Hurricane blues

[Kevin Clark]

For the second season in a row South Florida has been pounded by mother natures wrath, this time under the name of Wilma, leaving a trail of distruction, heartache and utter frustration in it's path.

I'm about an hour and a half north of Palm Beach, where I live, in a place called Valcaria. I found a Starbucks with a WAP I can tap into with my laptop to check email and remote server functions while my cellphone charges in the corner next to cappachino machine.

Back in Palm Beach it all started about 6:30am on Monday the 23rd and was over by about 2pm with the eye of the storm passing directly over my home around 10:30. Electricity, our city water supply and telephone service were gone by 8am.

Once the storm passed it was time to go outside and assess the damage. Unlike last year when hurricane Frances removed the roof to my office destroying most of my equipment Wilma spared me the aggravation of any major structural damage but nonetheless uprooted, shredded or otherwise vaporized many of trees and landscaping on my property. Immediately noticeable were the dozens of downed Live Oaks and Black Olive trees that usually line my otherwise shaded neighborhood street now rendering it impassable.

After 3 days of chain sawing, raking, mulching and dragging the tons of debris into streetside piles where eventually some city contractor will come and remove it I'm exhausted, depressed and just plain fed up with the whole hurricane thing.

I've not had running water or electricity since early Monday and the best estimates for power restoration are November 23rd. Nearly a month from now. In addition there are very, very few gas stations that have power and those that do have 4-5 hour long lines with a cap of $20 worth of gas. That's why I've come so far north - for gas, food and few moments on the net. Not to mention a nice mocha latte. 

So here I am, again, stuck between a rock and a hard place - unable to work and produce an income with a mortgage and a host of other expenses continuing add up. Projects pushed back and in some cases cancelled. Wonderind just exactly where tomarrows food and water will come from. Trust me when I tell you it just plain sucks. If I didn't have a family and a Mother to worry about and care for here I think I'd just bug out and head north the Carolinas or something. But right now that's not an option.

Don't know exactly when I'll be able to get back online but if I ever get my electric back at my studio I shot some interesting video during the storm that I'll try and put up here. Until then take care.

Kevin

[Charles King]

As long as you survived then all else is secondary. Glad you made it.

[Trevor Crump]

Hi from down-under. You made it out alive, and other than being depressed, you sound like you made it without personal injury.

We know the feeling well, we also live in a cyclone region and have felt the fear, the anger, the total frustrations, but you will survive.

Our hearts go out to all the people that are effected by this disaster and although there is not much we can do, sometimes just the acknowledgment of others is assistance in it's self.

Stay Safe.

[Phil Kindred]

Glad you and yours are safe.  But November 23rd to restore power?  What is wrong with that picture?

[cosmin rotaru]

I'm sorry to hear this Kevin. It must be really hard.
"As long as you survived then all else is secondary" - is hard to see it that way when bad luck strikes that hard, Charles. I've been without an income for half a year and watched my debts growing... I never thought "I'm alive and that's important". It just isn't like that. And my situation was not nearly half as bad as what Kevin must live through. I just hoped tomorrow will be a better day. Because I'm a lucky guy.

Hold on Kevin. Your luck will change, as long as your alive, as Charles said.

[Trevor Crump]

He Kevin, when you get a chance, let us all know how your doing. We know its hard, but it will get better.

[Kevin Clark]

Hey guys, thanks for all the messages.  We finally got power back on the 10 Nov. I'll tell you the world looks mighty diffrent without any electricity. And when your in the software business and can't even turn on your computer then things really begin to look bleak. But you are all right - being alive is a good thing.

I've been working 20 hour days trying to play catch-up and stressed to the max with deadlines and project deliveries happening practically every hour it seems. With nothing to do but clean up the mountains of debris and foliage for weeks on end at least I can say I'm in good shape now. Guess I won't need to exercise now for the rest of the year! Woohoo!

FPL, our electric company, said that over 200 substations and hundreds of miles of transmission lines were damaged or destroyed which affected 3.2 million customers all over South Florida. They have 14,000 workers, most from other states and even some from Canada, working 24/7 in an effort to restore the power.

Have you ever seen a transformer explode? It's quite a site. I have some video that I'll get around to posting when the workload eases up. Anyway it's back to the grind now. Cheers all.

Kevin

[Charles King]

Hey guys, thanks for all the messages.  We finally got power back on the 10 Nov. I'll tell you the world looks mighty diffrent without any electricity.

...now you know how it feels for those countries that don't have lights in some developing countries. We all must be appreciative of what we got. Amen....

[Trevor Crump]

Hi Kevin, I trust that all is now back to normal and that events past have assumed a more 'normal' status.

We saw the damage and distruction here, but as usual, never see anything since..