Hurricane Matthew
 

On the news it appears that Lake and Sumter and Marion counties are in the "cone" for Hurricane Andrew.

Will you leave for areas North or West or hunker down??

Looking for advice from long time Floridians.

We haven't ever been mentioned on the News before as an involved area.

Hunker down here. Been through a few of them. Get out your raincoat !

We have been watching the path of Hurricane Matthew closely as we are currently in Pompano Beach on vacation. Currently we are planning to cut our vacation a couple of days short and leave for The Villages on Wednesday. Here in south Florida the media is tracking Matthew minute by minute. Currently still much speculation as to how close Matthew is coming to Florida.

Bottom line: We will "hunker down" in The Villages but leave the coast of south Florida. Personally I think The Villages is the place to be for Matthew.

About 10 yrs ago a hurricane came through TV. We were owners, but not residents at that time and the only damage we had was a couple of pieces of siding came off our home.

Probably the most important thing to do is to take down awnings, if you can, they get ripped to shreds in the wind, and get all light weight lawn chairs into the home, things will fly around. We will be doing our inspection today.

If you need milk etc., do it now because you will not get into the stores when the storm is on top of us.

I also just came to TOTV to ask the same question! I assume the biggest impact we are likely to have will be power outages. Have any of you here been through a days long power outage? If so, what will you do differently this time to prepare?

Thanks for any and all tips from "old timers"!

I was raised in Florida so spent time without power. The longest was five days.
Know what shelters accept pets. Many/most do not. Know which hotels accept pets in TV and within a couple hour drive in various directions.
Have water and nonperishable items. Have a filled tank for your grill. You can grill peppers, zucchini, squash, onions just to name a few.
Keep your laundry done. That sounds silly, but laundry mats are not fun.
Keep your car gas topped off.
I have not experienced a weather event in TV.

Also, fill your tub with water--will need it to flush toilets

And keep your phone and/or other electronics charged. As of last night, WESH 2 was telling people who lived inland that there would be no reason to evacuate. However, have not heard a forecast this morning.

Not to minimize the threat, but we're far enough inland that hunkering down should be sufficient. Potential for heavy rain and very strong winds...but the coast gets much, much worse.

Blackouts ......... have never experienced one here in TV. The infrastructure is excellent and underground, so not much will happen to ours, but the surrounding towns will probably run into trouble. We have excellent retention ponds and ditches which can handle a great deal of water. The main problem is from the high winds blowing stuff around, plus tree branches may be brought down. If you are from the North you will be familiar with Northeasters and I would put our inland hurricanes in the same category.

We also have excellent support from Seco and Teco, and the support from the Villages (Developer) is amazing. I was here for the tornado which did a lot of damage and our support system went above and beyond, we were very impressed.

No electricity.....Stock water, can goods that do not need heat. Box cereal works well with box milk. Overnight oatmeal is good source of any meal. Lose power up north way too much not to be prepared. Hard boil eggs can be room temp or days.

Not while living in Florida but in Houston we evacuated twice. First time Rita changed directions and missed us completely. It was a horrible experience for those folks that got stuck in traffic trying to get away. If you plan to leave, go early. Second time was for Ike. The eye went directly over our house. It was devastating to the area. Storm surge was horrible for the coast. Almost every home had damage - especially roof damage. Power outages in some areas lasted for weeks. Traffic was a major problem due to missing or non working traffic lights. I don't think we would evacuate living this far inland.

nothing has been said about TV, and I'm not planning on leaving. I will, however, have my laundry done and I have a game plan. All people, especially pet owners, should have a game plan.
The information being provided is good solid information for people who have not been through a hurricane or other weather event. Knowledge is power.

When I checked last year, we were a 'shelter in place' location, therefore much of the info above is useful. As for power, yes the villages electrical system is underground and fairly well protected, however, ALL of the supplies to the villages are from ABOVE GROUND facilities, which will be subjected to the wind, rain, and possible debris from a storm. If you use a generator, make sure it is OUTDOORS, not in the house, not in the garage.
Be safe.

Hurricane Matthew
 

Actually TV is now within the cone of the projected possible path. And Governor Scott has declared a state of emergency for Florida. I think that is saying plenty to take the storm very seriously in TV.