Hi Everyone,
I'm back and safe and sound. Thank you for all the prayers and concern. They worked.
I'm so glad Louis made it through the storm okay too. It's such a long story of how the week played out. I'll try to get to it quickly and concisely, which as many of you who know me in here, know that can be difficult for me to do. lol My mom, my aunt and I are all fine. Stressed out and very tired physically and emotionally. But okay.
At my aunt's where we all sought shelter, we lost power around 9:00 Sunday night...shortly before the full force of the storm arrived. It was still Category 2 strength when it reached us in the Tampa Bay area of Central Florida. We had plenty of non-perishable food, bottled water, flashlights, candles, etc. So we were ready. There was only minimal damage to the building itself. My own apartment had no damage to the building, Thank God. But there were big limbs, small branches and whole trees down over the whole county. Fortunately it was not total devastation or anything like that. But the farther south you go in the state, the worse it gets.
I didn't get power restored to my place (I'm told by neighbors) until late Wednesday night. But I didn't find out myself until Thursday afternoon. Cell phone service and internet access has been hit and miss around the city. But it's all improving day by day. At various times I could send a text that might take 90 seconds or more to confirm being sent. Depending on where I was at in the city I sometimes couldn't make actual phone calls. Or if I sometimes did get a call to successfully ring through in a bad coverage spot, the audio was so broken up and garbled that it wasn't worth the hassle.
Overall I'd say we were the lucky ones. I did have to throw away everything in my refrigerator. And that's a tough financial loss for me to have to shell out the money to replace it. But still, I'm so blessed and fortunate compared to people who have lost their lives, their homes or their cars. So we have to keep everything in perspective. I have electricity and running water that's safe to drink and shower with. Other areas are under boil water alerts or have no running water. The Keys don't even have working sewage systems.
Down in South Florida and the Keys, they have it really bad. As of day before yesterday at least, they said that 90% of Naples was still without electricity. They got hit with Category 4 winds. So there are probably tress down all over the placeand major damage to the electrical lines and even the poles themselves. They will likely have to rebuild much of the electric grid for the city. That takes months. Not days. I imagine they will probably try to triage the city by restoring power first to hospitals, fire stations, 911 call centers and emergency operations centers, police stations, nursing homes.... Then grocery stores, schools... And then finally, the remaining strictly residential neighborhoods.
I read an account a while back of how some in the Homestead area of South Florida didn't get power back on after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 until a full 3 months or more afterwards. One Floridian whose home he tells was without electricity for a full three months after the hurricane, was a man named Jeb Bush. Of course at that time he was a son of the president of the United States. Also he was a future two-term governor of the state, and the brother of a future president of the United States. And even being a son of the president didn't give him enough pull to get the power turned back on to his home any faster. haha He tells of how the linemen were installing new electric poles and new lines down at the end of his street. When the switch was flipped on and the air conditioners, refrigerators, hot water heaters and lights came back to life...the power company truck pulled down to the end of his cul-de-sac. He said he and all the neighbors and their kids went running out to thank them, shake their hands, and basically treat them like rock stars. haha
