Weekend Recap: Hurricane Matthew

It's always a bummer when a weekend doesn't really feel like a weekend at all. I'm kind of obsessed with the weather, so when the possibility of a major hurricane hitting the Savannah area developed last weekend, I of course began tracking that thing by checking my weather apps multiple times a day and constantly refreshing my Twitter feed for any related news. Last Wednesday it was pretty much confirmed: the Georgia coast would be seeing extremely rough weather sometime over the weekend.

Most of the town closed down Friday in preparation, which was great for me. I slept in, cleaned house, and sat on the couch most of the day watching the 24/7 live stream of Savannah news as the storm rolled in. As the winds and rains began to pick up after dark, I started getting a little more nervous. Christopher wouldn't be off work until 10 p.m., and then he had over an hour commute home. Thankfully he pulled up right after midnight, and right after the first storm band was beginning to really come in strong.

We went to bed while many of my friends didn't sleep all night long. I woke up a few times to the 50 mph+ wind gusts rattling the windows. Once, I woke to the sound of cracking limbs, but that was all I heard so I went back to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I woke Saturday morning to find that we actually still had power and a major downed tree in the back yard! It appears to have been struck by lightning and split down the middle as it fell, taking about six smaller trees down with it, crushing the fence along the property line. We are so thankful that it didn't fall the other way, as it surely would have landed on the house, and probably in our bedroom!

Our backyard

Visitors will have a hard time getting in today!

There are still trees down all over town this morning, including one blocking the main entrance to our office building. We were blessed to have had power all weekend, while still so many are without, including my family in South Carolina. Sunday was full of yard clean up and trying to get the house back to normal after such an intense weather weekend. Needless to say, I'm a little exhausted today, but nothing like the amazing men and women working to restore utilities to our region! One of the Georgia Power men yesterday stopped to ask why we had power when the rest of the streets surrounding us didn't {I don't know! But glad we do!} and mentioned that he still didn't have lights on at his own home.

Riding out the storm with our scaredy-dog 

My favorite house in Statesboro...seemed to only sustain fence damage! 

I'll be interested to see how Christopher's apartment on Whitemarsh Island near Savannah fared, but there is still no way on to the island at this point. Thanks to all who checked in on us throughout the whole ordeal. We are definitely counting our blessings!

Power truck from Tyler, Texas