Keep us posted. There are a couple others here in FL, but not sure of exact location. Well, this was close to silly. If you lose power you aren't going to be able to keep in touch. Let us know when all has passed and be safe.

Hoping that everyone has had a chance to get ready, and has a safe place to ride out the storm. You'll be in my prayers.

It's right off the coast here. We're getting a good breeze, and some much-needed rain. I guess it's going to move north and west? I hope everyone in the path is prepared.

We do a pretty god job of keeping prepared for storm season. We stockpile quite a bit of non-perishable food, and I buy a lot of charcoal for the grill when it's on sale. I get up to a about 12 bags or so, then use them the rest of the year. We have a decent generator, too, but it's hard to store gas- it goes bad very quickly these days.

We're on relatively high ground here at 55', but it would be hard to evacuate. Our county is virtually an island with nearly a million people on it, most of whom would be under water in a major storm. The bridges are the first thing to flood, so you have to either leave two days early, or hunker down. They once did an evacuation study, and after the numbers were all in, the official recommendation is to stay put! It would take longer to evacuate the county than the typical amount of warning given for a hurricane, so the fear is that the bridges would be jammed with cars when the flood waters came up. Not very encouraging- yet another reason we are moving to SC.

For those of you who live in the hurricane zone - I don't know how you do it! When they move up the east coast, they usually skirt past us (our portion of the state is sort of recessed out of the way).
The only hurricane I remember actually having an impact was Hugo in 1989. I never want to experience anything like that again. For months and months afterward I had anxiety attacks if a wind storm arose. Here is a pic of my only tree which fell just as the storm was getting started. It was at least 60' tall and the rootball was as tall as the roof. It took my EX about 3 months to get it all cleaned up.

{{!gwi}}

wow idie - that's horrible looking. I know there are those whose houses end up looking worse than that tree tho.

no hurricanes out here but we do have some nasty winds. makes me glad I don't have any trees close to me. only 3 on my land (that'll be changing tho). I won't plant any close to the house. I'm planting them far enough away that if they fall (going by the height of them full grown) they still won't hit me. I doubt they'll get that high in my lifetime here on earth anyway.

I hope it's passed by now and you all are ok...

I bet that was a gorgeous tree. How sad that it came down and how terrifying for you.

We're not usually in the path of anything bad. They've worked themselves out and we just have rain and some wind.

Today, it thundered for awhile and I kept looking out and nothing was going on. Finally it quit thundering and the sky got lighter, and then it started sprinkling and my internet went off. I thought maybe lightening hit the tower and heard on the news tonight that the outage was really because of copper thieves.

ML, I hope nothing bad comes your way. I always worry when I have part of the roof exposed.

My DH told me today that all the rain we are getting is from the remnants of TROPICAL DEPRESSION 5. Is THAT still hanging around, I asked.

And I mean we have had a LOT of rain. The wooden fence does not get to dry out much, and parts of it are getting a greenish look. Of course my container plants are doing great, and the grass is growing quickly. But so are the weeds in the flower beds. I go out early in the morning with the dogs, and pull a few weeds, but not enough to keep up with it. My poor roses do not look too good. But the elephant ears, and the palms, the bananas, the sweet potato vines, the canna lilies, the begonias, the split leafed philodendron, the monstera deliciosa, they are on steroids.

Hard to keep the grass cut though. It needs it every week instead of bi weekly. But that is a little too ...what is the word....prissy? for me.

We've had a ton of rain lately, too, over 6" in the last week. My sweet potato vines are making me nervous- it looks like they're eying the house LOL! If they actually produce, I'll be writing a thread on them- they're an unusual variety, and I have unusual recipes to go with them.

Jay

Jay, are your sweet taters the chartreuse vines? That is the kind I am growing, and they make purple purple taters. Some from last year were as big as cantaloupes. I suppose they are edible, but so far have not felt hungry for something that color.

And yes, they are growing like KUDZU.
Did I mention that up in NC at Plant Delights Nursery, they have a variegated kudzu? The do not "export" it beyond state lines, however, because it would be against the law to plant kudzu in Georgia....think the vine that ate Atlanta.....and all those roadside trees covered by a green blanket of kudzu.

The man who brought kudzu to this country probably lives in infamy. But it seemed like a good idea at the time, right?
Just no environmental impact study done on it. Same as for the nutria rats that they imported for their fur, which got loose during a hurricane, and then they proceeded to become a number one pest in the swamps of Louisiana.

These are purple sweet potatoes- bright purple! A friend gave me some to eat, so I rooted some vines and turned them loose. Even after cooking, they are bright purple, and are very sweet.

Jay, would you mind emailing me those exotic sweet tater recipes? Oh yes, they WILL make some tubers for you. In the fall when everything died down last year, I could see their purple/red skins sticking up out of the ground. They were as big as cantaloupe, some being round, others long. I had them everywhere. It takes about 100 days of hot weather for them to make taters, and by golly I think we've passed that mark.

I love mine. The chartreuse leaves are the same color as the sun coleas, and they just light up the dark green of the dense tropical greenery around the house. Too bad I have not felt like keeping the beds weeded this year. It would be lovely to look at.

Here is the photo of this year's sweet tater vines.
They just light up that flower bed, mostly outlined with the jet green leriope edging the pavement. Some of them are climbing the azaleas and the windmill palm.