Thanks guys. We stayed in the house. I s a block house built in 1954 with a metal roof 24 ft above sea level, so i felt pretty good about staying. I only had 3 trees in my yard, 2 live oaks and an old water oak. I knew the water oak was going to fall, but it leaned over the street. The live oaks were on the north side of the house, so they would fall away.
That was my plan. I was ready, 2 5000w generators, house wired with a transfer switch, kubota tractor with a front end loader, chain saws, 60 gallons of gas in V, grouper in the freezer, ice machine, deep well, bring it on!!
Well, the first thing was the storm took a jog to the east, which put us on the west side of the eye. Usually a good thing because its the dry side of the storm and diminished winds because of land interaction. Not so in a cat 4/5. So we had north winds which threw all the neighbors trees on me, including my 2 live oaks.
First tree took out the ice machine, knocked the head off and flooded 600 lbs of ice
Second tree buried the generator, so i could not get to it
Third tree broke spigot off house so i could not run deep well
My kubota was in a buddy s shop, roof collapsed and broke exhaust manifold and punctured the radiator
Neighbors tree landed on boat house and collapsed it on boat, pinning the rear access hatches so i could not get to siphon set up
You see how it was going.
Our house had very little damage, mosylt exterior and it is liveable. My daughters hous is mostly the same and liveable. No one was hurt and we all still have jobs
My son was working at the local tv station when the roof on the building next to them came off and landed on them, cutting off the gas line to thier generator. They went off air and he had to ride it out in a soggy damp building
As far as insurance, not much help. I have none on the V and only about $5000 on all outbuildings. I also have a 5% hurricane deductible. Which is about $12000. I almost dropped wind damage about 4 years ago, to save $1000 a year. Glad I didn t.