We were very lucky to have survived hurricane Irma with little damage. Many of my friends did not have power for up to 7 days after the storm and many areas in south Florida including the Keys suffered a lot of damage.  Since we live on the water in the upper Tampa Bay, we evacuated to stay at our friends house about 30 minutes north of us. This was only the 2nd time we’ve evacuated since living here for 15 years. The first was for Charley in 2004 which missed us completely. We spent almost 3 days at our friends and didn’t lose power until the last day. I had thrown my camera in the car before leaving and spent some time taking pictures in the rain. Above were all taken from our friend’s backyard.  We passed the time by keeping the dogs busy, one was a 9 month old puppy who loved to fetch the ball from the pool.  By the time I left my arm was tired of throwing the ball for 3 days. That puppy never did tire out.

Below are just a few “after” storm shots.  Beth walking the puppy around the backyard. The neighborhood was filled with yard debris.  One of her neighbor’s lost their shed.  The shed had completely blown away but the lawn equipment was still in a pile on the grass. Many of the houses has tree limbs in the screens.

I just hope it’s at least another 13 years before we have to do this again. Our house was fine.  We had the wood fences on both side of our house fall down but that is an easy fix.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World