Well, the generator worked like a champ. Ran for nearly 5 straight days. But it only runs the other buildings and not the house. It was bought for the SerpenCo business to keep the animals alive during an extended power outage. It kept the freezer from thawing out, so the food inside all stayed good. Plus is runs the water pump, so had we been home, it would have provided running water for us.
Connie and I bailed out on Tuesday and headed over to the east coast of Florida (Palm Coast). Just got back this afternoon, and power had just been restored this morning. Had a friend checking the place for us, and I told him that as long as the generator was running, then power was still out. So power was out for nearly 5 full days. We were coming back today, regardless. Staying in a motel like the Hampton Inn gets old after a while.
Just had some large branches at the top of a water oak tree (I think that is what it is) snap off and fall in front of the carport. I spent a couple of hours cutting up those branches and hauling them out of the driveway, so that is cleared now. Lots of debris everywhere shaken out of trees, of course. But no damage to any of the buildings anywhere that we have found yet. So we were lucky.
A cursory glance at the citrus trees shows they fared really well. I thought there would be loose fruits blown all over the yard.
Anyway, I highly recommend evacuating when things like this happen. It's pretty stressful worrying about losing your house, but it would be a WHOLE LOT more stressful if you are still in it while thinking that might happen.
Someone on one of my other sites posted the link to this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ofAJSqpLM
That is Toucans in Mexico Beach. Connie and I have eaten there before. But looks like that won't happen again, as Michael appears to have just wiped it off of the map completely.