---And Now, the Inevitable Aftermath ... On 07 September, 2004, Bonnie Writes:
Tuesday, September 07, 2004 4:13 PM, The aftermath and oh, what an adventure!!! Well, here I am again, folks, just as I'd promised you. I feel as though I'm getting ready to launch (no pun intended) into a "Gilligan's Island"-type of tale here and I just can't wait to tell you all the gory details. Before I begin, though, I want to make perfectly clear that nothing I write in here is intended in such a way as to make light of this storm. I take them quite seriously. It's just that I have "that little affectation," of which I already advised all of you, wherein I view even serious storms just a bit differently than would those folks who have that, "shaking fear" of them, so to speak. So please don't misconstrue anything I write based on the idea that I think this is all fun and games. I don't!

First of all, we weren't quite finished picking up the debris of Hurricane Charley, whose side effects blew over us on Friday the 13th. Charley was quite a cad, tearing down a load of trees and even uprooting a few. He also did lots of structural damage, believe me. But we were lucky, all things considered, with the parts we got of Charley.

But Hurricane Frances was so close on his heels and she trumped him handily, believe me! Frances, to put it very mildly, was a real bitch! On Friday, everyone in every subdivision in Florida was outside. We were all boarding windows, putting away all potential flying missiles, tying down lawn furniture, protecting vehicles (Harley-Davidsons were priority one, of course), and laying in all extra supplies, as needed.

We wrapped up everything and then entered the now-windowless house to watch the never-ending coverage of the most massive storm to hit the United States shores in the entire history of weather records. Believe me when I tell you, it was truly the adventure of a lifetime! Friday night passed fairly uneventfully, as we listened to the winds gaining velocity with each passing hour. With my penchant for storms, I simply HAD to sneak onto my porch now and then, to get a quick peek. My husband kept cautioning me, each time, but knowing it was a futile effort. After going-on-30-years now, he's well-aware of my strange little quirk for storms.

Finally, I went to bed at midnight, very reluctantly, as I just knew I was going to miss something if I did. But I sure did get quickly current on the following day when I awoke to the howling wind. Boy, did I ever rush to the that front porch to get my "fix." I wasn't disappointed and I have to say that I was grateful that we were receiving only what was considered as, "side effects." The eye of the storm had covered West Palm Beach north through Vero Beach, when it made landfall. But the rainbands were beyond anyone's wildest dreams. We watched throughout the day on Saturday, wondering when we'd lose power and keeping our fingers crossed.

Now, mind you, folks, please understand "the inner me." In school, I was an unbelievable "tomboy" type, who was the "buddy" to all the guys. I rode motorcycles, shot pool and was way more into that stuff than I was ever into the "girl thing." Yes, I still have a spirit of adventure and I was sort of a "wild child" in my 20s and early 30s, but for the past 15-or-so years, I've lived a fairly docile life, unless one considers all those solo trips to the Sturgis Motor- cycle Rally. So a storm of this magnitude was truly a "happening."

The day passed and the winds increased and we finally lost all electrical power at 1 p.m. on Sunday. We got our generator into service as quickly as possible and just "hunkered down." But I was inexorably drawn to this storm and I just couldn't remain indoors. Thank God, my house is situated so that the porch is dead center and the front of the house is due south. The wind was incredible and blowing out of the east. Remember the scene from, "The Wizard of Oz," wherein the house is being carried through the tornado and the people are looking through the window, watching it pass? Well, that was similar to how it was to sit on my south-facing porch and watch that hard east wind fly past. My porch suddenly became the perfect projection screen upon which to watch this history making event, in relative safety. ---And watch it, I did!! I was so mesmerized and fascinated by it, I could have done nothing else!

It got worse and worse and worse. The gusts were now hurling things through the air---large branches, small toys, overlooked tools, a chair or two. Up, up, and away! I'd never been privileged to witness anything of this magnitude in my entire life. As I watched, completely hypnotized, I couldn't help but wonder about some of life's deepest mysteries. Mind you, I'm not much a, "Bible- thumper" type, although I actually WAS staunchly reared in the Lutheran faith, to which I still adhere. But I couldn't help but wonder how anyone could observe such majesty and panorama and omniscience and then actually question the existence of God.

It was daylight as we watched the worst of the storm's path in our area. As darkness slowly fell, it continued unabated, trees bent straight over sideways, limbs flying through the air, and now and then, an unidentifiable object due to the darkness and the extreme speed with which it would pass my visual field. My adrenaline was pumping!

Suddenly, I heard a loud, grinding sound, which seemed to be much closer than I would have wanted it to be. My zeal for this awesome storm was unpleasantly interrupted by its sheer reality. That loud, grinding sound was none other than my roof tiles being removed and propelled through the air in pairs and quadruples and sheets. Well, I had to interrupt my front-row seat, of course, and repair to the inside to survey the damage. A leak had broken through the ceiling in (of all places) my master bathroom shower stall, can you believe it!?!? In spite of myself, I had to laugh.

The winds continued to howl, the rains came in sheets, and my husband and I took turns moving things from the leaks which were developing, as we rapidly placed a series of buckets in strategic areas. But it was getting worse, literally by the raindrop. We soon had to break down our entire bed and move it to the living room, as we furiously vacuumed water with the Shop Vac. We weren't staying even, but we were holding it off pretty well.

My neighbor is a roofer. He'd done the last two roofs on our house. I didn't know what to do. But the pursuit of trying to find out, was right up my alley. Since he wasn't answering his phone, I put on a rain slicker and outside I went, my husband screaming at the top of his lungs, "Are you nuts? Get back in here!" But I persevered, feeling the adrenaline starting pumping again. The rain beat against my face and soaked my feet. Brush hit me in the face and arms and I kept walking. It was spectacular! I leaned into the wind, as it tried to hold me off. At one point, I clung to a tree trunk to avoid the wind force. It was SO exciting, I can't beGIN to tell you. He's only 5 houses away, and it was a real challenge.

Finally, I made it, and his mother, who is 86, said to me, "My God, Bonnie! What on EARTH are you doing, walking down here in this?" I explained the dilemma, the roofer gave me the solution, and back into the night I went with a repeat performance of the journey there. It was WAY too exciting and I began to realize how ho-hum my life is, as I once again picked my way through the over- whelming rain and wind. I was thrown against the driveway light, just before I entered my house. As I up- righted myself, I proudly smiled, was soaked to the bone, bruised from the brush and debris, and feeling terribly victorious. (I know, I know, don't say it. I've already confessed to being JUST a tad crazy, remember?)

When I entered the house, I yelled to my spouse, "Get the drill. Drill a hole in the center of the shower stall ceiling. It will release the water, take the weight off the ceiling, and provide a drain for the oncoming water." We did that and it worked, mostly. We still had overflow and we still had to vacuum, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. My roofer came the very next morning, repairing the leak immediately. The storm had subsided, and yes, I had mixed emotions about that.

But good, ol' Frances let me down easily. You see, she continued to howl on a more elementary basis, for all of Monday morning, dropping copious amounts of rain, as she drew a bead on Tampa, then picked up more speed in the Gulf of Mexico and hit the Florida Panhandle with a vengeance, just yesterday.

It is now Tuesday. The power was off for exactly one day and 21 hours. It came back at 10 a.m. We're thrilled. I felt like people must feel, when they reach the peak of Mt. Rushmore or the peak of Cookie's Mt. Rainier, out there in Washington. Damage was extensive, due to the water.
But we always had usable water, flushable toilets, and working phones.

Right now, I'm going to interject a little "telecommuncation lesson." As many of you are aware, I'm retired from Bell telephone. In today's U.S.A., there are literally millions of people who think when the power goes off, they have no phone. Nothing could be further from the truth! Routine guidelines for land lines tell you to ALWAYS keep one corded telephone plugged in for each land line number. Now, I want to be sure you know what a corded telephone IS. That means, you canNOT walk from room to room with this phone. You must stay within the walking range of the cord which reaches from the mouthpiece to the phone base. It's like the ones we had in the Dark Ages of the 1950s, only they look a bit more modern now. The trouble is, no one BUYS them anymore! People don't realize that you MUST have one of these plugged into a jack for each landline number you have. It serves to ground the line. As a wonderful and coincidental side effect, though, it will also provide you with continuous working telephone service, in the event of a power outage. So if you happen to be one of those misinformed telephone subscribers, who has no corded phone in the your house, go get one NOW, hear? Besides, if you have only cordless phones, you're getting a lot more call interference by NOT having your line grounded. Okay, enough on that!

My list of damages include a roof, soffit damage (very slight), an aluminum gutter, a microwave which was blipped by the power outage, 2 ruined ceilings, one strip of hallway carpeting (which will be replaced with hardwood flooing), 3 terribly expensive Persian wool rugs, one ceiling fan, one door frame, one roof turban.

It will all total probably about $20,000, I'd guess. There are other odds and ends, too.

My insurance agent telephoned this morning and advised me to have at it, get everything repaired to my liking, save all receipts, and they will reimburse me in full, minus my $500 deductible. They're paying $8,000 up front, no questions asked, for my new roof. We've been with them since 1987 and never turned in one claim.

We now await the possible arrival of Hurricane Ivan, whose path is currently unknown. Wherever he goes, I'm ready. I wouldn't leave Florida for anything! Do you hear that pounding? That's my roofer, who's putting on our brand new roof in time to meet any challenge which may come from Ivan. Let's see, I guess there will be a "J" storm after that, then a "K" storm, and then---oh well, you get the idea.

It is now just over 4 weeks until I board my flight to come and see all of you, once again. I can scarcely wait. But I must confess, I feel a bit foolish now, about my former, "fear of flying." Ha! We spent this morning cleaning our yard, gutters, and debris, replacing the deck furniture to its former glory, and reveling in the joy of electricity. My best to all of you. I will see you soon. If anyone has heard from Darell L. Tobias of Sanford (very hard-hit, I hear) or from Paula Wilson of Singer Island (and this time, I'm NOT mistaken about the island, and that was also very hard-hit), please let me know. Ciao!
Bonnie



- posted by Mikey @ 4:23 PM