Saturday 9th September 2017
Woke this morning to find that the trajectory of Hurricane Irma had altered and was heading straight for Tampa and St. Petersburg – the part of Florida we were supposed to be heading today to stay with Caroline. So another change of plan was required.
Firstly, at 8am we received a text from Caroline – “I woke thinking that I didn’t want you going from the fat into the fire… Looks like here is going to be really bad – Orlando is looking much safer…” SO
Alan and Sally had been keeping watch on the news and had come to the same conclusion that we would be safer staying put BUT the villa is booked for next week and the company have not had any contact from the new occupants to say whether or not they are on their way.
After much tooing and froing on the phone by Alan we established that we had to vacate our villa BUT Alan had secured another one two miles down the road… for a fee. So we packed up the car and headed down the road.
Here are a few pictures of our meagre surroundings….
The five Bedrooms
The four bathrooms some with double showers
The living area, kitchen and dining rooms
The pool and play room
How will we survive…
All we have to hope is that it’s hurricane proof!
After settling in we headed out for some lunch at ‘Denny’s’ as we’re not sure our rations will stretch as far as we would like them to. All shops are either closed or due to close by 3pm today (until post hurricane) and even those still open are pretty much devoid of food and water. The word on the street is that by Sunday we will not have any power.
Because the situation in St Petersburg is deteriorating, a lot of people are choosing to evacuate and therefore Caroline [together with her home-made Shepherds Pie for tea] is coming across to sit out the hurricane with us. We’ll be extremely glad to see her.
Caroline arrived at about 6pm, together with her Shepherd’s Pie, ready to hole-up with us until Hurricane Irma has done her worst.
Just for something to do, and to get some exercise we walked around the local area. We are, once again, in a gated community full of high end, detached one and two storey houses, most of which have a covered pool to keeps the bugs out.
After devouring the Shepherd’s Pie, we watched the progress of Hurricane Irma on the TV news as she crept closer. We were not due to see anything of it for at least 24 hours so it was just a waiting game. We passed the time enjoying the facilities of our new accommodation – pool table, football table, air hockey and arcade games.
Sunday 10th September 2017
We got up late and immediately tuned in to see what Hurricane Irma had in store for us today – these updates would keep us transfixed throughout the day. The advice from the authorities was to find suitable accommodation and stay put – for some that meant finding shelter in schools, for us this meant our villa – so this is what we did. We spent the day reading, doing puzzle books, cross stitch, computer games, eating, drinking and swimming. It’s amazing how many ways you can find to occupy yourselves in a pool – swimming up and down, treading water, catch (using hands and feet), playing piggy-in-the-middle or throwing the ball through a rubber ring either held vertically or horizontally. All this time the wind and rain increased and the temperature cooled.
We ended the day playing Rummy until darkness arrived.
This has got to be one of the most boring days in a long time – sitting around waiting for something to happen but not knowing what, and expecting the electricity to fail at any time.
During all our news watching we observed that the hurricane drained the water from bays allowing people to walk where they wouldn’t usually be able to. The worry was the effect of where that surge of water would go when it returned. Tornados were another source of anxiety. We were informed that one was coming into our area, but it passed before we knew anything about it. The updates were constantly changing in terms of direction and category, which added to our uncertainty, but one thing was for sure, it was heading our way!!
We all went to bed listening to the raging wind hitting the windows and the vent covers banging. Julie and Alan slept through most of the main event. Jacqui was woken frequently by the intense noise of the wind and Irma’s attempts to gain entry to the villa! Sally ended up trying to complete her crossword in the dressing room and Caroline was constantly woken by texts from the UK and therefore spent the night munching her way through the fridge!
Monday 11th September 2017
Another dull day is on the cards. The authorities are advising that we stay at home so that key services can assess damage, start reinstating electricity and clear the roads of fallen debris. Curfews are being lifted from the South of Florida and people are starting to return home [having evacuated their areas] to assess their own damage.
The five of us woke to everything being as we had left it last night including the electricity supply, although we did lose power a number of times throughout the night. We had breakfast and headed out to see if we could find any evidence of Hurricane Irma. There was not much to see apart from some trees now leaning at a peculiar angle and fronds ripped from palm trees; signposts bent over and semi filled storm pools. Thankfully the cars were undamaged.
All in all we think we have been incredibly lucky to have been in the path of a hurricane and to have not suffered in any way – apart from being bored! St Petersburg – Caroline’s home town – suffered loss of electricity, and we think there is a small amount of damage and flooding to her neighbourhood. She will find out for sure when she returns tomorrow. Quite incredible considering the hurricane was supposed to hit that area full on.
That evening we had a supper of homemade salmon fish cakes and salad- the last of our supplies – and played cards whilst watching the sun disappear below the horizon.
Two Judo Girls One Adventure 
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