Aug 16, 2004 10:00 pm It seemed like one heck of a storm. Glad to see your alright. I went through a few of those in my day. How is the place your living in, was it or your neihbors places damaged? I hope no one was hurt.
i survived a hurricane...
Posted on Aug 16, 2004 09:47 pm
fortymile
Member Since: Jan 18, 2003
for the first time ever. just got power back last night (took 2 days but most of the city is still in the dark) and internet about an hour ago. some observations, and a few lessons i've learned:
1. waking up at 2 pm, having only heard vague warnings about a hurricane and believing orlando (notorious for dodging hits since 1960)would be another false alarm, and then seeing a massive storm poised only a hundred miles away and already on land with an arrow pointed right through your city inspires a very 'hurried' feeling. in fact it inspires one to immediately jump right into his car with his hair all messed up to go in search of gas.
2. gasoline really does become completely unavailable. within hours.
3. working quietly online throughout the nice warm day, periodically hitting the weather channel and seeing this monster blinking in garish radar reds and yellows creeping up on you brings archetypal feelings. a kind of excited dread, like knowing a monster will rise out of the swamps at nightfall to kill you.
4. you cannot cook angel hair pasta on the grill. at least, not with the top open and the grating keeping the pot inches above the flame.
5. dumping melted candle wax into the toilet just creates an unflushable candle and a hail of curse words.
6. a bay window will gently undulate in a heavy wind, distorting reflected lights.
7. you can stand on a porch in 100 mph winds and not feel it if it has a wall facing the wind.
8. you do have to shout to be heard.
9. a very creepy thing is seeing mankind diminished in the following way: as you look out into complete darkness with the wind absolutely screaming, you see nothing but candles and tiny flashlight beams prowling around inside every house, some of the beams aimed outside, timidly peering.
10. a few beers and smokes help, especially if you have to weather it all alone.
11.. some cell phones stay up
12. after a hurricane in these parts, the air smells christmas tree-fresh.
13. a nice surprise was true darkness and a clear sky at 3 a.m. no light pollution at all, quiet, thousands of visible stars.
14. everyone helps out.
15. thank god for 'your favorite bar,' which is somehow open the very night after the storm when even traffic lights are down!
16. it's really strange to get 'the media' back and find that theyre mostly talking about other stuff, when your only food for the past two days was tunafish, chips, and bread and your only shower a swimming pool
it was an experience!
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Aug 16, 2004 10:00 pm It seemed like one heck of a storm. Glad to see your alright. I went through a few of those in my day. How is the place your living in, was it or your neihbors places damaged? I hope no one was hurt.
Aug 16, 2004 11:10 pm Quote:
5. dumping melted candle wax into the toilet just creates an unflushable candle and a hail of curse words.
Why would you do that forty ?! lol
Sorry, but that's funny as hell ! lol-more
Sounds like it was intense .
Aug 16, 2004 11:48 pm our house escaped with only some branches down and two small tears in the screened pool enclosure. it took about 3 hours to clear the yard. but all through the storm i was eyeing up a major tree in our front yard which was bent at nearly 40 degrees and looming dangerously over the house. i was drinking a beer and talking on the cell on the front porch just waiting to make a break for it if i had to. that tree's gonna have to be removed now, even though it's since sprung back to vertical. too dangerous to have around if another big storm comes along. i was certain it was going down. it would have smashed through the living room. at one point i tried to run down the sidewalk just to be out in the hurricane, but it would have taken me right under that thing, so i went back in and crept out through a window. but the gusts were really bad and i worried about projectiles so i immediately went back inside.
no one was hurt around here that i know of, but 16 people died over near the coast. our neighbor lost his pool enclosure and some brick walls around here are smashed. lining the roads all over the city are mazes of cut logs and brush.
i poured wax into the toilet because the candles were sputtering and i couldn't read well. this was after the storm. i was reading a sci fi book in the bathtub because that way i could have the candles close enough to see. i used all the hot water right then without realizing that that would happen. the most retarded things i did had to do with electricity like that. you're so accustomed to the juice that you just forget that nothing works. i tried using the garbage disposal then realized my mistake. tried the garage door opener countless times. kept hitting light switches for the first full night without power. then i got used to the no-power. but when it came back on i still didnt realize it. i was outside reading in a chair and heard people screaming somewhere in the neighborhood; i had no idea. fire? murder? i got up to go look, saw nothing, walked back to my chair, looked *right at the now-well-lit kitchen* and sat down, not noticing. then i heard the words 'power's on!' drift down the street and only then looked behind me and made the connection.
there's still wax caked in the toilet bowl.
Aug 17, 2004 04:29 am glad youre cool forty, quite an experience huh? good song writing material if nothing else ;-)
id've had my minidisc out recording all the weird noises and stuff, if i wasnt hiding scared under the bed or something...
Aug 17, 2004 12:14 pm Jeez that brings back memories. When Lily hit Louisiana, we were without power for two and a half weeks. In the middle of the hottest summer in a decade. That was the pits, but it gives you an appreciation for the human race as a whole. Most people are willing to lend a hand to help out another. I've seen whole communities with chainsaws and 4 wheelers clearing fallen trees from a road. It's kinda inspiring.
And did I mention? Having no power for an extended period of time kinda gives you the feeling that you're camping out. Even though you are in a house!
Glad you made it out alright forty. Hurricanes can be devastating, I'm happy to hear that you came out of it with nothing but some screened pool enclosure tears and a whole mess of material to write about.
Aug 17, 2004 03:14 pm i would have recorded the hurricane if i wasn't drinking beer on my handheld tape thing. i would have captured all that whistling and mysterious banging, even if it'd be a bit hissy.
guitarlord, yeah. chainsaws have been going for days. people become both nicer and meaner...some pull together, others get all demanding and upset (i saw some of that in stores).
two weeks for you--wow. i was only without for two and a half days. i was starting to get accustomed, yes, like camping out. i especially liked how the pool became necessary. i hadnt gone swimming too much this summer yet.
when was lily?
Aug 17, 2004 03:30 pm Lily was last year about this time. It was pretty bad. And I know what you mean about seeing the best and worst of people. Most everyone pulled together to help out friends and neighbors, but there are always those few...
Some people stocked up on chainsaws, rakes, generators, flashlights etc. before the storm and were selling it on the streets for upwards of 20 times the original cost. Now, I'm all for making money, but I found this to be the worst kind of taking advantage of people in need. I mean, there was literally NOT A SINGLE FLASHLIGHT in any store in Lafayette. And these people were selling 2 dollar flashlights for $50 or more.
But there are jerks anywhere you go. I chose to be inspired by the united effort of the many than to let the few get me down.
And after Lily, I went out and bought a pool. I'll be prepared next time!
Aug 17, 2004 08:52 pm price gougers down here have been being busted by the state...attorney general or something. it sucks. way to go on the pool though. it helped me!
Aug 18, 2004 06:47 am dude, that is pretty damn funny about the candle wax and pretty resourceful with the swimming pool idea. I guess if people got desperate enough, they could also use public pools as the old Greek Public bath system. *shrugs*
I checked out the link you sent me for the orlando sentinel though man and those pictures are something else.
What you did with the beer and the cell phone sounds like something I would do man. hehe Although we had to go through the "black out" up here last year and I dragged the laptop out of the studio and got a power converter for my cigarette lighter in the van that we have and we sat in the van in the AC and watched DVD's for a while til the power came back on. *shrugs* Never hurts to be resourceful ya know. :D
Aug 18, 2004 07:30 am Glad to hear you're ok. Your tale reminds me of the night the tornados hit my old house downstate... It is cool seeing people pull together in rough situations.
Got the wax out of the toilet yet? It gets more brittle the colder it gets... Drop some ice cubes in there, wait 20 minutes, and I would think that the wax should break up more easily.
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