meet frances & jeanne

today, as i am still contemplating my cruise, i thought perhaps i would describe a little bit about this past years hurricanes.
with apologies to ally-cat, i am going to cut and paste my recent letter to her. the reason for this is two-fold: 1) i am too lazy to re-write the whole damn thing, 2) it is still kind of disturbing to re-think the whole ordeal...

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for starters, we got some pretty bad feeder bands from charley.
then on labor day weekend, we were ground zero for frances.
two days prior to frances hitting us, there was no gas to be found, we were out of money and out of food. there was nothing to be found within 100 miles of us. it was like living in a ghost town.

frances lasted 36 hours. non stop, 36 hours. we were walled up in poo's house with all 4 dogs and 5 adults. it was scarey as hell.
we would try to sleep, but something would invaribly crash and waken us. i would immediately roll onto the floor screaming. the scariest thing of all was, we could hear the tornadoes all around us, but we couldn't see them.
then, the eye came. it was so eerie. everything was silent, still. we took the dogs outside to use the bathroom, and it was so eerie. the only thing we could hear was the railroad crossing going off (because it was destroyed - not cause there was a train).
when the eye leaves, the winds go from 0 to 150 mph instantly, so you can't stay outside too long. they even warn you on the radio not to go out in the eye.

the worst part of all is the aftermath. there is nothing. complete devastation. no stop lights. no street signs. no food, gas, money, electricity, water, ice, nothing. it was like living in a third world country.
i went 8 weeks without telephone and several days without electric (the temp was above 90o, it was like living in hell). we had no cold drinks and no hot food. mold was growing on everything, there was nothing dry or clean. bugs came out of no where. we were in shock, walking around scrounging for food, ice and water.
we got some military issued food after about 4 days, and they were the best things ever!

then, 3 weeks and 30 minutes later, jeanne hit.
again, we were ground zero. this time it was a stronger hurricane, but it was alot quicker, only about 12 hours of screaming. my house is made of solid concrete (even my interior walls are poured concrete - not drywall). i was laying on the floor, listening to the tornadoes, and my house began to shake. this storm was so strong, that it tore the plywood off of my windows. the eye for jeanne lasted about 90 minutes, and she was pretty much gone by 7 a.m.

again, the aftermath was more than we could take. after 2 days, we packed up and went to poo's in-laws house across the state.

our houses are still seriously damaged. my roof is still tarped (and still leaks), my foundation is cracked and possibly irreparable, my screened in porch and fence are gone.

fema did nothing to help us. our insurance fucked us. i had an estimated $33,000 in damages, insurance gave me $3800.00. all of the charities that people across the nation give to, the money goes no where. we haven't received anything.

then, i don't know when - as i had lost all concept of time/dates, ivan hit. we got severe flooding from that.
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2004 -----> the year that blew (literally)