If you find it in your heart

[Kathianne]

What is in your favor is that Oak trees are a hardwood. Unless one happens to be rotted and about to fall, those low speed winds ought not to damage any branches. 40 mph winds may not be fun but at least they are not in the 80 -100 scope and at those ultra speeds, bad things happen.

Coming from Chicago, winds under 65 mph don't bother me much. We tend to watch our trees carefully, if they are dead, they are gone! We have winds over 50 mph a couple times, most months. We also have lots of hardwoods, oaks, elms, maples, etc. If they aren't healthy? The fall somewhere and are heard.

However, if winds get over 70mph, another story. All depends on the soil at that point, even for healthy trees. Hurricanes, like tornadoes do not care about healthy and sick.

IMO, if there is a possibility of being at the center or close to center of storm, take what is valuable and evacuate. I'm so glad my parents did so when the worst hit. I'll admit that they had the wherewithal, but when it looked like they 'might be' hit, they'd head for Atlanta from Vero. When the reports said they might take the brunt of it, they headed to Chicago. They had someone check after the storm, if 'bad' they'd stay here and get repairs done there. If they were lucky, they'd head home when ready.

[SassyLady]

I am praying for all of you .... and hope everyone has flood insurance.

[Robert A Whit]

Generators that can be hooked up to your home are available. We don't get those kind of storms yet a pal of mine installed a Generator to power his home up the street in the event something like an earthquake took out his power. His wife needed electric for her medical condition.

He had somebody install it and by flipping the switch and starting the generator, he had power.

Just a thought.