Two weeks ago, I would've loved to spend several days doing nothing but working with wood. Unfortunately hurricane Irma delivered a huge blow to our area, and the woodworking I've been doing has nothing in common with the woodworking I'd like to be doing. Instead of the finesse of chisels, planes, and dovetail saws, I've become acquainted and grateful with the brute force associated with chainsaws.
My family and I (like everyone else in our area) began to watch the track of hurricane Irma as she moved steadily towards our area. Once it was determined the storm was headed for our side of the state, we did our best to prepare our home before evacuating. Fortunately we had relatives in the area whose home was in a higher elevation so we didn't have to go to the shelter. Before we did though we had to decide what valuables to take with us, and then do our best to secure the rest. Since flooding was one of the larger concerns in my part of Fort Myers, my wife and I did our best to move as much as we could to the highest point in our home. I made sure my prized collection of Lee Valley tools was placed on top of my roubo workbench and strapped down, since flooding in my neighborhood was predicted to be high. And just in case that was not sufficient I took pictures of my tool collection in case I had to file an insurance claim (like I'm sure so many will have to do now). In the end, what we decided to take was basically papers, digitally stored photographs, and small family momentos that would fit in our car.
Fortunately, my home was spared the rath of wind and flood, and my damages were a blown fuse panel, and air-conditioning system. But many weren't so lucky. There are downed trees everywhere and my father-in-law's home has many downed oaks and Pines. So for the past several days my family and I have been cutting and clearing as much as we can on his property. We started on Tuesday and then had to stop when the floods waters rose on his property. The waters have receded on his property now and we were able to get in and cut up some more. So now we've just cut up the downed trees and limbs and piliup to be hauled away.
Things here on the east coast (Delray Beach) were a bit different; we didn't get more than 12 inches of rain I understand.
Nevertheless gale force winds did lots of damage to the many large trees in this community. One a black olive in front of my house lost a large trunk that fell across my neighbor's driveway. Fortunately her aunt was at work or the car she normally parks there would have been crushed and totaled.
Community maintenance staff were out within a few days and cleared all the streets and driveways. BUT, the management office said that it will be 4 to 6 weeks for regular tree trimmers to be by to cut and mulch all the rest. In the meantime people still drive or walk by looking at all the damage and piles lying on the ground and branches broken off but still hanging.
A laid back southeast Florida beach bum and volunteer bikini assessor.
Glad you both faired pretty well. I hope other WoodNetterss did, as well. You know, some of those trees might make some pretty fine lumber. What it is you make from that wood would be a good reminder of the storm you endured. Having it all go to firewood or, more likely, land fill, seems a waste. If any of those trees have some nice trunks worthy of sawing, you could put Anchorseal on their ends and set them aside for a few months until things get back to normal, and then figure out how to get them milled.
Wish I was within driving distance to get a truck load of the trees to turn. I know there is a lot of Palm down there to and would love to get a lot of that to.
Glad your shop and house made it.
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification. Thank You Everyone.
It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
Easy to say from Ohio, but be thankful you saw no deaths among relatives, property can always be replaced. Keep that in mind as you go forward. Woodworking may be on hold if you help family get back on their feet, but I hope you don't leave it, if you do the storm won. Prayers you get out from under quickly, and back to woodworking in time to make Christmas presents.
09-17-2017, 07:50 PM (This post was last modified: 09-17-2017, 07:54 PM by Timesale.)
I'm sorry, not all of my photos uploaded. I was trying to resize them and didn't realize that I actually posted the message. I was working on it before church this morning, and there was more photos that I actually wanted to add to the post. Also, my apologies for the large photo size. I did re-think this afternoon afternoon after all the work that I might try to save a piece of the oak to make a walking cane or a mallet or two out of. I was just so exhausted yesterday from cutting wood that I didn't have any other thoughts and trying to get rid of it. Oh, and Arlin. At the end of my driveway is a 30 foot royal palm. We would love to have someone cut up and haul away. As it is now it's to large for us to move, and we are waiting for the debris pick up to carry it away. If it's still there at the end of this week I may be able to borrow my father-in-law's chainsaw to cut it up, but it's going to be a job.
And believe me we are extremely grateful that there were no deaths. All of the "stuff" can be replaced and rebuilt. After looking at the hurricane track update Saturday morning showing the eye making a beeline for our home in Ft Myers, my wife and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we might not have a home to go back to, but we were all safe. There are many people that don't even have that. My nephew works as a cashier at the local Publix grocery store, and he was one of the few employees able to get in on Monday night the day after the storm. He told me a story about a man who came through his line in tears. He told my nephew he had lost everything. He also told me that the man behind him in line stepped up and paid for all of this man's groceries. We've seen a lot of distruction, .......but we've also seen the good in a great many people.
Samaritans purse and Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief, have arrived and set up at our church to help as much as possible. It will take us quite a while to recover, but we are very grateful the storm was not as strong as originally expected.
After having lived through about 4 hurricanes and 1 typhoon growing up, I can sympathize with you. Our deal here in SoCal is earthquakes. But, that's about to change for me as this past week, I accepted an offer from a sister company in my corporation for a job in Orlando. They were shut down for 2 days as Irma passed through. I like the weather here in SoCal, but I won't miss California taxes, horrible traffic, strange politics, higher prices for just about everything, including stuff made or grown here.
We fared pretty well in Orlando too, although our street is almost impassable with all the debris that people have hauled out for collection. We did lose our shed, which is where I stored my lumber stash. Now I have to decide if I sell it all or find somewhere off site to store it.
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