On October 10, 2024, I documented a day in my life as Hurricane Milton blew through St. Pete. You see what I did there? Milton blew through last night, and honestly, it wasn't that bad at all in terms of flooding. They were so full of crap, as usual, on the news. It doesn't look like there's going to be hardly any flooding at all in my neighborhood. I totally didn't need to leave my house.
What the news got wrong about the flooding
Thankfully, I spent the night anyway and had a good time at the home of the parents of my daughter's best friend, who let me stay at their house. I got up around eight, having gotten a very nice night of sleep. I did a little bit of reading this morning and ate some of the fruit I'd left out on the counter that had been in the refrigerator yesterday. The power's been out since 7 p.m. last night, and I'm waiting for word that I can go back to my house.
My wife says the county is asking people to stay off the roads until they clean them up a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing how much damage there is from the storm, because the winds were pretty severe. It looks like the house I stayed at lost a few fence panels and had some trees fall down. But thankfully, there's no damage to my car, no damage to the house, and no damage to their cars either.
The drive home through a neighborhood I didn't recognize
I get the word about 10 a.m. My wife says the roads are open and I can go back home. I throw everything in my car, which takes nearly an hour because I brought way too much stuff. Then I make the 20-minute drive from the south side of St. Pete to my house in the northeast area.
There are trees down everywhere. I've never seen damage like this in my life before. This is incredible. There's a massive tree that fell down, which probably took our power out last night around seven. The roads are just nuts. There are palm trees hanging on power lines everywhere. If you can even get a one-lane or two-lane road to be drivable, it's a celebration.
I go on Interstate 275, which thankfully is clear, but it's incredible to see the top of Tropicana Stadium ripped off and all the parts of it still attached blowing in the wind. I head toward my neighborhood and there are so many traffic lights out, including the one getting right off the interstate. Most of the traffic lights are out. I'm actually impressed whenever any traffic light is on, but there's not much traffic right now, so it's pretty easy to navigate. I'm driving as carefully as I can to try and not run over any debris. I've had so many flats, and these are four new tires, so let's keep it going.
Pulling into my driveway
I pull into my house and I'm very happy to see there appears to be no major damage. The trees are all fine, although my banana trees are blown over and I'm going to need to cut those out. All my preparations for flood and water were completely unnecessary, as I suspected.
Why I'm never evacuating again
I'm never doing this evacuation crap again. I'm going to get my house better prepared and I'm going to stay every time, mandatory evacuation or not. You're going to have to come get me out of there if you want.
So I undo all the preparations in the house, which I did at the last minute yesterday, including taking the drawers out of dressers and putting stuff up high. It takes me an hour or two to undo all the preparations I made yesterday, when the house was set up for at least a foot of flooding. I pick up as many things as I can, too. I move trash cans around in the alley, and I'm outside with my shirt off most of the day trying to clean things up as much as possible.
Cleaning up with no power and no cell service
The cell phone service is so bad that I literally can't even send pictures. All I've got are text messages and phone calls. It feels like I'm in a third-world country or something. My wife calls to give me the updates and says everything's good on her end in Orlando, and she thinks they're going to come home tomorrow, which seems like a good idea to me.
A spooky night walk and a grateful end to the day
I take a really cool walk with the dogs at night. The power is out everywhere in my neighborhood, and most people aren't even running generators yet. It's dark with no street lights and no house lights. It feels like a third-world country. It's eerie and spooky. There's debris everywhere. There's a tree across the road at one point. It's a really cool vibe for walking my dogs tonight.
I make a plan to put the dogs on one side of the house in the bedroom and shut them in there so they won't bark. I put myself on the other side of the house, open all the windows, and thankfully it's only in the 70s, so even without power and air conditioning I'm going to be able to get a good night of sleep. I am so grateful the house is okay and the cleanup's not so bad. This was actually a pretty fun day today. If you enjoy these slices of ordinary and not-so-ordinary days, you can watch more in my Life playlist, and you might also like a rainy day in St. Petersburg from another day around town.