Sunday, September 17, 2017

Irma in my neighborhood

It is not an everyday experience to dodge a hurricane. As Naples was right in the path of Irma, we moved East to stay with our daughter. Damage in Naples is impressive mostly in areas that are low lying, older homes built before the stringent building codes after hurricane Andrew in 1992, and in communities with manufactured housing.

There are still parts of Naples without power, communications, and with no access because of flooding. There has been a curfew from 9-6, there are restrictions on water, stores are slowly reopening, so are gas stations. Schools will not reopen until September 25.

In my community all construction is post-Andrew with high standards for building codes, and it shows: buildings don't have catastrophic damage, but sometimes important ones. However, the storm has devastated landscaping, sometimes breaking and felling trees that normally would withstand your "common" hurricane.

A photo collection from around where I live: the fallen trees.