have a generator. I’ll update if I can. I should probably go move some furniture and help get the place set up.

Update. Water level is up and temperature is down. Lake is warmish though.