A Wilma Survivor Reports In

Hi all,

Thank you for writing and phoning, etc. As some of you guessed, our area lost power during the storm, although my phone never quit (I have an old princess phone with a cord--these work when the walk-around phones don't). Therefore, I lost use of the PC, not to mention the lights, TV, refrigerator, A/C, pencil sharpener (you forget what's run by electricity till you don't have it), and so on.

On that Monday, the last I'd heard before the power went, was that Wilma was over Naples, and might go to the Keys or up to Jupiter. Phooey said I--Naples is directly across Alligator Alley from Plantation--that storm is coming my way.

And it did.

By 10 am where I could see out, it was impressively powerful. Our gorgeous trees were already denuded of leaves, and had begun to break. From my garage window I watched a huge 10" diameter branch crack off the tree over my front walk ( I could see itwas going the other way, into the road). But we weren't supposed to get the full force till noon. I began to be alarmed that what I saw would get worse, so I called my son in LA and asked him to go on the web and find out where the eye was.

Guess what--the edge of the eye was passing over my house!

That was good news, because soon after, it did begin to quiet down, and by 2 we could go outside, avoiding the few broken tree limbs that were still overhead. If you haven't seen my place, we had beautiful shady tree cover, some palms, but many old oaks. Now we still have palms, but the oaks look like war refugees. Very sad. I hope they will manage to prune and save many of them.

For old Fla. hands, this was the worst storm in Broward county in 50years, since the 1947-49 storms. Remember those, with all the flooding,Griffin and Stirling roads under water for weeks, and having to get all those shots?

Wilma carried very little water, and I'm way too far inland for ocean flooding. It went by fast, but was strong enough to take shingles and tiles off many roofs (but not ours). The Hammerstein house in Hollywood, home of the Historical Society, was undamaged, but one ofHam Hammerstein's 2 prize mango trees went down. I haven't been to Hollywood yet, so can't report further.

The storm was gone, sun came out, temperature was cool, and then the problems began. During the day, the food gradually spoiled. The hot water tank cooled off. And they told us not to drink water or get it on our faces. By 7 pm, total dark. No house or street lights, anywhere. How did people manage back in the days of candles, especially in dark countries like Norway? No baths, can't wash hair, can't drive much because no gas can be pumped, the streets are covered with debris and stop lights don't work.

No food.

I did have plenty of bottled water, and food for my cats, but for me cold canned food isn't enough after 5 days. When literally all my neighbors had left, some by plane, and I spent a very dark night alone, I'd had it. My vet was operative, and said they could board the cats, and I had a full tank of gas, so I packed up and left, too.

Finally at Fort Pierce I found lights and restaurants. Can't describe how delicious a cup of hot soup and another of coffee were. I'd decided to try Sebring as less likely to be crowded, and I knew it from the track(international car race, 12 hours of Sebring). I found a nice hotel on a lake where they apologized that they had only one room left, "on the lakeside." (This was bad?) Snapped it up, then discovered that the neighboring huge 1920s hotel currently being renovated was Harder Hall.This will be meaningful only to G, I think. We spent a week or 2 there when we were about 15 in a summer youth camp!

Such a relief to have lights! hot water! bath! food! And I wasn't the only Broward county refugee either, as it turned out, though I didn'tknow any of the others. Finally my Plantation neighbors called to say we had power again (they were staying with his parents who live in Weston and never lost power), so I came back last night.

Driving back I came around Lake Okeechobee and bumbled into Pahokee(hadn't planned to exactly), which was severely damaged. Streets still closed, no power, houses with no roofs, or just facades and floors, aluminum buildings just twisted rubble, a real mess, and a long line of people waiting to get into a big tent, probably FEMA.

So we were lucky here in Plantation. Now I have to go restock my grocery larder.