Hurricane Charley: Our story.

[plunkybug]

I'll start with Thursday, the day before. Not much really happened, but we got a message that we had to call a special hotline to determine if we were coming in to work Friday. Later that evening, I got a call from my brother who lives on the bay in Tampa and that floods alone with regular summer storms, so naturally they were evcuated. We were hoping he'd be ok and stuff. He told me that he had gone to Ybor City nearby (but farther away from the water) and that it had taken his friends about 4 or 5 hours to get to Orlando...the trip these days is about 2 1/2 hours, but used to be an hour less.

So I call Friday morning. The message, I'd have to say, was a bit ambiguous...some mention of the progress of the storm and that business would resume as normal. It would have been nicer if they had said additionally something like, "If you are scheduled between 8-10 am, please come in as normal. If you are scheduled later, please call later for more updates." Still more concerned for my brother's safety than my own, as Tampa was the focus for a while. Then the path shifted and the predictions showed the hurricane coming our way instead. Great for all those Tampa people who came here, right? They mention that the mayor of Orlando wants everyone off the streets by no later than 4pm, prefereably between 2-3pm. we get to go home early at 1pm. Of course they don't compensate us for it. We can use our vacation time or come in the next day for 4 hours. Anyhow, so Friday afternoon, on my way home, with lots of thoughts n my head, I get $10 on gas. Boy am I glad I did that! When I got home, I watched the news to follow the storm, and it becomes clearer that people are really starting to take this seriously because of the similarity to Donna which struck 40 years earlier. Because of this gap, many people were still like, "Yeah, remember Floyd? Yeah, nothing happened here." Chas had a nap, Sean was in his room, and I was on the computer. Hours go by and nothing happens. A short burst of rain, and then clear again. Then the rain and wind picks up, but still not bad. Still chatting online and such. I decide to go out to the hallway that leads to the aparment and look through the windows on the sides of the door. The power had already begun to flicker. What i saw outside was amazing. I saw the rin adn the wind whipping it in all directions, the trees flowing back adn forth with the wind, adn these bright flashes of green! It reminded me of the images the news channels show of bombs going off at night in foreign countries. these short bright green bursts of light at the horizon. I end my chats and get off the computer. Sean adn i hang out in the hallway and look out all the windows we can. Chas get up and turns the computer back on, only for the power to go off 10-15 minutes later. What we found was very interesting...the lights in the apartment had gone out, but the hallway and lanterns outside were still on. We chatted with our neighbors from next door adn they showed us through their back door a big tree that had fallen and made a big sound doing so. the door to the hallway was being manipulated by the wind...opening it, then slamming it shut again a moment later, allowing sprays of water inside. With no power, we eventually went to bed. There wasn't much else to do.

Saturday morning we wake up hot and sticky and powerless. Sean tells us that at midnight there were some people outside doing something, and there is a loud BOOM! "There goes a transformer." BOOM! "There goes another one." BOOM! and so you get the picture. We determined we needed food and decided to survey the damage. I guess when it happens at night it is harder to assess what really happens out there. I mean, we were kinda having fun with the wind and rain and stuff. It was our first hurricane, and other than power going out, it didn't seem that severe. Looking outside our back door, we saw a jungle of debris. Driving our normal path we spy some down power lines and change our path. Lots of debris, mostly from trees was all over the road. Awning and signs from businesses were damaged (poor Bubbaloos), and of course no traffic lights. Interesting how we all were courteous and cautious on the road. Shouldn't we be like this all the time? It was odd driving around then. We ventured up to Altamonte Springs a few exits up and we see that the traffic light getting off the interstate was working. We wandered around looking for a place to eat that had power and we found Cracker Barrell. And so had half the town. We called the folks and invited them. We learned that their power had come back just before the came to join us, so it had been out like 12 hours. After eating, Chas and I decided to head over tro my old neighborhood to see if the rumor that our house had burned down in a fire. We found our first blocked road from a tree here, but luckily there was another way to get to my house. We got there and were relieved to find out it had been the house next door. Good for us but bad for them. Finding our way out of the neighborhood and back to our area would normally have been no trouble at all. I used to do it all the time when Chas and I were just dating. But low and behold, nature had turned my old neighborhood, and the others that formed this massive conglomerate of houses, into a life size garden maze. Its a shame that we had no batteries for the camera, because some of what we saw is just better explained with a picture. We almost had a clear run when we first got stuck. At the end of the road there was a tree that had fallen across the road, but it was bent like an arc. It was a judgement call that Chas decided to drive under the tree to make the left. Once we were facing left, we saw the tree blocking the road and "Adventurer Chas" said, "Lets go up the curb since it is short and go around, and I said, "Uh no," because from my vantage point I saw some low hanging power lines, about 4 or 5 of them, and there was no way we would pass that. Lucky for me, I used to get lost in the neighborhood on purpose when I lived there, so I knew roughly where we were and could attempt to navigate out of it and get home. one of the roads that would have taken us back was blocked from a tree and this lady yells, "There's no sightseeing!" so I yelled back, "I'm just trying to find a way out to get home!" and under my breath I muttered, "Bitch!" at the woman. We found our way out and headed to Borders for a while, to soak up the air. Oh glorious air. Visited my parent's that night, we went home and to bed still with no power. The sucky thing was that it was a great opportunity for me and Chas to "spend quality time together" but honelstly it was too hot and humid for us to want to get close at all. :(

Over the weekend we just went out and did what we could away from the apartment and we slept when we were there. things started coming back to life around us though we still had no power. We brought from food to Kristen's place since she had room in her freezer and ended up staying at my parent's since I had to go to work Monday morning, and I needed a way to wake up. The hot shower and air was good too. It was nice to spend a few nights there with them, but boy am I glad our power got turned back on last night. Things are still not back to normal here, but they are getting better. The crisis for gas is getting better. Still, you see things here and there that remind me. the down power line here or there, the tree debris piled at the roadside instead of across the road, the car dragging a tree branch, and so on. soon it will be but a memory. Some will never forget it.

Well, I appluad you if you got this far. There's my story. I am sure I am leaving out stuff, and hope to have pictures up soon.

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[funkedout.livejournal.com]

i am the birthday fairy. so happy birthday.