One of the local myths in the Tampa Bay area is that the local Tocobaga tribe of Native Americans put a blessing upon their burial grounds, and that this blessing is what has shielded the region from a direct hurricane hit for about 100 years.
As I mentioned last time, that luck might be running out. It did. Within the space of two weeks, we got a double-whammy of two intense hurricanes. First up, Hurricane Helene passed 100 miles offshore on its way to the Big Bend area of Florida. Far enough to keep the hurricane-force winds offshore, but close enough for a 6-8 foot storm surge and heavy rains to cause massive coastal flooding, making it the worst hurricane for the Tampa Bay region in about 100 years. Before the cleanup was done from that, we got an almost direct hit from Hurricane Milton. Technically Milton made landfall just south of Tampa Bay at Siesta Key as a category 3 hurricane. This saved Tampa Bay coastal areas from the worst of the storm surge but the bulk of the wind and rain were on the north and northwest sides of the storm which caused massive damage in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. At one point the eyewall of the hurricane was about 10 miles south of our house.
So the Tocobagan blessing is gone. Tampa Bay’s luck has run out. The current estimate is that 33 people died in the storm. Over 3 million people were without power, including about 600,000 Tampa Electric Company (TECO) customers in Hillsborough County where we live.
Full disclosure: I was not here for Hurricane Milton. I was out of the state on a business trip. We discussed if I should make the trip or not. The storm was just turning into a category 1 hurricane and was predicted to hit somewhere on the west coast of Florida. We decided I should make the flight. By the time I got to my destination, worked the day, and got checked into my hotel room, the storm had become a category 5 hurricane headed straight for Tampa Bay. Tampa Airport was closing, and there was no getting home until after the storm had passed. I got home Friday morning, about 36 hours after the storm hit.
So how did we fare with hurricanes Helene and Milton? We got through both hurricanes pretty well. Sue is safe. The cats are ok. To be clear, we’re talking about extreme weather events here so there’s very little that we had control over. Lots of people got their homes wrecked. We’ve been helping some friends where we can. The fact that we came through intact is really just down to the cosmic roll of the dice. What I want to focus on here is the fact that Milton was the biggest hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area in over 100 years, so what worked well and what would we do differently next time?
Physically, the house only had superficial damage. The roof is only three years old and we got storm windows installed last year, so the house was in about as good a shape as we could get it. Lucky us for being in a position where we could do those things. We never lost water service. The biggest impact for us was that our power was out for five full days. Here again, we were about as prepared as we could have been. We have a generator that we ran for 5-8 hours every day to keep our refrigerator (as well as our neighbors) running. This kept our food fresh so we were able to use a grill and smoker to cook a whole lot of meat during the power outage. We have JetBoil camp stoves that we could use to boil water. Really the only difficulty for us was the heat. The week following the storm was thankfully clear and dry but the daytime temperatures were about 87° which meant that even with the windows open the house was over 90° inside. We could spend the bulk of the day outside in the shade but once the sun went down the mosquitoes would drive us inside where it was difficult to sleep in a pool of your own sweat. That was really the worst of it for us, and we consider ourselves very fortunate. Many people lost everything they had. The worst that happened to us was that we were uncomfortable for a few days. The power outage even coincided with our work schedules so that we missed a minimal amount of work.
Short-term effects on our area:
- Many people lost water service, but we did not.
- Millions were out of power, including us. Most traffic lights still worked. Other things came back online over the next few days.
- Cell phone connectivity was spotty for the first couple of days after the storm.
- Our grocery store was open a couple of days after the storm. Even now a week later some items like toilet paper and bread are in short supply.
- Gas stations took a day or two longer for limited types of fuel, and took about four days to get back to full service. As the storm was about to hit, leaving wasn’t even an option since many stations were out of fuel.
- Schools were closed for about a week.
- Garbage service was slightly interrupted with each hurricane.
What did we do well?
- Structurally we had the house in about as good a shape as we could. The new roof and windows were quite expensive, but they appeared to hold up through the storm. Still waiting on a roof inspection to have a closer look.
- We have a generator. For years it has just taken up space in the garage, but that is now a place of honor. It’s more than earned its place in our family. We were able to help out our neighbors as well.
- We had a lot of water on hand in case the water went out.
- We had a freezer full of food. Typically this would be bad for a prolonged power outage but since we had the generator we were able to keep that food cold.
- Between the JetBoil stoves, a grill, and a smoker, we were able to cook many types of food without electricity.
- Having several flashlights and lanterns along with batteries for all of them certainly helped once the sun went down.
- Our cars were mostly topped off with gas before the storms hit.
What would we change next time?
- Consider evacuating. If something had happened to the house with us in it, there’s nothing we could practically do in the middle of a huge hurricane.
- RTFM on the generator before the storm actually hits. Ours has an electric starter, but you have to charge the battery beforehand. I learned this after the power had gone out.
- Try to have more water available. We had a few gallons in bottles as well as every pot in the house full. We never lost water so it didn’t matter, but I don’t know how long we could have gone on what we had stored. Filling several gallon-sized freezer bags with water before any future storm and absolutely packing the freezer with them should give us extra water and help keep the freezer cool for a while.
- Maybe try to have a little more gas on hand? The gas we had for the generator lasted us until the gas stations were back online. Had the gas stations taken any longer to get running again we could have siphoned gas from our cars if needed. Thankfully we never got to that point.
- I don’t know if there are battery-powered fans that can last for several hours, but having any air movement at all certainly would have helped to cool us down at night.
- Make sure we’re stocked up on many staples such as toilet paper long before the storm hits. Supply chains will be impacted and will take a while to recover.
Other things we learned:
- Do not walk in floodwater if at all possible. If powerlines are down it can be dangerous, and there is often sewage in the water.
- Don’t expect nights without power to be quiet. We kept the windows open trying to keep the house as cool as possible, and some neighbors ran their generators well into the night.
- Expect to be out of power for up to two weeks after a major storm.
Be safe.
