Home Decor, Hurricane Watch

the Painted Apron

7 years ago

We haven’t had a direct hit from a major hurricane in our section of the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Ivan in 2004. There were no pictures or photos for days as we wondered if our little island was completely underwater. Finally, as the first reports were coming out and we watched a woman being interviewed on the news, we realized it was our neighbor! She stayed through the storm because of her pets

Her house, directly across the street from us, was still there. She described how far the water rose and we knew that it had risen significantly on both sides of our house, but that our house was still standing. We lost our boats, boat house and the roof of our house. We had to gut and rebuild. But we were lucky, we could rebuild…and we had another home

I will never forget the walls of debris, 8 feet high, lining both sides of the all the roads in Orange Beach…I will never forget the intense fear and heart-wrenching hours, worrying not only about our house, but our friends, our community and everyone’s safety…

Our brave neighbor, the one that rode out the storm, is now forever known as the Hurricane Lady

You can read about our rebuild here. I wrote that post in 2013, so there have been a lot of changes since then, but you will see the dramatic before and afters inside. The outside was pretty much untouched and intact.

After watching Hurricane Harvey closely, we quickly were reminded how fickle hurricanes can be and how they can literally change in intensity, speed, and direction in mere hours

On Saturday we were in prep mode, discussing what had to be done

On Sunday the forecast was for the storm to turn north into the Atlantic, so we relaxed a little

On Monday the storm was heading more into the Gulf and we debated about prepping then or waiting a few days

On Tuesday we were making plans to secure everything and leave by Friday or Saturday

On Wednesday we woke up to find another shift in the forecast, with the storm turning away from us with the major part of Florida in the path as well as Georgia and the Carolinas

But this too, can change, so we began packing up. We were planning to leave early next week anyway, so we started to get ready just in case

Our son was planning to come down today to help with the heavy work of moving furniture to safety and securing the boats, but by yesterday afternoon we felt confident that we were out of danger

But you always have to be ready to go in case things shift

We are lucky

We have another home to go to

We have insurance

But we are always terrified when there is a hurricane in the forecast

We love every memory and seashell our children have found and treasured

This is really our home, our babies have grown up playing in the white sand and blue water,

It’s not fancy or big, it’s just full of love and memories. This brings our family together. This is where we watch our grandchildren grow. This is where we want to be…

Yes, it’s just a structure, and things can be replaced, but that doesn’t make it any easier

We are praying that the storm will continue to pull away from the coast into the Atlantic

Please keep everyone impacted by these storms in your prayers and give if you can…

I pray you are not in harm’s way, stay safe ❤️

🏝 💨 🌊 🏝 💨 🌊

I will be joining these fabulous parties and blogs:

Rustic and Refined, Between Naps on the Porch, Gardens Galore Make it Pretty Monday

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