211 Countries Visited - Welcome Marshall Islands & Hurricane Michael visited us...

On October 5, my humble blog got visited by the 211th Country - Welcome Marshall Islands! 

According to the World Factbook, Marshall Islands are situated in Australia-Oceania.
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Yep, from the Panhandle of Florida, Hurricane Michael traveled through South Georgia right over our area.

This we got in the morning...

This was the Hurricane Warning on October 10 with strong SouthEast wind of 77 km/h or 47.8 mi/h
A 4-fold warning...

By midnight it turned into a five-fold warning!

HURRICANE WARNING

TORNADO WATCH

FLOOD WARNING

TROPICAL WEATHER STATEMENT

FLASH FLOOD WATCH

It was just past midnight on October 11 at 12:16 AM when I read the above and especially the EastSouthEast wind of 85 km/h or 52.8 mi/h looked scary so I decided to stay awake till it would pass over.

Temperatures are in C, it was quite a bit cooler than the previous days.

Dublin is right in the darkest area...

Husband Pieter was sound asleep and I could hear the wind all around the house and heard some big noises, of a tree that came down. 

Turned out several big pine trees from a back neighbor's property had come down.

By 12:30 AM the power went off... and it was pitch dark!

Winds still were beating up anything that came in its patch.

We were only 19 hours without power and a couple of hours today...

Lineworkers are still working hard for restoring power back as soon as possible.

Even lineworkers from neighboring states have come to the South for helping out!

The above map gives you the dates or having power back on: October 12, Midnight, October 13, and October 14, October 15 and October 16...

We cannot complain! 

Our 6-year old Drake Elm - Ulmus parvifolia had snapped off...
It looked so dreary and gray next morning! 

Our Pecan tree had come out...

Our Pussy willow snapped off...

Of course, our bridges took a brutal beating as well, you can see some damage to the right at one of our three bridges.

TONS of green leaves have been snatched off and little branches are everywhere...

This is on the edge of the lawn and on our driveway... so many green leaves are off!
Also our Leyland Cypress is leaning over the fence towards the street and needs to be cut down... 

At the end of our property line in the corner with the neighbors...
This needs to be cut down!
But NO damage to our home, not even to our greenhouse!
Lucky, compared to so many others in the Florida Panhandle; our prayers are with those people!

Proud of our community that is feeding 375 linemen (lineworkers) for lunch tomorrow!

Thanks for your visit and comment.

Related links:
210 Countries Visited - Welcome Sierra Leone | previous post by me
{Pussy Willow from Cuttings} | previous post by me
{Our Drake Elm - Ulmus parvifolia} | previous post by me
{2004 Hurricane Francis - Our Garden Before and After} | previous post by me
{Our Damage from Tornado spin off of Hurricane Earl, 2003} | previous post by me

{IMPACT and AFTERMATH of TROPICAL THUNDERSTORMS}

Officially it is hurricane season and that has also an impact on part of the United States. Living in the south east of the USA is great, related to the climate but sometimes we do pay a high price for sunny weather as things tend to go wrong. Tropical storms, disturbances and heavy thunderstorms with buckets of rain are a high price we often pay.

On Sunday afternoon of August 18, we were making the rounds over our estate and we first hand could see the damage that was caused by a severe thunderstorm on Wednesday, August 14, with a tremendous downpour that caused flooding.

You can see that lots of soil got washed out from underneath the bridge's ramp... gone!

The wooden bridge got beaten up too and lots of debris laying around everywhere.

That's the last of our three bridges and that too got beaten up and lots of soil washed out from underneath its ramp.

But what can we do?

You see that white chevron, it is pointing towards debris, leaves and such that left a trail from where the flood line was on Wednesday, August 14. 

Our Spunky girl is even impressed and looking at it... seen center right.

In the far distance comes our Smokey boy; they join us for the usual 'cat walk'.

When we had gone inside on Sunday, August 18, for having our tea, another heavy thunderstorm came up suddenly and we had a tremendous downpour. This is ONLY 5 hours later!

We were quite shocked and worried about our bridges, our trees, shrubs and plants...

Tropical weather like that is so harsh on the elements! 

Murky water comes roaring down.

Our Spunky girl usually stays in our wood garden; that's her domain but now I worry as she cannot cross the bridges or she might get swept away. This is AFTER the rain and of course most of the racing water had already passed and is now receding rapidly.

Such a sad sight...

This also leaves behind a very thick and stinky mud.

And this we watched now week after week, for nearly three months in a row... Our kind of summer for 2013.

All the hard work, all the woodwork, the painting and treating of the bridge with wood preservative.

Husband Pieter did just finish this bridge on August 1, and it has been under water numerous times since.

Just sad... Look at this little lake!

Foaming water that keeps racing down hill...

Just hoping for the best...

Water from the creek comes running down from across the road as well...

The flooding across the road, alongside the creek is even worse...

Look how much creek water is still running over the road, not being able to pass through the huge pipe, underneath the asphalt. That pipe is not wide enough to handle all the excess water in the creek, which accumulates fast from higher areas.

In the distance you see our white picket fence. Behind me to the right is still part of our wood garden, a total length of 200 meter we got alongside the road.

This I zoomed in from our bedroom window...

WHEN will this wet monsoon finally leave us?

Short video from July 10, when it started: Rainy Day in Georgia – iPhone upload ←click it.

Rainy July Day in Georgia I – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia II – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia III – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia IV – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia V – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia VI – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy July Day in Georgia VII – iPhone upload ←click it

Rainy August Day in Georgia – iPhone upload ←click it

The above give you at least an idea how that looks like...

A constant battle and HARD WORK!

Sure, in July Georgia Magazine did warn for getting prepared: It's hurricane season. 

Bringing the risk of storm surges, high winds, tornadoes and inland flooding across Georgia...

Finally we had two SUNNY days now after 11 days of rain, as much as 12.49 inch or 31.7 cm. 

Unreal amount of water...

Related link:

{Our Wooden Balusters Repurposed} | previous post by me
{Our Damage from Tornado spin off of Hurricane Earl, 2003} | previous post by me with severe damage to our bridges

{Our Damage from Tornado spin off of Hurricane Earl, 2003}

• On Thursday morning, March 20 of 2003, we had a terrible Tornado spin off, of Hurricane Earl, that hit right here where we live. 
• Our creek side had been blooming for days with masses of creeping phlox. After the tornado struck, our two bridges were knocked out and the creeping phlox washed away... It looked like this:

• The power of wind and water... this was after the flood.
• On March 24, husband Pieter started to repair the bridge. 
• He actually was working on the construction of our Rose Suite at that time but this needed attention fast as we no longer could reach our wood garden for work.

• On March 26, Pieter had build this new bridge... 
• To the left you still see part of the previous bridge as it was flung high on the land. 
• Too heavy to even move it... Incredible how strong the powers of nature can be!
• To the right you see a few of the remaining creeping phlox, to the left they all had washed away...

• We don't have photos, only video, from how gorgeous it looked before with these pink masses of creeping phlox blooming. 
• Several years of work gone... 

• Pieter did use a crate from Sintra, in which our oak Oisterwijk furniture for the veranda had arrived from Rotterdam by boat.
• Trying to barricade the soil from washing away entirely...
• Azaleas blooming on the other side of the creek.

• March 20th 2003 - a deadly tornadic thunderstorm all the way into central Georgia...

~~0~~

We did have 2.94 inch or 7.5 cm of rain! 

Info obtained from weather.uga.edu

• Building paradise is not that easy... But we did start all over again.

Related link:
{IMPACT and AFTERMATH of TROPICAL THUNDERSTORMS} | later post by me about our bridges
{2004 Hurricane Francis - Our Garden Before and After} | previous post by me

{2004 Hurricane Francis - Our Garden Before and After}

• On September 7 of 2004, Hurricane Francis did 'visit' us briefly... and things never looked the same in our garden. 
• Our triple stem River Birch got severely damaged and had to be cut down. Sad to see them go down that way by brutal force!

• This photo is taken from our balcony, before Francis did strike us...
• The sky looks 'pregnant' (zwangere lucht) and the water is about to break.

• There goes our 13 year old river birch with its unusual triple stem.

• Deadly wounded so Pieter had to put it out of its misery...
• What a green grass we had then! Now it is all dead, like in winter time.

Related link:
{Our Damage from Tornado spin off of Hurricane Earl, 2003} | previous post by me