We're as prepared up here as we can be. I wish you well Nigella. God Bless you and keep you and all the rest of the people in Dennis' path safe from harm.

Nigella,

Boy, don't you hate doing a lot of work for no reason?

All kidding aside, we dodged another one! No significant damage and the biggest downed branches are ones I can pick up by myself. My biggest job now will be trimming the shredded banana leaves and putting back all the potted plants.

Hope everything is cool on your side of the bay. I understand most of Mobile didn't even lose power, ours was only out for about 3 hours and it's back now.

I think the people who evacuated may get more weather in Montgomery than we got here!

Oh, I've been praying for you all. I have a friend who owns a greenhouse business in Mobile, and he got hit hard last time. Hope this one is a fizzle.

Ya'll, it didn't get us at all. How embarrassing, but what a relief! We did evacuate but as it turned out we've had worse thunderstorms without any tropical weather at all. A little community called Atmore is in terrible trouble though, they got really torn up with the eye wall and multiple torndoes; if you're inclined to help I'm sure it would be deeply appreciated by a lot of good people. Thanks for thinking of me, you are all GREAT.

El Gato, most of the time I would agree with you about the unnecessary work. This time I'm just relieved and a little grateful for the opportunity and impetus to make some changes in my set up. I guess that's what's known as a blessing in disguise? I really wasn't able to be as prepared for this one as I was for Ivan, but the damage from Ivan was SO much worse. I haven't seen Pensecola for many years but I'm told that it's just sad how much damage was done there. Yeppers, we definitely dodged the bullet, it looked like we were caught in the crosshairs. Big sigh of relief.

I am SOOO glad Dennis was not as bad as we had all anticipated, although I feel for the ones who did get zapped. At least no one got "clobbered" like Ivan (and others, for FL).
However, i dread the next ones brewing in the gulf. For that reason, when moving stuff BACK out of the greenhouse (& the house, & the barn, etc.) today, i did NOT move them far.

Nigella, you're right. And Pace and Milton got torn up pretty bad too. Many of them won't have power for at least a week. At least the National Guard was already in place by then.

Regarding Ivan, my Mom & Dad are on the water on Innerarity Island (Perdido Key area) and they lost their dock, deck and front porch. But their best friends a couple of miles east were absolutely devastated. Their house was literally obliterated as were hundreds of homes in that neighborhood. A beautifully landscaped yard with fruiting bananas and expensive tropicals all destroyed. They are selling the (now vacant) lot and bought a house inland.

Roseyp, I did the same. And my plywood is staying stacked in the carport for now.

i know i speak for all of us inland when i say we are all very happy for our coastal friends here in alabama.take care

Pensacola wasn't hit as bad as with Ivan. I think part of it was the prep that was done. Traffic lights (where there were multiple lights, all were taken down except one) were not lost, a lot of trees were 'pre-cut' and things were just READY! I haven't been in touch with my 2 brothers, one in Gulf Breeze and one in Navarre, which was hit harder. Phone service is out for them. We got power back this morning, (13 days after Ivan). We had a neighbors tree down on our sheds and limbs are everywhere tho'.