In September of 2004 we got visits from 2 hurricanes, Frances & Jeanne. So much to say, no room to journal it on the pages. Although we didn't have much personal damage, it was a very frustrating and emotional time.
The little tag says "Thank you, God, for Zoloft." A double sided page of journaling was slipped in behind the "finemess" page.
Here's what it says:
When
the first hurricane, Frances, hit us in 2004, we were as ready as we could be.
We had lots of ice in the cooler, we put up shutters on all the windows, brought
in all the loose stuff in the yard, had water in the bathtub for flushing, all
that had been recommended, we did it.
Then
we sat back and waited. I had closed up the library on Thursday, but Frances sat
out off the coast for an extra day and we watched the same radar loop on the TV
so long that a jerking, crooking motion of our hands in an overhand hook got to
be an inside family joke. We waited some more.
Saturday
night we lost our electricity while we were eating dinner. This complicates
things, since when we lose electricity we also loose running water. Well, just
rinse off the plates with bottled water, and transfer the milk and other
essential perishables into the coolers. Listen to the wind howl and hope for the
best. The next morning it was still a hurricane over us. Later in the afternoon
it let up enough to go outside and assess the outcome. We didn’t have much damage, but our back fence was blown
away from the poles, smashing down some of the hedge. I never liked those ficus
hedges anyway. Our next-door house to the west lost most of its roof, some of it
coming into our yard and even into the pool. Many roofing nails were in the
yards and dirt road. Some of us spent some time dragging broken Norfolk Island
pine branches and dead roof tiles out of the road. The pines looked so odd with
all the branches broken off one side only.
Sam
made coffee and eggs on the Coleman stove on the back porch. Feeder bands were
making it rain again off and on, and after a bit it started to get really stuffy
in the house. We spent a good deal
of our time the following week out on the porch. It was more pleasant there than
in the house, for the most part. Until the neighbors started getting generators,
which drove the noise level up considerably. Sam wanted to play Scrabble, but
because my heart had been broken the week before, I walked through everything
like a zombie. I went with Sam to the Crazy Cuban and helped take down their
shutters and transferred perishables from the walk-in to the chest freezer. It
was hot. And dark. And seeing the damage everywhere was scary. Traffic was light
on Sunday evening, and that was a good thing because there were no traffic
lights and lots of debris in the road.
Monday
I swam in the pool in lieu of a real shower. Thank goodness for the pool, for
without it how would we have ever flushed our toilets?
Hauling buckets became a new family chore. We took down some of the
shutters so we could open some windows. Sam went off in search of ice for the
Crazy Cuban, and showered at friends’ homes in Broward County. On Tuesday I
went back to work, where there was no electricity either. Starting on Wednesday
we were assigned to the city’s emergency operations center, where we answered
phones and surfed the ‘net all day. It was boredom central, but it was
air-conditioned, and dress casual was tolerated. And each day I announced to the
group, “Who’s taking me home for a shower today?” And several nice people
gave me showers. I had to go for a re-take on my mammogram, so I swung by the
YMCA for a shower one day. My anti-depressant hadn’t kicked in yet, so daily I
struggled trying not to cry in public.
Nina
disappeared. She moved in with friends who had electricity back. This gave Sam
lots of opportunities to talk to me, but he stuck to routine stuff anyway.
During
the week, all around us folks in various neighborhoods got their electricity
back. Those in the newer developments with underground utilities got theirs back
sooner. We knew we were in it for a long time because a pole fell down 3 houses
away. When Texas Electric trucks showed up in our neighborhood and the guys
started working in the buckets we cheered, and offered refreshments. But still
no power. In the meantime Sam
bought a generator for the Crazy Cuban and opened the place back up with a
limited menu. People were quite happy to get a cup of café con leche and a hot
pressed sandwich.
On
Friday night he brought the generator home for us and we had a few appliances to
use during the day (we turned it off at night). We rigged up a clothesline on
the back porch (rain was still intermittent) and kind of cleaned up a little.
The whole house was musty, and carrying those buckets of water to the bathrooms
and walking around with wet shoes were taking their toll, but those cold showers
in my own house were wonderful. I can only say that we were very lucky to have
been caught up on our laundry before hand, otherwise it would have been dirty
towels. Ugh!
Everyone
in our neighborhood got electricity back on Saturday but the last 3 houses on my
street. They wouldn’t go into the yard with the down pole until they had
written permission. They got it and started working on that pole on Sunday. They
worked on it all day, and I watched it all day. Sunday night we went to George
Booth’s house for dinner, and when we got home there was beautiful
electricity! Hooray! Nina came home after that, having outworn her welcome at
Sam Wood’s house.
Sam
hacked away at some of the ficus and screwed the fence back up to the posts. It
was a fine, strong job! I threw away tons of food from our 2 refrigerators and
washed them up and started over.
Three
weeks weeks later, I pulled into the parking lot at the library and there was
the city crew, putting the shutters back up. I jumped up and down and yelled No!
No! No!
Jeanne
Ok,
here we go again. Only this time there was far less food to spoil, and Jeanne,
in spite of her Atlantic wanderings, was a faster mover. She whipped through
here at night, took a couple of our roof singles with her, and pushed over the
back fence again, this time taking the poles with it. Our juice was only out for
2 days with Jeanne, from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning.
We ended up replacing the fence the following spring.
I
hate hurricanes.
Everything below this line is Tripod's. Thanks, Tripod!