Hi Everyone! We are home...power was on (surprise!!) and so was water. The roof is on and we are as happy as we can be. Internet and TV came back this evening.

Today was the start of cleanup. Daylilies look like they have gone through a shredder. I have a neighbor's palm tree on my back roof. Neighbor told me it happened at the start of the storm and we found that we didn't have a water problem. When I can get to the daylilies (probably mid-week) I will cut them back to 3" or so because so many of the leaves are broken. We had 9-10" of rain during the hurricane, and damage to plants is intense. The bougainvillea lost 3/4 of its leaves as did the water oaks. That means that for most of today and tomorrow, I will be picking up leaves, sticks and branches. The bamboo that I tipped over survived nicely, but the elephant ears that were tipped were battered. I had the impression today that they were saying, that's fine, we have lived. Get to us when you can. Maybe I have an overactive imagination or maybe we just communicate. Whatever.

We were in Tampa watching as the Cat. 4 hurricane approached us with 140 mph winds. Tears cascaded without sobbing or anything else. All I could do is pray, cry and try to control my depression. We left our home on Wednesday. So on Thursday while watching TV in the afternoon, I saw the wobble to the east and started cheering. People in the room next door must have thought I was nuts. Anyway, I could read what was happening and depression left to be replaced with optimism. We could not return until Saturday when the bridges to the island opened at 7 am. We left Tampa in a traffic jam that lasted almost to Orlando. YUCK! Anyway got home at 3:15 after taking a detour to get a good meal at a favorite restaurant in Orlando.

We are fine. Very, very tired but had a purchased dinner and a nice couple glasses of wine this evening. Will be out there tomorrow but on Tuesday our temps should be down to the mid 70's during the day. Cold front coming through. Wonderful time to be working in the garden.

Thanks to everyone who offered prayers. They were answered. We had low tide when the storm came through so the damage was a fraction of what it might have been. No flooding. Just salt and dirt on everything. I'll post pics tomorrow. Need to have a good night's sleep and start again in the morning. Thank you. Thank you. Your prayers really worked.

Wonderful news! I am so happy for you, Arlene!

So glad you both made it through pretty much unscathed (health and home). So unhappy for you both that you lost so many plants and trees.

Sharon Rose always says it best, so I'll leave it up to her

great to hear!! And yes Sharon Rose says it best

Arlene! What a relief! I hope you get a good nights sleep, and I'm so glad that you had your home to come home to.

Arlene, good news indeed.

Arlene,

glad to hear you're ok!

Mayo

Here are some pictures I promised:

Daylilies that have been thrashed


Purple Firespike


Here is my beautyberry, if you can see it


And bare oak trees


And this is what a palm tree looks like when it falls on the house (the palm tree belongs to my neighbor)

Oh my. Did the tree fall on your neighbors' house or yours? Hope it cleans up quickly and the plants grow back.

the neighbor's tree fell on my house. It's gone now. Thank heavens!

Hope it's minimal damage. Didn't look too good

Glad that you are ok, houses can be repaired.

Did the Palm Tree cause any damage to your home, Arlene? I sure hope not!

Glad you are OK. The daylilies will bounce back just fine. I hope the palm tree didn't damage your house too much.

While not all of it is perfect, I'm sure glad to hear you're ok, Arlene. That must have been terrible!

Good news that you're okay! 💫

So glad you had no more damage than you did, & you are safe.

Arlene, so happy you, and Becky too, are okay!

Hi all! Our house is safe. Thankfully. The guy who does our yard has done a lot for us from taking out trees to building a wall. Yesterday he very carefully removed the tree from the roof. He also found a small hole in the membrane under the tiles. My husband pulled out silicon and Bruce applied it to the hole. We have 6 or 7 tiles crushed and many others loose. I have a stash of tiles by the back fence so we pulled some out to prepare them to be used whenever the roofer gets back to us.

We took today off. Too much stress. I made chocolate muffins. YUMMMMM. Grilled chicken this pm. When dinner was done, I restarted the Anaheim peppers that died while we were gone. They were tiny seedlings that needed water every day. So I got my gardening fix this evening and will be ready again to go out and sweep leaves, twigs and branches. Other stuff needs work, but that can wait.

Here are a some of pic of the process of removing a palm from a roof. This was a 2-man crew doing the work. My husband is in the yellow shoes.