I see all the OUT of town tree workers and electrical contractors heading bac home. Our local counterparts are busy.

There are still many parts of state with no power.

Beautiful here...blue ( Carolina Blue 😊) skies.. low humidity. Autumn is on its way...can't wait. NO leaf color yet. VERY unusual.

A do believe a few folks have the flu here and there ,Abe not..only blood tests will tell..but it LOOKS that way to me. A bit more than a cold ... aches, pain, fever, coughing..fatigue...no snotty noses...

Glad to hear you fared ok Sherri and Rosie

Inland here in north central FL Matthew was really a non event for us thank goodness. Looking at the municipal airport wind speeds @ 1100 ft., we only got gusts to 24 mph. I'd say that's about right if I'm any judge. We didn't lose power at all and are glad of it. We barely brushed a full 3/4" in the rain gauge. I wish we could have taken some of that rain that dumped on other places because we actually need more than we got.

All in all though we are thrilled for our area.

Waiting to see what the final tally is in other places & sitting on pins & needles to find out about Alice's house.

Everybody, all you good thoughts and prayers worked like a charm. My house is intact with minimum damage. Thank you all for.your support and encouragement. The devastation all around us is heartbreaking. We have power but no internet, more later. Thank you all, you wonderful prople.

Yea!

Oh Alice, I'm so thankful that your home is intact! Our county had $14.5 million in damages but so many other areas had so much more $$$$ in losses and damages. It's heartbreaking seeing the images of flooding and devastation in the Carolina's.

We did not lose power or cable/internet service etc. during the hurricane but the day after the storm our cable went out so we had no internet, phone or t.v. until they finally restored service last night! I hate trying to use my cell phone for the internet; so small and typing was a pain ... so, I'm a happy camper to have cable back again!

Been working for the past five days cleaning up debris in the yard and putting it out at the curb for pickup. We found another maple tree that split at the top and huge branches were down. Mother nature sure can make a mess of things.

ardesia said:Everybody, all you good thoughts and prayers worked like a charm. My house is intact with minimum damage. Thank you all for.your support and encouragement. The devastation all around us is heartbreaking. We have power but no internet, more later. Thank you all, you wonderful prople.

Such wonderful news about your home Alice!!!!

The damage Matthew caused IS heartbreaking. I feel so bad for those people and the people who lost their lives....

Alice so good to hear

Lin - it's so sad for all of the damage in all areas down there

I heard today that there were 165,000 homes condemned in florida and expecting there to be that many more. Just think if it had came as far in toward land as initially feared.

Praying for everyone effected by this storm! So much devastation!

I know my company still has powerline crews in Georgia............ not sure when they will be headed back home.

Genna

Glad to hear everyone is okay. Of course, I'm on the west side of Florida, so it wasn't that bad, thank goodness. I was talking to one of the hotel employees here in Naples today and she said the beaches had red tide. I said how we had it up in Tampa and I wasn't aware it had come down this far, but apparently the hurricane pushed it down here. But if that's the biggest problem we have, I'll take it!

I'll be a long time getting my place back in order. But very lucky here also, no structural damage. But a darn close call with one of the greenhouses. It's a mess around here, but slowly you can see folks getting things cleared up. I had to run some errands today and all along the roads are huge piles of tree and other debris. I'll probably end up burning a great deal of mine.
Glad to hear everyone is ok.

Just saw that the Carolinas are possibly going to get hit with more flooding. That's a lot of condemned homes Praying for safety for everyone that will be touched by this storm.

Get ready to have your HO Insurance cancelled & rates to go UP, UP, UP!
The Insurance companies are going to have a field day with this one.

So sad. You pay premiums forever then make a claim and get cancelled

We were /are seriously of getting asmall studio/ condo in Florida. Been looking at some beautiful cities that seem to have it all. East and west coast.... ( I lived in .fort Lauderdale teen years)

Got a few recommendations from folks here too.

Anyway, I looked for a book..articles, obout Florida and retirement.

I found one that reads like I think ( the flow ) double set can be ordered less expensively and so I took both...one is retirement - how to do it "happy" .. and the other is Living in Florida..best cities ( rated each year ) descriptions of towns...activities...demographics... quiet..bustling..sleepy..fishing ..historic...costs..all the things I am looking for... now I have not downloaded or read it but I was skipping and looking throughout ...

What I see is an overriding theme..that 20 plus years ago..retirees flocked ( still do ) but costs ( like the insurance mentioned here ) are getting prohibitive.. gave 2015 numbers of retirees that came and then left because of condo maintenance fees..and upkeep ..also the mention not a few times that 6 - 7 months unless UP north beyond a certain line ( Tampa?? ) the heat is oppressive and when it does turn heavenly...the snowbirds hit...

Anyway..it is a LOT to think about .. $$ spent all year for the loan, insurances, fees, taxes, for a few months use

I think we may just choose different cities and rent for the monthly fee...and travel around. And this way we can go north in or NC ( cape cod! Boston! New Canada, Hampshire!! summer and go South in iwinter when we choose with nothing to pay in between and no worries about storms and such.. can work around docs appts and if one of us gets sick..and cannot do or just doesn't want to..nothing to rent out and unload. May change our minds a dozen times but would give opportunity to travel to different states... and not worry about carting things to and fro..just a suitcase

Speaking of Insurance, as all of you in Florida know it is hard to come by good homeowners insurance anymore. We had been with Nationwide for 20 plus years and never put in a single claim. This past year we got a notice of cancellation, reason, the company no longer represents Florida. So I had to find a new company by the end of August. Problem was our roof was 23 years old and no company would write us. So we were forced in August to get a new roof, even though ours didn't leak or have any problems. I guess in a way it was good, because now the re-roofing prices will soar. Other questions they agent asked, how old is your AC (can't be over 20yrs), Do you still have copper or pvc plumbing, needs to be a new CVPC to pass. Another was the wiring, that too had some kind of requirements one of which the year installed, which we barely passed. You see basically you better hope you don't get cancelled because you may have to completely re-do your whole house before a company will touch you. Total Cr@p. But it is what it is

Now I was reading my new policy and I'm not sure all companies have the same "Hurricane triggers" for the "Hurricane Deductible" but I do know they all have a hurricane deductible, it is law in Florida now to keep the rates down.
My policy is almost a $5,000. deductible if a hurricane warning or watch has been issued anywhere in the state of Florida, doesn't have to be my county, just somewhere in the state . Also it doesn't cover landscape, unless the tree is on the house, doesn't cover downed fences, or screened enclosures over a pool, but you can pay extra for that coverage. Also excluded during a hurricane: Pagodas, gazebos, greenhouses, etc...
I would suggest everyone get out your policy and read it. I was quite surprised the exclusions underwritten into my policy. Just saying, don't wait till it is too late.

It's quite a racket isn't it! We have a huge deductible if it is a "named storm." I really believe it is the media that is determining if the storms are named or not.

Fortuately we will not have to file a claim but so many others in our neighborhood will have to. I wouldn't be surprized if our policy gets cancelled.

Hello,
Finally able to check in. The dogs, rabbits, guinea pig and I rode out the storm here in Savannah. Not too much damage to my house or to my DDs. The neighbors suffered damages when trees fell on their homes and vehicles.
Almost everyone was without electricity and water for several days but the crews worked very hard to restore services.

A great big thanks to Mississippi Power - they were the crew working in my neck of the woods. Also a company called PIKE, Alabama Power and several others who worked tirelessly.

One benefit we enjoyed - they had expected that Jacksonville would be hit hard by the storm but it was not as bad as expected so the crews were diverted and sent to the Savannah area.

Happy to be catching up and to learn that most folks are safe and did not suffer too much damage.

Good to hear you did OK. We had a crew from Appalachian Power in Madison, West Virginia that got us up and running again. There was another crew from Ohio in the hotel where we evacuated. These folks are terrific and so appreciated. There is so much to clean up and so many have major fix up's, it is nice to know we have power. Some folks in our town are offering free laundry services to linemen. Linepeople?

The surge came up to the bottom step on our back deck and no further. Our next door neighbor and others on the street had water in their garages but I lucked out this time. It will probably take weeks to get all the debris up but we already got rid of 2 mountains of branches. We piled it by the curb and they came by with a back hoe to pic it up and put it in a dump truck. We filled one dump truck just from our place.

Happy everyone made it through the hurricane with minimal damage. We were extremely fortunate. We have almost 3 acres and it is mostly trees. We lost some trees, however, none hit the house or the garage so we are extremely grateful. The yard is filled with debris and for the last three days DH and I have been hauling debris out to the curb. We were without power from Friday morning until Sunday night. As we sat down to eat dinner in Pensacola on Sunday night, we got a call from Duke Energy that our power had been restored. Had to throw out contents of refrigerator. No sense making yourself sick over bad food. I am bone tired, but thankful that we came through it unscathed. Yard people will be here Monday to take care of cutting and hauling away damaged trees.