Hurricane Wilma didn't keep this glassie down!

[StefaniBeads]

Well, I conquered my fear of hurricanes by sitting outside in this one nearly the entire time - yeah, a category two (borderline three for our area) and no I'm not crazy!! Am I??

After living through a category 5 (Andrew 1992) I figured I would have to see what the power of Mother Nature could do. Actually, the only way I could have done this safely was to be sitting against the door and corner inside my carport. The winds were blowing northward and they didn't happen to be blowing up into the direction of the carport. Soooo.... I got to watch things fly down the street and it was daylight when most of the action began. A few times the brief but very strong gusts (they said about 134-140) scared the hell out of me and I went running back inside. The sustained winds of around 100 were wild enough. Somewhere in that period of time I tried to open the front door (it's facing west) and no way, and I quickly shut it before it would have been flung open and me with it, lol!

Injuries sustained - long scratch on lower leg from lime tree branch that wacked me on the carport, and a ding in the head from a Mountain Dew can, empty (the CAN, not my head, lol!) but it hurt like hell. Oh well, I was the one out there watching this while the others took a peek every now and then or tried to sleep. (lol, I couldn't!)

House injuries - too many shingles gone, leaks, and those whirly ventilation things (what the heck do you call them?!), both gone, big holes in the roof. Every tree in the yard except the citrus and and two palms are gone. Thank goodness that the guys living at my house did all the yard cleanup for free. It took a small bulldozer to do it.

I set my studio up on the carport after we got power back (it took 11 days) and it's a real PITA with the wind and not very comfortable, but I have nothing else to do but make beads all day.

What really sucks is that something was wrong with my my Canon DV and I couldn't get any of this recorded. Ohhhh I was SO mad! I taped Katrina which paled in comparison to what Wilma did here. It was quite an experience and very exciting, but I'm not looking forward to the next one, ha ha ha....

BTW - my plywood shutter message to Wilma is becoming "famous" in our town! Credits given to my tenant.

[rosebead]

Lisa I'm glad you lives to tell with your sense of humor intact.

[Ellen Altamore]

Lisa - thanks for relating your experiences, you brave beadmaker, you. I simply can't imagine what it must have been like for you. Glad you're ok, dinged head and all.

[PamDugger]

Hi Stephani, Next time put garbage bags over your whirly things and they will be fine. Okay, you have to tie something around the bottom of the bag so it doesn't come off the whirly thing, but you get the idea. It seems to work. We have never lost one and neighbors who didn't do that now have holes in their roofs. Glad you made it through this one and glad you are losing some of your fear.
Pam

[redhotbeads]

You are really lucky. My friends in the Keys lost everything.
Kelly

[LLane]

Stephanie,
Glad to hear you are ok up there!! Was wondering. I too stayed, but didn't venture out during the worst of it. I was however out when the storm surge started and watched the water come up the street and proceed to get over our front step. But we were lucky as it moved back out after only reaching that depth....... here's what happened out island and up the keys. This first pic is just about 4 blocks from my home so LUCK is right!
The palm trees are along the street!

This pic is at Sugarloaf Key

Kelly...... isn't Sugarloaf where your friends are? Really sorry to hear about their loss..... things are really rough up there!

Thanks for posting.... glad to hear you are back to beadmaking!!!
Peace,
Lois

[redhotbeads]

Yep, they are at Sugarloaf ... I talked to her Oct 26th and she said the water imploded their glass at their apartment, then talked to her last week. They aren't back in their place yet, and are still working on rebuilding, painting, re-tiling, etc. I think they are still waiting on FEMA but I'm not sure. They got out with their important papers, their birds, and that's it ... and came back to total devastation. She works at the Sugarloaf Lodge - they're still working on hurricane damage too. It's a real mess.
Kelly