In South Tampa, close to the Hillsborough Bay, people didn’t get the flooding that usually comes with heavy rain. Instead they are dealing with the aftermath of high wind; downed trees and branches.
The sound of saws cutting through bark will become a familiar one in the next few days, as people try to get rid of the trees uprooted by Irma.
Nancy Callahan might not be excited about the work, but would choose it over a different outcome.
“My son and his three-year-old and his friend were up in the attic space which is a big big room and bathroom,” Callahan explains. “And if it had gone across the house they could've been killed.”
Just a few streets away, another tree fell taking the street's power along with it.
“Well I was sure glad the tree felt that way and not the other way,” says Domenic Massari who rode out the storm across the street.
The tree barely missed Marcy Mixon’s home.
“There was a horrible explosion two of them,” Mixon remembers. “And I knew that the cable box was hit, the tree came down and the whole house shook.”
It wasn’t just trees we saw in places they shouldn’t be. This stop light wasn’t doing much good on the ground. This downed billboard was no match for Irma’s wind.
At the Dill’s family home clean-up is a family affair.
Mia Dill describes Hurricane Irma as scary.
“I've never been through a hurricane before,” Dill says. “I didn't know what to expect.”
And after making it through the storm, her father says these are moments they appreciate even more.
“As a father, you know, of three young children it's very scary,” Tony Dill says. “For someone like me I travel a lot. I am out of town so just grateful that we could be home together as a family and all be together.”
Overall people, especially those who live close to downed trees are grateful because they know the damage could have been much worse.
