A former Yorkton resident has weathered the lashings from the storm in Florida and emerged on the other side mostly unscathed.
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Todd Hubbs endured Hurricane Irma from his home in Palm Bay, suffering only minor property damage.
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鈥淲e dodged a bullet,鈥� he said.
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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.听
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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鈥檛 sure what to expect.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to predict these hurricanes,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he winds were crazy.鈥�
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The Category 4 storm laid into his property around 10 p.m. on Sept. 10. The house lost power and they weren鈥檛 able to get it up and running again until the next morning. Their cell phone reception became spotty, dropping in and out of service.听
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Luckily, when Hubbs inspected his property, he found they鈥檇 avoided the worst of the storm.
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鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have much damage at all,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome shingles were torn off.鈥�
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Hubbs notes how fortunate he was to avoid the brunt of Irma鈥檚 wrath, pointing to the immense flooding in Orlando and other disasters closer to home.
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鈥淭ornadoes touched down in the city we live in,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ne [of them] destroyed two houses.
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鈥淪ome places will be overwhelmed.鈥�
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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.
