Welp, that was fun, wasn't it kids? After being hunkered down at my friend's house for a day, and the storm got closer, we lost power around 8:30 but only for about 15 minutes. Plenty of brownouts until we lost power for good at 11:30. Since the hurricane wandered back to the east, it didn't hit us as hard as expected and there wasn't any storm surge.
In the morning, there was the usual check of the neighborhood. Some tree branches down, lots of leaves and twigs everywhere. Low lying streets had standing water. After some of the gusty wind died down, I headed home with all my valuables to do a damage check on my place. Zero damage to any of the exterior or fences. Power and water were still on and good to go as well. Lot of neighbor's fences were knocked down, could see the posts weren't cemented in
I had a couple of minor issues to deal with though. A tree on the side of my house, which usually stood at 11 and 12 o'clock, as you can see, was standing at 1 and 2 o'clock, leaning towards my neighbor's house. Upon closer look, some of the roots were pulled up and exposed, and the tree was a little bit wobbly when I pushed on it.
So out came the ladder and Sawzall, and I got to work. Once it was time to get the higher sections, I ended up wrapping my recovery strap as high up as I could get, then applied tension on the upper branches by ratchet strapping the end of the recovery strap to my AC unit. Cut a notch in the trunk so the top toppled over between the houses, and then cut it down to size.
Left a few healthy branches at the top, so I'll see if the tree re-roots itself, and sprouts some new branches skyward. If not, and it kicks the bucket, then I'll cut it down. One less obstacle when mowing the yard or going through the gate which is right behind it.
Strolled through the back yard to check if anything needed to be addressed, or fixed up. Found a small bundle of a short tree that had been bent over. The thin trunks are pretty flexible, so I'll tie them to the fence post, and call em good.
The big surprise, is some of the overgrown brush in the back. Don't have any before pics, but you normally can't see the big retention pond from the house, because the brush is so high. Usually have to walk deep into the back yard. But the winds knocked a lot of it down, so it's at like half height now. At least I have a better visual of what it will look like when I finally get around to trimming it myself.