Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Wilma is gone.....But is everywhere.
Wilma is out to sea....
There are no lights anywhere except for the hospital a block away. Very quite. I am looking out off the patio. I can see thousands of stars. Extremely rare down here. Reminds me of when I lived in that big house on the west side of Cincinnati. You could always look up and see beauty in the sky. Enough of this....I am hungry. I grabbed a few things and headed down by the pool. Everyone that I knew was meeting down there to cook on the grills.
We grilled up chicken and had some fruit. Cocktails were starting to flow again. People were just having a good time blowing off some steam. I don't think anyone really knew how bad the surrounding area was damaged. People were sharing food, water and beer. Seemed like a typical party. Seems like the neighborly thing to do. However, after a few days of being without power, and no running water.....It was time to put a halt to that.
You could always meet people down by the pool for dinner time. I hope those propane tanks don't run dry. More and more people were coming down to use the grills. The word was spreading. Thank goodness they lasted.
A few of us decided to walk to the beach. It is only a mile away and under normal circumstance it would take 20-30 mins. This day was different. Dodging down trees and power lines always makes for an interesting walk. We finally made it to the beach. There is sand everywhere and many buildings have taken on a lot of damage. There are many people out walking today. The weather is simply beautiful. No humidity and not a cloud in the sky. It had to be right around 80. We stopped by a few bars....They were serving beers out of big coolers. Just wanted to take in the scene. I am not sure I was comprehending all of the damage around me, but people were cleaning up and ready to open their business again right here on the Hollywood Broadwalk.
Just listened to the radio, they said they do not anticipate power being back on until Nov 8th. I just looked at my friend Gina in dis-belief. This is no longer going to be a few days of camping in South Florida. This was real. I think survival mode starts kicking in. I can't tell you how many times I counted my bottled water, chicken noodle soup and snacks of all sorts. Do I have enough???????
Gina and I heard the FEMA trucks were going to be at the Hollywood dog track. We decided we were going to go. Jumped in the car and pulled up and could not believe the amount of people in line. Hundreds.......Its 10 am and I am in line. Gina hears a place is serving breakfast a few blocks away. She goes....I stay in line. God I wish I put on sunscreen. I can already feel the sun on the back of my legs. Gina is back and brings me a coffee and a bagel. I never new something so trivial could taste so good. I am looking around at all these people thinking to myself. Last year at this time I was back in Cincinnati watching the TV seeing people in line for food and water. Poor bastards..... Now I am the poor bastard. How quickly your life can change. Three hours later we are at the front of the line getting water, ice and MRE's. This stuff is heavy. I just feel weak right now.
Thursday morning...... I am tired. Tired of going up and down five flights of stairs. I think I have gone up and down 50 times already. Up and down everyday with a flashlight. This is paradise.....Good workout out on the legs. Seriously thinking about catching a flight out of here. I want a hot meal and a hot shower. My cell phone is down to one bar. People are charging their phones in their cars. I plugged my charger in and in blew a fuse. I am done.... Later in the day, we hear the mall is open. A few of us went. I am looking forward to eating and finding a charger for the phone. I am at the Verizon store and a woman keeps interrupting me and the sales rep. He explains nicely that he will be with her after he finishes up with me. After she interrupts me another time, its now time for me to step in. I chewed this woman a new one. All my stress is coming to a head. It is not like me to get like this but I could not take it anymore. It is amazing when your life gets turned upside down people tend to snap. Gina and I talked about that and we determined we would not go down that path. We needed to stick together and get through this. We did.......
Is that a light I see on? We have Power................ We decide to all meet down by the grills again. Everyone is very happy. We were all exhausted. You could see how Wilma beat the hell out of everyone. I slept over 12 hours. I needed it.
The best and worse came out of many people. Sometimes you really get a feel of who people are and what they are all about. It is re-assuring and comforting to know there are a few people down here I can count on. A few I call friends.
That is all....
Steven
There are no lights anywhere except for the hospital a block away. Very quite. I am looking out off the patio. I can see thousands of stars. Extremely rare down here. Reminds me of when I lived in that big house on the west side of Cincinnati. You could always look up and see beauty in the sky. Enough of this....I am hungry. I grabbed a few things and headed down by the pool. Everyone that I knew was meeting down there to cook on the grills.
We grilled up chicken and had some fruit. Cocktails were starting to flow again. People were just having a good time blowing off some steam. I don't think anyone really knew how bad the surrounding area was damaged. People were sharing food, water and beer. Seemed like a typical party. Seems like the neighborly thing to do. However, after a few days of being without power, and no running water.....It was time to put a halt to that.
You could always meet people down by the pool for dinner time. I hope those propane tanks don't run dry. More and more people were coming down to use the grills. The word was spreading. Thank goodness they lasted.
A few of us decided to walk to the beach. It is only a mile away and under normal circumstance it would take 20-30 mins. This day was different. Dodging down trees and power lines always makes for an interesting walk. We finally made it to the beach. There is sand everywhere and many buildings have taken on a lot of damage. There are many people out walking today. The weather is simply beautiful. No humidity and not a cloud in the sky. It had to be right around 80. We stopped by a few bars....They were serving beers out of big coolers. Just wanted to take in the scene. I am not sure I was comprehending all of the damage around me, but people were cleaning up and ready to open their business again right here on the Hollywood Broadwalk.
Just listened to the radio, they said they do not anticipate power being back on until Nov 8th. I just looked at my friend Gina in dis-belief. This is no longer going to be a few days of camping in South Florida. This was real. I think survival mode starts kicking in. I can't tell you how many times I counted my bottled water, chicken noodle soup and snacks of all sorts. Do I have enough???????
Gina and I heard the FEMA trucks were going to be at the Hollywood dog track. We decided we were going to go. Jumped in the car and pulled up and could not believe the amount of people in line. Hundreds.......Its 10 am and I am in line. Gina hears a place is serving breakfast a few blocks away. She goes....I stay in line. God I wish I put on sunscreen. I can already feel the sun on the back of my legs. Gina is back and brings me a coffee and a bagel. I never new something so trivial could taste so good. I am looking around at all these people thinking to myself. Last year at this time I was back in Cincinnati watching the TV seeing people in line for food and water. Poor bastards..... Now I am the poor bastard. How quickly your life can change. Three hours later we are at the front of the line getting water, ice and MRE's. This stuff is heavy. I just feel weak right now.
Thursday morning...... I am tired. Tired of going up and down five flights of stairs. I think I have gone up and down 50 times already. Up and down everyday with a flashlight. This is paradise.....Good workout out on the legs. Seriously thinking about catching a flight out of here. I want a hot meal and a hot shower. My cell phone is down to one bar. People are charging their phones in their cars. I plugged my charger in and in blew a fuse. I am done.... Later in the day, we hear the mall is open. A few of us went. I am looking forward to eating and finding a charger for the phone. I am at the Verizon store and a woman keeps interrupting me and the sales rep. He explains nicely that he will be with her after he finishes up with me. After she interrupts me another time, its now time for me to step in. I chewed this woman a new one. All my stress is coming to a head. It is not like me to get like this but I could not take it anymore. It is amazing when your life gets turned upside down people tend to snap. Gina and I talked about that and we determined we would not go down that path. We needed to stick together and get through this. We did.......
Is that a light I see on? We have Power................ We decide to all meet down by the grills again. Everyone is very happy. We were all exhausted. You could see how Wilma beat the hell out of everyone. I slept over 12 hours. I needed it.
The best and worse came out of many people. Sometimes you really get a feel of who people are and what they are all about. It is re-assuring and comforting to know there are a few people down here I can count on. A few I call friends.
That is all....
Steven
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Hurricane Wilma Photos
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Hurricane Wilma
Good Morning,
Just found out my work has power. Very excited. It will be nice to get back into some routine starting Thursday.
Thought I would shares some of my thoughts during the past week and a half…..
I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about this storm to begin with. I know a few of you listen to my concerns prior to Wilma even hitting. (Thanks). We boarded work on Friday night. It was a typical weekend all the way up until Sunday.
Mac came over from Naples and two of his friends. He boarded up his house and was a bit concerned. We both talked about it and felt Sunday morning it would be best if he came over to the east coast. How wrong we were on that one…..
Wilma was so far but so close and it was an eerie feeling. Unsettling……. Mac and his buddies came over and we went to the beach to watch the Bengals game. We had a great time despite the loss. The ocean was very calm as well as the wind. First time I've seen it like that. After the game we went to the Elbow Room it Ft. Lauderdale. We slammed a few more beers. You could see people having a great time and trying not to think about what was coming our way. But in some strange way, you could sense the fear.
We went back to my place, took showers and headed to the Sour Apple. We ate and drank and just stared at the TV. Watching this big blog of rain and wind get closer and closer. We shut the bar down and went home about 2 AM.
6AM Monday Oct 24th. I woke to the wind. I hurried up and made coffee. My adrenaline quickly picked up. Mac was up as well. We had the weather channel on and saw that we were going to be in trouble. 8AM…The wind and the rain started. We could see across the street and watch the palm trees blowing like mad. Power goes out. I lit a bunch of candles. I was watching screens fly off doors, palms were snapping in half. We were all in the my bedroom watching out the window. I have impact windows so I felt very safe until we look across the street and watched a balcony railing being ripped from the concrete. Hurricane Katrina was just a bad thunderstorm compared to Wilma I thought to myself…...
Time for the hurricane party to begin. 9AM…We are in the middle of this so we cracked some nice cold Buds. I drank the beer so quick.. Reminded me of having a beer after you cut the grass on a hot summer day. One of the guys started drinking the hard stuff. Mac and I kept to the Buds. I could not sit down, I had so much energy. Like I had a whole pot of coffee. We started to here some loud noises from the ceiling. There were things rattling around like crazy. I kept walking through my condo looking at the ceiling watching and praying no water was coming in. Thank goodness it never did. However, we did notice people across the street all standing by their windows. It looked like people were folding their laundry by the windows. I figured it was the only light available. Later we found out water was screaming in through the windows and they were trying to stop the leaks. There was a lot of water damage in the building across the street. I was very lucky. It could have been me.
Noon time….Nothing has changed except for the beers were flowing like I was going to a Bengals game with Rick.
I had sterno's so we cooked up some soup and I made everyone some HAMIE sandwiches. Boy that tasted good. I was starving. We started hearing some very loud bangs… I went out into the hall and it sounded like the 2 elevators were banging against the wall. BOOM BOOM. Mac looked at me and I looked at him. We were both scared……… The noise went on for another 2 hours. We had no idea how long this was going to last…..
I can not remember what made me go into the hallway and walk all the way down. As I approached the window I could see the end of the storm. I could see the sun. I yelled for Mac and the guys to come down the hall. The end is almost here. It was just after 2 PM. We all felt physically and mentally beat up.. We could tell the sustained winds were dying down. We all wanted to go outside and see. So we did….
After 8 hours of putting up with Wilma, I wanted to feel her, breath her. Hard to describe…..But I am glad I did. Something I will never forget.
Not sure what was worse, going through it or 4 1/2 days of no power and water……Welcome to Sunny South Florida.
That is all….
Steven
