Fromm Rep Won't Ride Out Cat 3 or Higher Again!
Jake's Pet Supply fared well during Hurricane Milton. We didn't lose power, suffer any damage to our delivery vehicles, or have any staff impacted by the storm. But a number of our customers and brand representatives weren't quite so lucky.
Our Fromm representative, Carolynn, described her ordeal in Sarasota this way:
'First, hurricane preparations are unbelievable. You are always wondering, Did I prep enough? For everything! Food, water, pet foods, medications, clothing, essentials, etc.
Do I have enough gas to run generator? The list goes on.
And how much do you prep your home? Every bird feeder, windchime, lanai decoration, etc came down. Outside furniture folded and put away. Exhausting. And never knowing if you did enough. Very STRESSFUL!"
She had hunkered down in Sarasota where she lives. She has a Cat 4-rated building on her property besides her house. The building houses a 5 run dog kennel and has minimal windows. Carolyn and her husband, along with their 8 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, one cat and 5 tortoises stayed there during the storm. They were joined by 4 more humans and 4 more dogs that had nowhere safe to stay.
Carolyn's dogs are very resilient to weather changes, with only one reacting to thunder. Ironically, it's the Master Hunter that reacts the most! They had not medicated any of their pets. Since there wasn't a lot of thunder, all the dogs managed just fine. Her friends did use storm prevention meds on their dogs, and it did help them to cope.
Her tortoises were safe in a large X-Pen with hay and water. She says they tend to ignore food when not in their outside pen. They did fine and were back outside the next day.
The cat hid.
Carolyn had television until about 7PM Wednesday, which helped to drown the outside noises. After loss of electricity, it was very loud and scary. But again, they tried to not react around the dogs, so as to not alarm them.
Here is her description of the actual impact:
"When the eye passed over our home about 8PM, it was like a hot still summer night. No breeze, plenty of frogs croaking, birds chirping (yes, at night), and mosquitoes! All dogs were leash walked at that time even though our property is fenced. No chances taken on down fence panels or dogs taking off from fright.
After the eye passed over, the storm increased its intensity to a whole new level …very, very scary. No sleep. I really think I heard at least one tornado cross over our house, not verified.
We waited until dawn to go outside, finding trees down, a million branches, and various items that were not ours. Fortunately, the trees that came down only scraped the house, so no major damage."
Carolyn and her husband were able to relocate back to their house on Thursday. They relied on a generator until the power was restored Friday. Nearly a week later, many in her neighborhood were still waiting for power.
They hired professionals to do the yard clean up, realizing there was no way they could have handled it alone. When she left the house on Friday, traffic lights were out, gas was unavailable, and people were still panicky.
Carolynn's conclusion:
"I will never ride out a Cat 3 or higher again. I am done. We were extremely lucky."
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