When I wrote about Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief just a few weeks ago, I did not expect to write another hurricane story this fall. Mother Nature had other ideas. A second Category 4 storm made landfall. Hurricane Irma left a different destruction than Harvey. But the pictures are devastating nonetheless.

I am sharing some photos and video taken in suburban Orlando locations. This is the interior of the Florida peninsula but a best guess is that wind gusts reached close to 90 MPH. Hurricane Irma set many records during the assault on Florida.

Communications

The biggest impact I noticed from Hurricane Irma was the inability to easily reach my loved ones in the path of the storm. In this day and age we expect instant communication. During and immediately after the storm, cell phone coverage was spotty at best. The landline number I called connected to an all circuits are busy recording. Thus, Hurricane Irma served as a reminder that our modern technology can fail.

In Florida, some of my connections were unable to get information about area conditions. Cable television was knocked out. Additional methods of communication are needed in these situations. Some individuals reverted to radio as the primary source of communications. Others struggled with the poor coverage on smart phones to utilize social media. Alternative methods are necessary to keep open lines of communication. The time to line up the back-up resources is before an emergency occurs.

Hurricane Irma Photos

The photos and video that accompany this post arrived via text. The audio on the video gives you a sense of how strong the wind gusts were. Most of the damage is a direct result of wind. Clean up will take some time.

The video shot during the storm captured the view from a screened porch. Photos show images after the storm moved through the area. I cannot imagine the number of trees damaged or lost. Since my next trip to Florida is scheduled  I will soon assess the damage.