(no subject)
The Charley Diaries. The initial entry left uncut, the rest behind.
8-13-04
Woke up to find mom home. She tells me "the Hurricane heading straight for us… get up, shower, do anything you need to do that requires power." I update live journal frantically and watch news to see the horror: cat 4, heading for ft.myers. Shut down computer, watch news with parents. Storm makes a northward turn: HOPE! THEN the unthinkable. It heads straight in Charlotte Harbor. I listen as reporter talks about the Holiday Inn next to the Cultural Center (where I had all of my dance recitals) as it's being ripped to shreds.
The power goes out. The three of us frantically set up our safe room: pillows, laptop, purse, cellphone, Sue the bunny (aka Jeff's v-day gift), blanket, radio. As the wind starts to blow, we go into the darkness and close the doors.
Booms all around… ground shakes. Huge vibration noise sounds like tree has hit our house and is being DRAGGED across it. So frightened I’m choking back tears. Listening to radio, but Ft. Myers is only talking about themselves and Tampa is only talking about how they were lucky it didn’t hit them. That’s nice BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? As time passed, we hoped it would be over soon. Surely the eye had to be here by now… we waited for the calm so that we could emerge… noise like you wouldn’t believe… felt like Dorothy’s house in wizard of oz.cell rings: it’s Katie: eye missed arcadia, went west of us… we’re getting the worst of the hurricane on the east side of the eye. Hang up as dragging vibration continues. House phone rings… we’re amazed we still have a phone. Mom runs out to answer, it’s my cousin, runs back into closet. We wait. An hour passes, and we’re finally brave enough to leave the closet. Winds are still powerful, but we feel safe enough. Garage door is folded nearly in half and being tugged off the house. Dad ties it to mom’s bumper to keep it from taking out our other cars. Trees down EVERYWHERE. Look out parents bedroom but you can’t see out because there are only tree and debris blasted to the window. No damage done to house, other than garage, but there’s a tree in our shed. Apparently a tornado went down by the park across the street. Could that account for the dragging sound?
After storm is gone for good, I emerge and take some preliminary pictures as the sunsets while my parents go down the street to check on my grandparents. The scene is surreal… my neighborhood is barely recognizable. All home are more or less in tact (minus roofs), but there isn’t a tree left standing or in good condition. It looks like my neighborhood has been bombed.
Dinner of peanut butter and jelly by candlelight. We are all relieved to be alive. There was worry that we may emerge from the closet and not have a home. There was worry the back part of the house may have a tree in it. There was worry that we could have been homeless. Too many branches close to windows… how were we so lucky?
Try to sleep, but it’s too quiet. Play Cds on walkman, but bulldozers are already outside trying to clear the streets. Eventually, I sleep. It sucks without airconditioning, but that’s the least of my problems.
8/14
Wake up at 9AM. Phones ringing off the hook.
List to thank: Waxlax, Shylie, KATIE, Natalie, Jamie, Richard, Allison, Sarah, Dalia, Devin, Brendan, Jeff (edit: also Matt Mc. and Scafidi).
Parents have removed garage door… each time I walk out of the house I am shocked by the sight I’m greeted with. This isn’t my neighborhood. How did this happen to us? We live inland… cat 4 hurricanes aren’t supposed to hit us. It literally feels like a war zone… four different helicopters circling our neighborhood… new sirens every 10 minutes… streets unrecognizable. Walk down to grandparents home and take pictures there as well. Every tree in their yard minus two are down. My grandparents had sooooo many trees.. They’d lived there since my mom was a kid. The pecan tree that was nearly a member of the family… my cousins and I mourn the loss of that tree… so many afternoons spent scouring for pecans with grandpa. It’s such a small thing… a tree… but man, I nearly cried at the sight of it collapsed in their yard. HUGE trees just snapped in half. We were so lucky.
Grandparents are frail and Florida heat without airconditioning is taking it’s toll. Scary. Came back home and was glad that our house stays pretty cool even without AC. Parents soon came inside because it was too hot to get anything done. Grilled steaks, eggs and bacon before they went bad. Used our last bag of ice before it melted. I never could have thought how important ice was, especially in that heat.
Drove around town with grandpa and mom. Heard from heresay about the water-tower and the turner center, so went to look. The water-tower was a block from my house. It made national news. It’s been there since my mom was a kid. Drove through downtown… many buildings crumbled.. Smith’s feed store collapsed. Old Eckerds shopping center completely different. Old church behind Calvary has steeple on ground (made it on channel 8). High school had minor decoration damage, but otherwise fine. Goal-posts broken. Turner center… half there, half not. Paradise restaurant (made channel 8)- broke my heart. The poor Konstantinidis family… I’ve known Sofia since pre-school… the restaurant is missing. The ceiling, the windows have exploded, but tables and chairs are still in their places. Surreal. I’m in shock. Surely this is all a dream. This couldn’t happen in Arcadia.
I’m curious to know how our old house faired, but we didn’t make it there. I wouldn’t have wanted to be there in that storm… I doubt the old house has a roof…My old room might have a tree in it… that’s scary. (edit: cousin drove by our old house. it seemed to do fine, but our old pine tree fell on the neighbors' house)
At home, we find out the roads out of town are finally open. (70, 72 and 17 were all closed). Mom sends me off to stay with Brenda and Ron in Brandon to get away from it all. She starts crying because she’s not ready to send me away and “I never got to cook you a special dinner”. This makes me start crying for the first time as well… my mom is the most important person in this entire world to me, and I can’t stand to see her cry. I could have cared less about her making me a special dinner at that point, I was sad because I didn’t want to leave her yet. I wasn’t even home for a week. But there isn’t enough food/water for all three of us and frankily there wasn’t much I could do there other than be miserable. I packed up all my stuff for school five days earlier than planned.
The road to Bradenton is sad. Destruction everywhere. The Xmas Card Lane area is a mess… can’t even see the ground. Power lines down for twenty minutes- every one snapped or laying horizontal. Emergency vehicles pass on their way to town. There is a definite line where suddenly the power lines are fine and there’s not a single tree knocked over. That’s weird to see.
Once on I-75, I saw convoys of aide heading south. That’s a good sign. It rained most of the way, but then a GORGEOUS sunset along the coast. How weird.
Arrived in Brandon at 8:30 and went shopping at Walmart with Brenda for my parents. Walmart is stripped bare because Brandon thought the hurricane was coming for them (Brandon is just outside of Tampa). It looks like we’ve missed the memo. At least her and I can joke about it now. It’s surreal to have just come from the devastation of the hurricane where everyone’s lives are disrupted to here… life is normal.
11 PM- first news I’ve seen. Saw the aerial views of the water-tower… that’s why they were circling my block I guess. They interview Sofia and her dad on the news… I nearly cried watching her and her dad clean out the restaurant. “We might rebuild.. I don’t know”. And then the news was over and Olympics were on. Ian Thorpe already won a gold medal. Good thing Natalie taped it.
8/15.
Ron and Brenda went to Arcadia to take my parents more food, water, ice and help clean. They let me sleep and gave me directions to places in town. I woke up at noon and sat around watching the news for a loooong time. Keith Cate is in Punta Gorda and I finally saw pictures of the devastation there. Fox 13 sucks and I’m boycotting them. They just keep saying: “yay, tampa was saved!” and could care less about the ones that went through it. Channel 8 is the best… Keith Cate is my new favorite (I ate dinner at Carabbas right next to him once). Reporters in Arcadia again today… more coverage… no one I knew, but saw my first footage of the Tuner Center from above… oh good lord. AND THEY HAD 1200 PEOPLE IN THERE! That’s where I had my senior prom… that’s where I graduated high school… And the side that collapsed? Yeah, that’s where I was sitting this past May as I watched the class of 2004 graduate. That’s insanity. You don’t realize how retarded hurricane coverage is until you’ve been the victim. It’s so biased and they twist the stories so much and their scope is nowhere how it should be. ARCADIA WAS HIT JUST AS HARD HAS PUNTA GORDA! I want to scream. And damnit, WE DON’T HAVE POWER! We can’t get your announcements about school closures, or rescue numbers, and there won’t be power, or running water down there until who knows when… at best a week. We were lucky to have a working phone (other than my cell, which was the only one from the family that worked)… most don’t have that luxury! Worried about Sulzman… he lives in Port Charlotte… tried to contact him but no phones worked. Hopefully they faired alright.
More Olympics. Ian Thorpe is still the hotness. Even hotter, actually. I hate Michael Phelps. Screw you for trying to beat Ian. That’s not what the Olympics are about, you cocky american bastard.
Dinner from steak -n -shake. National news covers only Punta Gorda and Arcadia… at least someone has some sense. Of course, I know why. W. Bush was in Punta Gorda, playing his political cards right after learning a lesson from his daddy: Florida has important votes… if hurricane strikes during election year, MAKE SURE YOU PAY ATTENTION. I hate him even more, dammit.
Meanwhile, his bro gov. Jeb (oh I just love being a floridian who gets screwed by having the Bush family in charge of both state and federal govt) was in Arcadia, playing the “bilingual” card with Hispanic families at the courthouse. Your whole family [bush] is fake and I hate all of you.
I can’t believe my town is on National News… they show downtown… first time I’d seen that section… it was pretty sad… two days earlier the headline read: “Best Old Street in Florida.” I doubt the same goes now.
Ron and Brenda get home, more Olympics, Australians lose relay, but that’s ok… wasn’t Ian’s fault. Yay for South Africa, they deserved it. Ian has to beat Phelps tomorrow. Eep.
Stayed up until three talking to Brenda. Her and I are pretty different people, but she’s the one person from my family that I can tell all my crazy drunken college stories to… I know she won’t care. Hahaha.
I can’t say how grateful I am to her and Ron for letting me stay.
I'm a little upset that certain people haven't called to check on me. Maybe I shouldn't expect so much.
8/16
Woke up to find Brenda painting the bathroom. Received a phone call from Matt Mc…. He'd just realized Arcadia was hit… apologized for being slow. Long conversation with him.
Went shopping with Brenda at the discount stores. Got two pretty skirts and a dressy shirt. Had yummy sushi for dinner. I love sushi.
Met Waxlax and Allison back at the house. Waxlax gave me a sign from ff-219. I feel privileged =). I hope Allison, Ashley and I can actually pull off what we have planned… too awesome. They chatted for a bit and then headed out on their way.
Watched Ian Thorpe kick Phelps’ ass. Woot! SO HOT!
8/17
More Olympics. USA beat Australia in the relay and I hate Phelps even more. Does he celebrate his own victory? No… but he’s an ass when they beat the Australian’s by fractions of a second. At least it wasn’t Ian’s fault. He did an amazing job catching up.
I’m now a big fan of Keith Cate for his reporting job and Linkin’ Park for giving $5 from ticket proceeds in their tampa concert to the Charley relief fund. I love them even more.
It’s aggravating that Arcadia isn’t ever on the news. The tampa stations report on Punta Gorda, Wachula, and Polk County almost exclusively. Ummm… did the hurricane magically jump from Punta Gorda to Wauchula (for those not from my area, Arcadia is between the two cities). People aren’t going to count Arcadia when it comes to the damage…but why should they? Not even Jeb Bush recognizes Desoto County. Yes, he came to our courthouse and spoke Spanish and earned votes for the next election, but dammit, you better deliver.
I’m afraid that when I go back to Gainesville, no one will realize what I’ve been through. Yes, our home was fine… but that doesn’t mean that everything is fine. There’s still no power or water at home. My parents, my uncle, my cousins are all working their asses off for my family, since my parents had to go back to work today. School won’t be back in session in Desoto until who knows when. When your high school is being used as a shelter and the Turner Center across the street has imploded, it’s hard to imagine things getting back to normal any time soon.
No one will have any idea what it was like. Suddenly you feel very isolated… and even though I’m light-hearted about what happened, my life won’t be the same. My hometown has completely changed. My problems have suddenly become nothing but mere nuisances in comparison. I’m alive, and that’s what I’m grateful for. I keep hearing stories of people I know that weren't as lucky as us... Travis' family lost the roof of their house... same with Denise. Alan's dad lost both of his homes, not to mention the auction house... and Alan's mom also lost her home, and her father died from a heart-attack due to the storm. It's just keeps adding up.
People won’t realize how scary it was to go through it… how I was near tears for fear of my life. For the first time in my nearly 20 years, I actually thought death might be a possibility. And I don’t think you bounce back from that feeling right away. I think in a way I’m still in shock. And I don’t know how I will deal with that going back to Gainesville. Suddenly people may actually know of Arcadia. But maybe not, since we don’t matter to the news.
My life has changed. I will never be able to get rid of the image of walking out of my house and not recognizing where I was. Or hearing the mixture of helicopters and sirens and making the first comment about ‘feeling like a war-zone’. While people in northern florida complain about the inconvinience of not having power (oh boo-hoo), I’m fighting with images that have burned themselves into my brain. I can't imagine having to Sleep without a roof and fight off looters.
I hope this doesn’t scar me for long. I hope I can move on…. Soon.
Updates: Sulzman and his family are fine and their house suffered about the same as our house... garage door gone, trees down, but otherwise fine.
Scafidi was added to the thanks list after I sort-of ran into him today. I was pulling out of Lexington on my way to my storage unit and happened to see him driving past. So I called him to tease him about being in Gainesville and he asked me all about the hurricane and made sure all was well.
Went to lunch with Lisa this afternoon. We hadn't seen each other in FOREVER!
Michael and Owen have moved in... it's good to see them again, especially Michael. No random girl yet, so we'll have to wait and see.
Life moves on.
8-13-04
Woke up to find mom home. She tells me "the Hurricane heading straight for us… get up, shower, do anything you need to do that requires power." I update live journal frantically and watch news to see the horror: cat 4, heading for ft.myers. Shut down computer, watch news with parents. Storm makes a northward turn: HOPE! THEN the unthinkable. It heads straight in Charlotte Harbor. I listen as reporter talks about the Holiday Inn next to the Cultural Center (where I had all of my dance recitals) as it's being ripped to shreds.
The power goes out. The three of us frantically set up our safe room: pillows, laptop, purse, cellphone, Sue the bunny (aka Jeff's v-day gift), blanket, radio. As the wind starts to blow, we go into the darkness and close the doors.
Booms all around… ground shakes. Huge vibration noise sounds like tree has hit our house and is being DRAGGED across it. So frightened I’m choking back tears. Listening to radio, but Ft. Myers is only talking about themselves and Tampa is only talking about how they were lucky it didn’t hit them. That’s nice BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? As time passed, we hoped it would be over soon. Surely the eye had to be here by now… we waited for the calm so that we could emerge… noise like you wouldn’t believe… felt like Dorothy’s house in wizard of oz.cell rings: it’s Katie: eye missed arcadia, went west of us… we’re getting the worst of the hurricane on the east side of the eye. Hang up as dragging vibration continues. House phone rings… we’re amazed we still have a phone. Mom runs out to answer, it’s my cousin, runs back into closet. We wait. An hour passes, and we’re finally brave enough to leave the closet. Winds are still powerful, but we feel safe enough. Garage door is folded nearly in half and being tugged off the house. Dad ties it to mom’s bumper to keep it from taking out our other cars. Trees down EVERYWHERE. Look out parents bedroom but you can’t see out because there are only tree and debris blasted to the window. No damage done to house, other than garage, but there’s a tree in our shed. Apparently a tornado went down by the park across the street. Could that account for the dragging sound?
After storm is gone for good, I emerge and take some preliminary pictures as the sunsets while my parents go down the street to check on my grandparents. The scene is surreal… my neighborhood is barely recognizable. All home are more or less in tact (minus roofs), but there isn’t a tree left standing or in good condition. It looks like my neighborhood has been bombed.
Dinner of peanut butter and jelly by candlelight. We are all relieved to be alive. There was worry that we may emerge from the closet and not have a home. There was worry the back part of the house may have a tree in it. There was worry that we could have been homeless. Too many branches close to windows… how were we so lucky?
Try to sleep, but it’s too quiet. Play Cds on walkman, but bulldozers are already outside trying to clear the streets. Eventually, I sleep. It sucks without airconditioning, but that’s the least of my problems.
8/14
Wake up at 9AM. Phones ringing off the hook.
List to thank: Waxlax, Shylie, KATIE, Natalie, Jamie, Richard, Allison, Sarah, Dalia, Devin, Brendan, Jeff (edit: also Matt Mc. and Scafidi).
Parents have removed garage door… each time I walk out of the house I am shocked by the sight I’m greeted with. This isn’t my neighborhood. How did this happen to us? We live inland… cat 4 hurricanes aren’t supposed to hit us. It literally feels like a war zone… four different helicopters circling our neighborhood… new sirens every 10 minutes… streets unrecognizable. Walk down to grandparents home and take pictures there as well. Every tree in their yard minus two are down. My grandparents had sooooo many trees.. They’d lived there since my mom was a kid. The pecan tree that was nearly a member of the family… my cousins and I mourn the loss of that tree… so many afternoons spent scouring for pecans with grandpa. It’s such a small thing… a tree… but man, I nearly cried at the sight of it collapsed in their yard. HUGE trees just snapped in half. We were so lucky.
Grandparents are frail and Florida heat without airconditioning is taking it’s toll. Scary. Came back home and was glad that our house stays pretty cool even without AC. Parents soon came inside because it was too hot to get anything done. Grilled steaks, eggs and bacon before they went bad. Used our last bag of ice before it melted. I never could have thought how important ice was, especially in that heat.
Drove around town with grandpa and mom. Heard from heresay about the water-tower and the turner center, so went to look. The water-tower was a block from my house. It made national news. It’s been there since my mom was a kid. Drove through downtown… many buildings crumbled.. Smith’s feed store collapsed. Old Eckerds shopping center completely different. Old church behind Calvary has steeple on ground (made it on channel 8). High school had minor decoration damage, but otherwise fine. Goal-posts broken. Turner center… half there, half not. Paradise restaurant (made channel 8)- broke my heart. The poor Konstantinidis family… I’ve known Sofia since pre-school… the restaurant is missing. The ceiling, the windows have exploded, but tables and chairs are still in their places. Surreal. I’m in shock. Surely this is all a dream. This couldn’t happen in Arcadia.
I’m curious to know how our old house faired, but we didn’t make it there. I wouldn’t have wanted to be there in that storm… I doubt the old house has a roof…My old room might have a tree in it… that’s scary. (edit: cousin drove by our old house. it seemed to do fine, but our old pine tree fell on the neighbors' house)
At home, we find out the roads out of town are finally open. (70, 72 and 17 were all closed). Mom sends me off to stay with Brenda and Ron in Brandon to get away from it all. She starts crying because she’s not ready to send me away and “I never got to cook you a special dinner”. This makes me start crying for the first time as well… my mom is the most important person in this entire world to me, and I can’t stand to see her cry. I could have cared less about her making me a special dinner at that point, I was sad because I didn’t want to leave her yet. I wasn’t even home for a week. But there isn’t enough food/water for all three of us and frankily there wasn’t much I could do there other than be miserable. I packed up all my stuff for school five days earlier than planned.
The road to Bradenton is sad. Destruction everywhere. The Xmas Card Lane area is a mess… can’t even see the ground. Power lines down for twenty minutes- every one snapped or laying horizontal. Emergency vehicles pass on their way to town. There is a definite line where suddenly the power lines are fine and there’s not a single tree knocked over. That’s weird to see.
Once on I-75, I saw convoys of aide heading south. That’s a good sign. It rained most of the way, but then a GORGEOUS sunset along the coast. How weird.
Arrived in Brandon at 8:30 and went shopping at Walmart with Brenda for my parents. Walmart is stripped bare because Brandon thought the hurricane was coming for them (Brandon is just outside of Tampa). It looks like we’ve missed the memo. At least her and I can joke about it now. It’s surreal to have just come from the devastation of the hurricane where everyone’s lives are disrupted to here… life is normal.
11 PM- first news I’ve seen. Saw the aerial views of the water-tower… that’s why they were circling my block I guess. They interview Sofia and her dad on the news… I nearly cried watching her and her dad clean out the restaurant. “We might rebuild.. I don’t know”. And then the news was over and Olympics were on. Ian Thorpe already won a gold medal. Good thing Natalie taped it.
8/15.
Ron and Brenda went to Arcadia to take my parents more food, water, ice and help clean. They let me sleep and gave me directions to places in town. I woke up at noon and sat around watching the news for a loooong time. Keith Cate is in Punta Gorda and I finally saw pictures of the devastation there. Fox 13 sucks and I’m boycotting them. They just keep saying: “yay, tampa was saved!” and could care less about the ones that went through it. Channel 8 is the best… Keith Cate is my new favorite (I ate dinner at Carabbas right next to him once). Reporters in Arcadia again today… more coverage… no one I knew, but saw my first footage of the Tuner Center from above… oh good lord. AND THEY HAD 1200 PEOPLE IN THERE! That’s where I had my senior prom… that’s where I graduated high school… And the side that collapsed? Yeah, that’s where I was sitting this past May as I watched the class of 2004 graduate. That’s insanity. You don’t realize how retarded hurricane coverage is until you’ve been the victim. It’s so biased and they twist the stories so much and their scope is nowhere how it should be. ARCADIA WAS HIT JUST AS HARD HAS PUNTA GORDA! I want to scream. And damnit, WE DON’T HAVE POWER! We can’t get your announcements about school closures, or rescue numbers, and there won’t be power, or running water down there until who knows when… at best a week. We were lucky to have a working phone (other than my cell, which was the only one from the family that worked)… most don’t have that luxury! Worried about Sulzman… he lives in Port Charlotte… tried to contact him but no phones worked. Hopefully they faired alright.
More Olympics. Ian Thorpe is still the hotness. Even hotter, actually. I hate Michael Phelps. Screw you for trying to beat Ian. That’s not what the Olympics are about, you cocky american bastard.
Dinner from steak -n -shake. National news covers only Punta Gorda and Arcadia… at least someone has some sense. Of course, I know why. W. Bush was in Punta Gorda, playing his political cards right after learning a lesson from his daddy: Florida has important votes… if hurricane strikes during election year, MAKE SURE YOU PAY ATTENTION. I hate him even more, dammit.
Meanwhile, his bro gov. Jeb (oh I just love being a floridian who gets screwed by having the Bush family in charge of both state and federal govt) was in Arcadia, playing the “bilingual” card with Hispanic families at the courthouse. Your whole family [bush] is fake and I hate all of you.
I can’t believe my town is on National News… they show downtown… first time I’d seen that section… it was pretty sad… two days earlier the headline read: “Best Old Street in Florida.” I doubt the same goes now.
Ron and Brenda get home, more Olympics, Australians lose relay, but that’s ok… wasn’t Ian’s fault. Yay for South Africa, they deserved it. Ian has to beat Phelps tomorrow. Eep.
Stayed up until three talking to Brenda. Her and I are pretty different people, but she’s the one person from my family that I can tell all my crazy drunken college stories to… I know she won’t care. Hahaha.
I can’t say how grateful I am to her and Ron for letting me stay.
I'm a little upset that certain people haven't called to check on me. Maybe I shouldn't expect so much.
8/16
Woke up to find Brenda painting the bathroom. Received a phone call from Matt Mc…. He'd just realized Arcadia was hit… apologized for being slow. Long conversation with him.
Went shopping with Brenda at the discount stores. Got two pretty skirts and a dressy shirt. Had yummy sushi for dinner. I love sushi.
Met Waxlax and Allison back at the house. Waxlax gave me a sign from ff-219. I feel privileged =). I hope Allison, Ashley and I can actually pull off what we have planned… too awesome. They chatted for a bit and then headed out on their way.
Watched Ian Thorpe kick Phelps’ ass. Woot! SO HOT!
8/17
More Olympics. USA beat Australia in the relay and I hate Phelps even more. Does he celebrate his own victory? No… but he’s an ass when they beat the Australian’s by fractions of a second. At least it wasn’t Ian’s fault. He did an amazing job catching up.
I’m now a big fan of Keith Cate for his reporting job and Linkin’ Park for giving $5 from ticket proceeds in their tampa concert to the Charley relief fund. I love them even more.
It’s aggravating that Arcadia isn’t ever on the news. The tampa stations report on Punta Gorda, Wachula, and Polk County almost exclusively. Ummm… did the hurricane magically jump from Punta Gorda to Wauchula (for those not from my area, Arcadia is between the two cities). People aren’t going to count Arcadia when it comes to the damage…but why should they? Not even Jeb Bush recognizes Desoto County. Yes, he came to our courthouse and spoke Spanish and earned votes for the next election, but dammit, you better deliver.
I’m afraid that when I go back to Gainesville, no one will realize what I’ve been through. Yes, our home was fine… but that doesn’t mean that everything is fine. There’s still no power or water at home. My parents, my uncle, my cousins are all working their asses off for my family, since my parents had to go back to work today. School won’t be back in session in Desoto until who knows when. When your high school is being used as a shelter and the Turner Center across the street has imploded, it’s hard to imagine things getting back to normal any time soon.
No one will have any idea what it was like. Suddenly you feel very isolated… and even though I’m light-hearted about what happened, my life won’t be the same. My hometown has completely changed. My problems have suddenly become nothing but mere nuisances in comparison. I’m alive, and that’s what I’m grateful for. I keep hearing stories of people I know that weren't as lucky as us... Travis' family lost the roof of their house... same with Denise. Alan's dad lost both of his homes, not to mention the auction house... and Alan's mom also lost her home, and her father died from a heart-attack due to the storm. It's just keeps adding up.
People won’t realize how scary it was to go through it… how I was near tears for fear of my life. For the first time in my nearly 20 years, I actually thought death might be a possibility. And I don’t think you bounce back from that feeling right away. I think in a way I’m still in shock. And I don’t know how I will deal with that going back to Gainesville. Suddenly people may actually know of Arcadia. But maybe not, since we don’t matter to the news.
My life has changed. I will never be able to get rid of the image of walking out of my house and not recognizing where I was. Or hearing the mixture of helicopters and sirens and making the first comment about ‘feeling like a war-zone’. While people in northern florida complain about the inconvinience of not having power (oh boo-hoo), I’m fighting with images that have burned themselves into my brain. I can't imagine having to Sleep without a roof and fight off looters.
I hope this doesn’t scar me for long. I hope I can move on…. Soon.
Updates: Sulzman and his family are fine and their house suffered about the same as our house... garage door gone, trees down, but otherwise fine.
Scafidi was added to the thanks list after I sort-of ran into him today. I was pulling out of Lexington on my way to my storage unit and happened to see him driving past. So I called him to tease him about being in Gainesville and he asked me all about the hurricane and made sure all was well.
Went to lunch with Lisa this afternoon. We hadn't seen each other in FOREVER!
Michael and Owen have moved in... it's good to see them again, especially Michael. No random girl yet, so we'll have to wait and see.
Life moves on.