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| Wilma aiming at me! |
Hurricanes
that come in from the Atlantic Ocean toward south Florida don’t seem to
cause the massive destruction and loss of life (except Andrew) and I’ve
been thru several of those when I was living here on and off since the
1970’s.
Wilma in 2005 was different. Wilma was another category 5 just
like Andrew but she circled around the keys into the Gulf Of Mexico and
made a sharp right turn across the Everglades toward the western suburbs
of Ft. Lauderdale.
Laurie and I had split by this time and I was living in a nice
apartment about a mile from the Everglades and there was nothing to stop
the storm from blasting us pretty good.
I wasn’t doing a show at the time so I could devote my full
attention into being safe and secure for myself and my kitty. Actually
he took it pretty good but he doesn’t like loud noise and he heard a lot
of that for a couple of days and nights!
My apartment is on some water...a small lake and the winds were blowing the water onto the patio. That was unusual.
The strong firedoor of the apartment was starting to cave from all
the heavy wind and I feared it would get blown off its hinges so I moved
a very large and heavy bookcase over to block the door from caving. We
weren’t going anywhere anyway!
The power was off of course. FPL, the power company here has had
much trouble in south Florida for years which seems strange since we
don’t have the ice storms...snow and other stuff that other locations
have to cause problems. They have finally begun improvements in
the past few years and even so you can still count of needing batteries
for flashlights and radios during intense storms here.
The storm eventually moved away after doing considerable damage up
and down the state. MY car had been parked under a tree. That’s a
mistake that won’t happen again. It was not a new car...about five
years old but it was totaled. The insurance company had no patience in
these cases because of all the claims filed and it was easier just to
write it off and pay you off. I was lucky to have one of the new cars
(forgot which model) for review so I had that one to drive....knowing
they would replace it with another in a week.
So that you’ll understand the intensity of this kind of storm...my
patio was enclosed with screen and facing north. The car was parked on
the south side of my lot near some huge old trees and a pool and tennis
courts.
A few days after the storm I went out to search for some new
cushions which blew off my patio chairs. I found one...didn’t find any
others. The cushion I found was on the tennis courts! So that cushion
would have had to be taken by the wind...pulled thru now broken patio
screens...hurled high...and I mean high enough to clear the top of this
section of the apartment complex and then...higher in the air above tree
top heights and about 100 yards further on to the tennis courts. Now
that’s a trip. All this and it still looked fairly new!
That was a hurricane named Wilma back in 2005 and it convinced me
of one thing. The next time a storm like that comes in from the
west...get the hell out!
my email:
stanmajor@aol.com
I remember that one and it was a doozie!
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