Mancat Monday

It's Mancat Monday to me, but to Mom

it's probably clean up day from

all the debris from Hurricane Matthew.

***
Hurricane Matthew took a good swipe at
Northern Florida, Friday OCT 7.
Watching the impending arrival on TV was
akin to watching a horror show.
It was only making my nerves worse,
but it was important to keep an eye on what
was happening.
The worst part of the storm hit our area around
2pm. Close to 4:30pm there was a loud
pop and thud and the lights went out.
The storm was raging pretty good.
But it was mainly a wind event.
There was a lot of rain but that wasn't any
worse than a bad thunderstorm.
As it turns out that LOUD pop & thud
was a power pole being toppled over by a downed
tree. Unknown at the time was that tree also
made two other polls collapse. There was
loose hot wires in the street.
The police were in our neighborhood that night
to fix the problem with the wires.
The next day our electrical company worked
at least 10 hours trying to restore power.
FL's Governor had made it a high priority to get
the power back on. HE did a remarkable job
during this storm.
But at 10pm the electrical company gave up and
left with no power restored.
They were back the next day at 7am.
At 10:30am the lights came on.
I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I was to have
electricity again. Our lives are so dependent on it.
I have to say again the Governor did an amazing
job making sure that all the electrical companies
had the manpower needed and still need.
He was all over the State making sure each County
had what it needed and he did a tremendous job.
Matthew spared Jacksonville the catastrophic blow by
making two wobbles East. When he went by
Jacksonville the eye was 40 miles off the coast.
That 20 mile wobble to the East spared Jacksonville Beaches.
But those beautiful homes and businesses along
the Coast are a mess. Many are condemned as unsafe.
But most survived and they will make repairs.
We were very lucky.
VERY lucky.
With a Major Hurricane.
Aside from the power issues the big thing is the cleanup.
I had one huge limb fall, thankfully away from the house.
As horrible as Oct 7th was, the next day was sunny.
beautiful and the temperatures were really mild.
What a contrast!
They record keepers say the last time Jacksonville
had a major hurricane was 118 years ago.
I can only hope that I never live long enough to see
another!