A former Yorkton resident has weathered the lashings from the storm in Florida and emerged on the other side mostly unscathed.
Todd Hubbs endured Hurricane Irma from his home in Palm Bay, suffering only minor property damage.
“We dodged a bullet,” he said.
Hubbs, who moved to Florida in 2005 after growing up in Yorkton, owns a car lot in Palm Bay. He lives there with his family.
He prepared for the hurricane by bringing loose items near the house inside, filling up on gas for his generator, and putting up storm shutters on his windows. He wasn’t sure what to expect.
“It’s hard to predict these hurricanes,” he said. “The winds were crazy.”
The Category 4 storm laid into his property around 10 p.m. on Sept. 10. The house lost power and they weren’t able to get it up and running again until the next morning. Their cell phone reception became spotty, dropping in and out of service.
Luckily, when Hubbs inspected his property, he found they’d avoided the worst of the storm.
“We didn’t have much damage at all,” he said. “Some shingles were torn off.”
Hubbs notes how fortunate he was to avoid the brunt of Irma’s wrath, pointing to the immense flooding in Orlando and other disasters closer to home.
“Tornadoes touched down in the city we live in,” he said. “One [of them] destroyed two houses.
“Some places will be overwhelmed.”
Hubbs will be spend the next few days cleaning up, and fielding calls from concerned relatives and friends in Saskatchewan.
At the time of this writing, Hurricane Irma is heading into Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. It has caused at least 49 deaths.
