Hurricane Elena, August 1985

The first hurricane I remember was Hurricane Elena. At that time, my family lived in Pat Acres over in Town-n-Country and our house was in a flood zone. It was early in the morning when we heard police going up and down our streets announcing an evacuation. So we packed the car and headed to my grandmother's house over in Carrollwood. If you remember Hurricane Elena, it ended up doing a loop-the-loop and heading back out into the gulf, but not without sitting over the area for a few days and dumping a bunch of rain. We didn't have any flooding issues at my grandparents, but did have to redirect some water to keep it away from the house. As kids, we thought the evactuation was kind of fun - although being cooped up inside got old after awhile. But we had our violins with us, so we did multiple rounds of review and practice. We played every old game we could dig up in my grandparent's house, and I definitely remember my grandfather trying to avoid the hubbub of four young kids by escaping to the front porch.

Let's hope for a loop or a scoot or something from Hurricane Irma so that we don't have too much damage over here. In fact, after the Wednesday 11am advisory, the track has been moved quite a bit east. Not good for Miami or areas on the east coast, but a bit of a relief for us. But storms, especially big ones, are unpredictable - even with the best computer models.  Click here for information from the county on what to do to prepare for a hurricane. And above all - be safe. Gardens can be replanted, houses rebuilt, stuff replaced, but people can't. Don't put yourself in harms way. We will be open as long as possible at the nursery, probably frantically prepping for Irma's arrival if today's track continues. Even if we are off the path of a direct hit, there is still likely to be lots of wind and rain. If the weather gets bad, the nursery will be closed and will only  re-open once it is safe to be out and about. Protect yourself and your families and we'll see you in the garden soon.

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