Hurricane Helene 2024-09-27

Howling and bumping from about 11:30 PM to 2 AM. Hurricane Helene made Debby and Idalia sound like nothing.

And the morning light showed it was worse than that.

When we moved back here in 2007, old timers told us they remembered this oak on the back driveway from when they were young, early in the 20th century.

Ancient oak

This other oak just missed the red-iron building we were in.

Oak that just missed the farm workshop (where we were)

At least the solar panels will get more sunlight now.

The house was also undamaged, although several large trees fell away from it.

Building and solar panels undamaged

We were fortunate: no damage to any of our people, animals, buildings, or vehicles. Others were not so fortunate, with trees through their houses.

Colquitt Electric has 64,000 outages, twice Debby. There is little mutual aid, because from the Gulf to Atlanta, all areas likely to assist have the same problem.

Poor Cedar Key. They already had a bunch of buildings burn down. And last night they got a huge storm surge. Some unburnt houses are going to be totaled.

Today I will be chainsawing out the front driveway, through dozens of oaks and pines.

On later days, same for the back driveway, but worse.

There are at least four trees down on the east section of Quarterman Road. I can’t get there with the tractor to help until I can get out of my own driveway.

But we have a generator and freezers full of food, so no worries.

And the Starlink was undamaged, so we’re on the net.

A few more pictures of the front and back driveways. They’re low quality because I took them before sunrise.