Post-Hurricane Milton Report

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography.

Used with permission.

Much like George Groot and his family after Helene, my family and I are fine after Hurricane Milton hit Florida on Wednesday. Between Milton rapidly losing strength due to eyewall collapse after making landfill, 160 miles of land between landfall and where I live, and the storm passing well below us we were blessed with minimal damage and inconvenience. Sadly, other parts of Florida weren't so lucky, especially the Tampa Bay area which was still reeling from being flooded by Hurricane Helene a week prior. 

So far as I can tell, no damage was dealt to our house, although we have a lot of downed and damaged trees. 

This is the same tree as in the previous picture, just from a different angle. 

I don't know if this is from the same tree as the above picture or a different one,
but that's the same fence corner. 

That last picture completely justified me putting up the hurricane shutters Tuesday afternoon. I just know that if I hadn't done so, that tree would have broken one or both sets of bedroom windows. 

(Read this post for more information on hurricane shutters.)

I live eight miles from the ocean, so storm surge isn't a concern for me. However, between a system known as a "tropical rainmaker" which dumped a lot of water on us last weekend and Milton coming through three days later, my neighborhood almost flooded. The following picture is of an artificial lake and canal for drainage. 

The water is supposed to be three to five feet below the concrete embankment, but it's very nearly at the top. I don't know how much water that is other than "a lot". 

Other than that, my experience was similar to what I had two years ago during Hurricane Ian, with the following changes:

1. Because Milton happened later in the year, it wasn't quite so hot while we waited for power to be restored. 
2. We had power back by 4:30 pm on Thursday, for an outage of about 16 hours. This was incredibly fast; post-Ian, it took about 30 hours for us to get power. I don't know what the difference was, but everyone appreciated it. 
3. My CPAP battery backup worked extremely well. Admittedly, I had only one night without power, but for 8 hours I had my CPAP and humidifier running without an issue. 
4. Thursday morning was too cloudy and rainy to set up solar panels, but I'm certain I could have made it another night, possibly two, before my Freeman 600 needed a recharge. 

This isn't a change from last year, but both my BioLite CampStove and my Koonie battery-powered fan did a lot of heavy lifting to make my life more comfortable. 

Once again, I am blessed that the extent of Hurricane Milton's effect on me and my family was only inconvenience and minor discomfort. Others weren't so lucky. If you'd like to make a charitable donation, I recommend the Florida Disaster Fund, which is is the State of Florida’s official private fund established to assist Florida’s communities as they respond to and recover during times of emergency or disaster. 

In partnership with the public sector, private sector and other non-governmental organizations, the Florida Disaster Fund supports response and recovery activities by distributing funds to service organizations that serve individuals within their communities with disaster response and recovery.

Donations to the Florida Disaster Fund are made to the Volunteer Florida Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (EIN# 01-0973168), and are tax deductible. Funds given at this time will be utilized for Hurricanes Helene and/or Milton.

Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Paypal/Braintree have committed to waiving fees for those making a donation for Hurricanes Helene/Milton recovery. 100% of every donation will be used to help Floridians recover.