Humberto–The Little Hurricane That Could

I’m back home, safe and sound, and fortunately without any damage to my
house this time around, other than a few limbs in the yard and the groceries
that I had to toss from  my fridge/freezer so that they wouldn’t turn into a
toxic biohazard like they did during Hurricane Rita.. (That was a rough lesson learned <g>).  And, our new roof (courtesy of Hurricane
Rita) survived Humberto without losing any shingles!  Now all we have to do is
to stake the crepe myrtle trees back into upright positions..LOL

It’s good to be back in the land of electricity, air conditioning, Internet
connections, and warm meals.

I’ve been reading that Humberto was a first for the US — never before (since these things were tracked, anyway) has a tropical storm gathered strength and made landfall as a hurricane within hours of becoming a hurricane. 

When I went to bed Wednesday night, I knew we were expecting a tropical storm, which usually means lots of rain.  Had Eric not called me at 1:30 AM Thursday morning to tell me that the storm had been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane (he works at a petrochemical plant where they have to track these things) , I would have awoken at 3 AM to 70 MPH winds and wonder what in the world was happening (Humberto made landfall around 2 AM about 40 miles south of where I live). 

Unfortunately, because of the speed of this storm, many were caught unawares.  Instead, I was outside around 2 AM, dragging the planters and patio furniture inside so that they wouldn’t become projectiles.  The howling winds and sheets of rain started at around 3 AM when the eye landed in Orange County, and didn’t dissipate until about 6:30 AM.  We lost power around 4:45 AM, which wasn’t restored until Saturday.