Our experience of Hurricane Irma

[Mater]

Wow... It sounds terrifying! We kept checking in with God news broadcast live on YouTube.

Pleased you're ok!

[MikeH23]

Thanks for sharing your terrifying experience which you explained so well, you really got the point over about how seriously you have to take these situations. Hope you can now relax & enjoy the rest of your trip.

[bigkid39]

We are at orange lake resort arriving on the Wednesday before Irma hit. It was pretty scary and not something I want to repeat in a hurry. It was the not knowing how bad it was going to get that bothered me more. Our little villa stood up to it really well and we lost power at 2am on Monday and got it back 2.30 am Tuesday morning. We count ourselves lucky as others on the resort list roof tiles, has trees through their roof and also had flooding from the lakes. The curfew seemed never ending and also meant we had to rearrange plans we had made. We had waited three years for this holiday and I also now have bad sunburn on my legs so have blisters so having to stay in with legs up. Not quite the holiday I had planned. Just means we will have to come back to put it right

[JAF]

Originally Posted by Michyloulou

Oh my goodness, what an utterly terrifying night for you. I am a natural born worrier and keep wondering now whether to change our travel dates (Aug next year). Terrifying enough for adults, let alone any poor children/babies going to the most magical place on earth & experiencing that. I'm glad you came out of it safely & you were certainly very well organised. Must admit, I'm actually really scared to go in August now (not because of your post - obviously seeing it on the news is bad enough) - your post bought home the personal slant & as before I keep thinking about how scared my kids would be if this happened.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday x

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I would not be scared to go in August as it is several years since it last happened and providing you follow the advice issued by the authorities then you ought to be fine.

There are lots of places all round the world that can experience extreme weather conditions. We were in Italy earlier this year and recently where we were has just had an earthquake but it will not stop us going back to Italy at any time during the year.

[MarkUKinOrlando]

Well done for being so prepared. The waiting was tough, knowing the worst was coming in the early hours of the morning. Watching WESH news was a help, much better than the 'National Enquirer' style of CNN, Fox 35 and other stations. We were lucky, we had power for the duration. We have a mess in the back garden but our house escaped the worst.

[Guest]

I have sat here transfixed at your report. You give a level headed and factual report of the whole thing and how it affected you and your family. Thank goodness you were all OK.
Thank you for taking us through it - it sounded horrendous at its peak and I can fully understand the fear you must have felt during the experience. As you say, setting it all down has helped you come to terms with the event - your detail was exceptional. As others have said, you have a good writing style.I'm sure the owners appreciated the care you had taken with their property at the villa considering the awful happenings at their own property.
You are right about the TV reporting over here - it certainly didn't have the depth of your writings.
Thank you for sharing this with us. It certainly paints the picture of a hurricane in all its fury.
I hope you were able to pick up your holiday and try to unwind after it all. Can't have been easy.

[DisneyBlonde]

Thank you all so much for reading and for your kind comments about my writing. I was going to say I was blown away but considering what my post is about it's probably not the best thing to say!

I'm glad it's given people an insight and certainly wasn't intended to scaremonger.

We are enjoying our holiday and have moved the itinerary around as much as we can but we've still lost out on some of the things we have planned. As someone said we'll just have to come back - not in August or September though...

[Big Dog]

Great post and a very interesting read, our experience was different as we stayed in a hotel and if I'm honest, I'm so glad we were.

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by DisneyBlonde

Thank you all so much for reading and for your kind comments about my writing. I was going to say I was blown away but considering what my post is about it's probably not the best thing to say!

I'm glad it's given people an insight and certainly wasn't intended to scaremonger.

We are enjoying our holiday and have moved the itinerary around as much as we can but we've still lost out on some of the things we have planned. As someone said we'll just have to come back - not in August or September though...

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Hi Alex, your experience was very personal and whilst it wasn't meant to scare others it was honest and frank, it's how you felt, not made up, hurricanes are far from a pleasant experience. I was accused of scaremongering afore Irma hit when I advised what my family had to deal with smack in the middle of Andrew in 1992 and Charley whilst in our former Cape Coral home in 2004, I was baffled why anybody would want to fly towards a hurricane, understandably, a different scenario for those already there, like yourself, EssexSue and others.

SW Fl took a shocking hit, our area, Pine Island, Lee County, apparently due to the southern section of the eye wall breaking up, avoided the predicted direct hit that many residents believed would destroy the island and bring 15ft above ground surges thereafter, when Irma moved more East, slamming into Collier County causing horrendous damage to Everglades City, Marco, Naples and Collier County in general. Luckily our community had leccy restored today, only 6 days without, but thousands of others remain off grid. Collier County is in a terrible mess, sewerage is now backed up, no leccy = no pumps, the stink is vile and health risks high. The County has placed generators in various areas but have take the decision to turn off all water between 10am to 4pm in an attempt to clear the backlog. The Army/Rangers plus FEMA are trying their best to house, feed and water thousands of displaced Fl residents. It's going to be many months for residents to pick up the pieces and try to put their lives back together.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday Alex, as Selina said the winter months in Fl are super, but then we're biased

[tomdan]

Glad you are both ok, and are enjoying the rest of your holiday. We were there last year when Matthew hit, luckly it came to nothing. It had made me think about when to go though! The last 5 times we have been it has been end of Sept begining of Oct.