WILMA!!

As many of you know, my area, Coral Springs, Florida, was hammered by Hurricane Wilma on the morning of Monday, October 24. She came through as a Category 3 hurricane and we had sustained winds of over 100 MPH at the recording stations near my house. Based on the track I've seen published, the eye passed within 20 miles of my house.

The front side of the storm wasn't too bad, although since the winds were coming from the east (the direction most of my sliding glass doors face) it was a little nerve wracking. When you see six-foot tall panes of glass bowing in toward you, it can be a bit scary. We went out during the eye to check damage and it wasn't too bad--one 50-foot tall Scheffelera tree down in the backyard and one Australian pine from across the canal down on our fence. The front yard was fine.

The backside of the storm was much, much worse. More wind, more rain and lots noisier. I took some video which I'll post up later. We lost power about 8AM Monday morning and haven't had it since. Right now, I'm using an extension cord from my neighbor's generator to power my refrigerator and one other "smaller" appliance--the computer right now.

We lost some roof tiles during the back side of the storm--but just one row of cap tiles at one peak that runs from the front of the garage to the top of the roof. No real damage to the house or, more importantly, any one. Sad thing is that the first death from the storm here occurred in my town when some materialistic numbnuts guy went out during the storm to clear branches off of his BMW.

All in all, things have been good. No one hurt that we know, no real damage to anyone's house. There are a lot of trees down but, amazingly, most missed houses that were only a few feet away. All the neighbors came together to help each other out--from clearing debris to sharing food and electricity to just hanging out. The worst part thus far has been the gas situation. There's lots of gas at the stations, but there's no way to pump it without power. And without gas, the neighbor's generator goes out and I lose my one bit of normalcy--having a refrigerator and freezer. So, I waitied in line for six hours on the Florida Turnpike on Wednesday to get $20 (8 gallons) of gas. But that's 1-1/2 days of generator power. At least my town was never under a boil water order. We were one of the few that were able to drink water out of the tap the entire time.

My office has been closed for a week and next week, its only business critical personnel since the people that used to occupy three multi-story buildings will all be in the one that has power.

As expected, Claire has been treating this as one big adventure. She's been taking the dogs on LOTS of walks--"Mom, Bridget looks bored, I'm going to take her for a walk." She's also been playing with the younger neighbor kids and has a little fan club down the street. They ask their Mom every morning if Claire is going to come over. When trying to tempt her to spend the night at my friend's house who has power when she wanted to stay here, I said, "But they have TV" and she said "I'm not really missing TV at all."

When I asked Claire if she learned anything from the hurricane, she said, "Hurricanes are fun." I think she gave us all a good lesson as she collected the lemons and limes from my neighbor's yard and said she was going to make some lemonade for her and some Margarita mix for me.

The Koontz mantra through this trying time is--"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. When life hands you limes, make Margaritas."

Here's a link to my photo album. All the photos were taken within a five minute walk of my house. Its like this throughout Broward and southern Palm Beach County. Here's a video of the experience--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7c71jZ6ks

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10/30 8PM update--
Here's the reply from my #1 Aussie buddy. This could only be written by someone who really appreciates a good Margarita.

"On the forenoon of the great tempest, the Lord took pity upon the wretched Floridians, and brought fourth limes, that they might maketh wine of comfort. And the Lord said unto the wretched, blendeth you the limes and the juices of cactus, and salt from the oceans. So the wretched of Floridians did blend, and the voice of the tempest was silenced by the wail of a thousand blenders.

Into the depths of night blendeth they, and dranketh they deeply of the wondrous bounty. There was much rejoicing and praise. Playest they the music of the Lord, and jiggy didst they get, unto it. Their voices did rise, and the bravest amongst them didst bare their unclothed nether regions to the very eye of the tempest, calling upon it to kiss those most private of places.

But one did renounce the bounty, and went instead to clear his chariot of the branches of trees, and the Lord did smite him verily. The others did see, and redoubled was their faith in the Lord's instruction, proclaiming the charioteer a foolish man of questionable fatherhood.

And the wretched of the springing coral did cry out in praise and thanks to the Lord singing "Gators are champions". And smiled did He politedly, for His comprehension of their new-age psalms was clouded by the dust of the Tempest.

The Lord looked upon The Party, and saw that it was good."