Hey Smilo! Been good to know yah!

Looking at all the weather reports and getting a little worried about my southern friends.
I have a friend who bought a nice house near Miami last year, and the drawing card was the proximity to a great canal at her back door... about 18" below that back door... Hope she has the alligator barricades up!
I hope the Jaysus roof is still on the garage, Smilo... Worse thing that could happen during renovations.
I thought that minus temperatures and snow was bad during my build, but I didn't have to put up with 185 mph winds!
Best of luck!

Yeah, we were going to take the roof off today. Obviously, that has been postponed. The siding has been removed, but that shouldn't do much to weaken the structure. They had already put some braces on the section they were going to demolish to hold up some of the walls when they removed the trusses, as well as building a divider wall between the old and "new" sections. So, I have a little extra strength there.

I'm prepared to make a run for it, just watching the progress and readying for staying as well.

Cant imagine storms like that , fingers crossed it goes well for you Smilly Boy

Thanks for the well-wishes all! It's been a tough week or two anyhow, even without the storm. Kicking myself for even starting the garage project, but you never know the future.

Blowy and rain here today. Remnants of Harvey finally worked their way up through middle America and is spitting itself out into the North Atlantic. 65 MPH gusts were enough to make me hide in the garage. Hard to fathom adding 100 MPH to that.
From the look of the reports, there is nowhere to run in central Florida. Fingers crossed, and hold your breath!
Good thing the garage is in the state it is in. Perfect situation actually. Light damage won't matter, and it is actually re-enforced with wall bracing and the like...

Any news from yonder side on't pond , have been away all weekend and not home till tomorrow to see the news on TV , sure looks frightening to me ,

We got remnants of 'Harvey' yesterday and lost power last night due to high winds. Lots of rain too, but not even a 'tropical storm'. Amazing to think that the disturbance worked it's way all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of St.Lawrence! Don't think Smilo escaped Irma... He would have been on the wrap-around side of the winds. No power there for another few days possibly.

Fingers crossed for you all out there I cant imagine that wind strenth , we get 80mph and suffer structual damage , the pictures we are getting on the news channels are just so harendouse , stay safe guys

Still here... Lots of tree and flooding issues, but house undamaged.  Got very lucky and got power back in a couple of days (was expecting weeks).  So, that was a big help.  Worst problem is the flooding.  Spent a small fortune building up my road out after the fire, but water was a foot over the top of the new road!

Lots to do, but will be back at some point with some pictures and the like.  As far as over all storm damage in the state... A few places with really serious damage, but a (probably record) amount of the state with some damage.

So, still lots of power out and stoplights out, roads with debris, but they are working on it.

Good to know you didn't end up in Oz! Another friend of mine lives in Cape Coral near Fort Myers. She is 15' from one of the canals and only about 18" above the water table. I expected chaos when the eye shifted to pretty well dead-on hit. She just reported in. Did not even loose power! A few leaves on the lawn, and they lost their little wharf, but other than that, nothing! Amazing what difference a few miles made.
Think I'll go take my generator in to get it fixed. I figure if I'm all equipped for Armageddon, it won't happen!

Great news was worried for you we missed a lot of what was on the news as we were away for a few days , so did you sit tight at home or move out and come back to it ??

Stayed home. Had plans both ways. It kept being a crap shoot as to where it was going to go and how powerful. Finally, it looked like the worst of it was going to be far enough west of us that we would stay. It ended up being closer to us than the forecast, but it had weakened more than they thought by then too, so kind of a wash.

The evacuation situation seemed more dangerous than staying to be honest. People waiting for dozens of hours and running out of gas with little replacement available.

Just glad to hear it turned out ok for you , what little i saw on the news looked frightening , you say flooding is the worst problem , is that to your property or just the surrounding areas ?

Well, I have a particular flooding issue (hence the money spent to raise the drive), but there is a lot of water everywhere. With another storm on the way, and normal summer Florida weather patterns, I imagine more water is on the way. House is pretty much out of harms way, but drive flooding makes the house difficult to access.

I was going to post an image of a truck with big tires, but the joke must be wearing thin by now... I've just been out in the rain pounding markers in for a big tent we are getting installed this week (long story), and I'm looking forward to a nice warm fire in the fireplace this evening. Wouldn't want to be at it for a week or two! Hope we don't have to start calling you Smilo Noah...

We are lucky the is no chance of flooding where we are in this house , if we flood half of Yorkshire will be under a hundred ft of water.