The Storm

There was nowhere to evacuate. The news claimed that people in the Florida Keys "refused" to leave. Not true. They had nowhere to go. Naples and other cities on the gulf coast had already been evacuated days before, and they were therefore occupying any vacant hotels throughout the state of Florida. Where were the Keys residents supposed to go, Georgia? Um, no.

My mom stayed at a friend's house with a few other people. They were all completely safe. My mom was one of the lucky few to get power back on Monday night, and a recent phone call this morning informed me that her cable came back on (but not in time for Gilmore Girls last night). My Church was hit fairly bad. My mom said that there were pieces of the roof in the street. Her and her peeps went inside and found no apparent water damage upon first inspection, so hopefully everything will be alright. The high school is in a completely concrete building, so no damage was found there, although they lost the baseball dugout. The neighborhood in which I lived most of my days flooded, however, my mom no longer lives there. We have some good family friends who have flood damage, but thankfully these are things that can be repaired.

The situation in Miami is not so good. I assume this is a result of the population. My dad still has no power and I can no longer get through to him. I get a message saying that the telephone company has affiliation problems or something. The last time I talked to him, he said that his damage was moderate compared to others. He has a screened patio which lost all of its screens and some scaffolding, which is now in the pool. About 3 trees fell on his house, but thankfully no water came in. Most of the trees in his yard fell, he estimated that he had about 60 trees and there are less than 30 left. He lives across the lake from Shula's golf course, which he says took a hard hit, and looks terrible.

Please continue to keep my family and friends in your prayers. The clean-up will happen, but it may take a long time. Schools are out for at least the rest of the week, I'm hoping they will be back on track by Monday.