Hurricane Matthew Part 5
Hello family and friends! Just a quick update on how we are progressing through the storm. We are at the height of the storm as I'm typing this. Matthew came in at a strong Category 3 Hurricane as predicted. The winds are extremely strong and we are being pounded by the rain. We are currently receiving gusts of about 53 MPH. We have had very little damage thus far. We still have power at this point however, more than 90,000 Jacksonville residents have already lost theirs. Melissa & Harper, Mom & Dad, and Justin have all lost power at their house. We have been notified that the earliest this will be restored is on Sunday.
There is a down tree blocking Justin's street however he has a motorcycle and ATV and is within 2 miles of mom and dad's house in the event he needs to leave when the storm calms down. There is also a fallen tree on the main road leading to their home however, I am not sure at this time if it would effect us traveling there.
We have had a total of 9" of rain since I first began tracking on Monday. When the storm calms down a bit, I'll check the gauge again.
Our yard is pretty flooded at this point in time. We also have a tree that is directly behind our house that split almost 2 hours ago. It's still dangling in the vines.
I placed spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and pre-cooked a pound of noodles so that we could have a warm meal tonight, even if we lose electricity. We have had several power hits and can hear the transformers starting to give so it's almost inevitable that the power will go out.
Our phones are still all charged and our iPads are at 100% in the event we need to contact anyone. We're in a pretty good position at where we are sitting so there's no need to be concerned. I mean... we could be in Jax Beach where there is a shark swimming in the street. No joke.
In the event that we do lose power, we will be using Facebook as a minimum and not update the blog in order to conserve our batteries. We will post messages via Facebook letting family know we are okay.
