Anyone blowing away in Ivan

[Guest Tototoo]

OK - I'm referring to the OZ thing . . .

Hope you all our getting out ok - will shelters let you bring your dogs - now I know this group of cairn lovers would never leave them. . .

How's your pups dealing with the storm?

How are you?

Take Care and we're all thinking of you

K

[toomanypaws]

We're in the panhandle and feel very fortunate. We're on Panama City Beach and even tho we're a 1/2 mile from the gulf, we're up high and we weren't in a flood zone or an evacuation zone. They made it a madatory evacuation for zones 1-3, we're a 4/5. We decided to stay. Besides our cairns, we have a small zoo from 2 more dogs to bearded dragons and it's not that easy to up and leave. We did have a friend in Jacksonville we were going to if Ivan hit a catagory 4 or 5. We were so fortunate, definitely saw our prayers answered. We escaped any serious damage, alot of tree branches down and part of our fence down but no damage to our home. We were also fortunate that we never lost power. One thing good is that our wires/cables are all underground. The news showed many wires dangling and we had a curfew to remain in our homes from 9 last night until this afternoon. We were prepared for the hurricane, but we weren't prepared for all of the tornadoes that were developing. At one point, the news radar showed several water spouts off shore developing and urged everyone to take shelter immediately. I had all the crates lined up in the hallway ready to take the girls to safety. That was the only time I felt a little uneasy. I have never seen the clouds look so strange before. Some were spinning one way and others the opposite way and I was ready to see a funnel form any minute over our lake. There were 8 deaths last night contributed to the tornadoes! My heart goes out to those victim's families.

We kept all of our cairn girls right w/ us all night. We could sense they were nervous. We decided on having a slumber party in our family room. We have several large trees in the backyard. If they were to fall, they would come down on the bedrooms, so rather than upset or scare our 8 yr old, we told her we were having a "camp out". Kiara, Abbey and Hannah were w/ us all night, Kiara had her bed close to us and the other two had their crates. The sounds of the wind hitting at times was so strange, especially when the winds were 70-80 miles per hr! I lay there just waiting for a part of the house to blow off and Hannah got scared and ended up sleeping w/ me.

The winds are still high here and it's amazing how some of the pines can bend over w/o snapping. It's been quite an experience and our family feels closer than ever and our cairn girls know they have security and love w/ us.

[Guest Tototoo]

TooManyPaws - Glad all your paws are ok - human and furry

How scary - they said Panama City was one of the target cities, so I'm glad you are ok. Its good your up in the mountains. . . how bad is town today?

I'm amazed you have power and that. . . its really interesting to watch what happens with a storm as long as your not in its path. We had two tornados in the last two years, one was one street over to the north and the second was one street over to the south. I never knew we moved to a tornado alley until we built here.

Glad the pups were safe. (and your daughter) its hard to keep the kids from getting scared, specially when you know the truth...I don't know that I could ever leave with the horses and such its really scary...

I'm glad your Ok - I've enjoyed your opinion too much

Take Care

K

[MikeC]

Toomanypaws,

So glad you are all safe and sound. You folks in Florida have really had your share, and it seems like they just keep coming. My boss has a vacation home in Sanibel Island and she was very lucky. Their only damage was a pine tree that cracked and knocked out one of her air conditioners. We here in California have earthquakes to contend with, but they are few and far between. Tell Kiara that her look-a-like Duffy says Hi!

MikeC

[toomanypaws]

Thanks K and MikeC,

My girls have been loving the clean up in the yard. They love watching ME clean up. I've filled 4 garbage bags full of small pine branches and have a wheel barrel full plus more piled up of large branches. It's amazing to me that nothing tore into our screen room. My dh and I fixed the part of our fence that fell, but I'm calling the fence company Monday to replace some pannels and secure the back as it's slanting. I'm sure Kiara was hoping I missed a spot along the fence where the rain rushed under washing some ground away, but I was ahead of her on this one. Ya gotta stay one up on these guys!

[Mama Kim]

Toomanypaws, glad you're okay. Ivan was a nasty one. Here in East Tennessee, schools were closed today due to flooding roads from Ivan. It rained and blew all night last night and most of the day today.