Myshel
09-08-2004, 09:05 AM
Francis passed though and we were without electricity for 50 hours. Charlie left us without for 12 hours, not to bad. We were prepared, water, food, ice and batteries stocked up, but after the first 12 with Francis it was terrible. No A/C, no tv, huddled around the radio and watching the winds tear up the place. Wondering where how bad it was going to get, remembering the destruction of Charlie and praying it wouldn't get us that bad.
At first it wasn't that bad I put a turkey in the oven thinking that it wouldn't hit us bad and we would lose power for at least 12 hours, so my answer to stress is to cook. I started to put a Thanksgiving dinner on because I wanted to give thanks that we were getting a Tropical Storm rather than a cat 4 storm. Halfway though the power went, no problem I put the turkey on the gass grill and finished the dinner on that. We feasted, our house was still relatively cool for hours after the power went, because the weather outside was windy, rainy and not sunshine. That night we opened the windows and the wind from Francis stressing but kept the heat at bay and the mosquitoes away. We played poker and drank a few, not to bad. The next day was the worse the heat settled, all the people in the house got cranky from the heat, cleaning up the storm damage (lost a few screens around the pool and alot of tree limbs down and found a new leak in the #@$% flat roof).
without Electricity, its hard to sleep, when you open the windows, you have mosquitoes feasting on your flesh (because they always find a way though the screens, especially when hurricanes tear holes in them). Without Electricity when the sun goes down, even when you have hurricane lamps, its hard to see.
Without electricity everything feels damp and dirty including you.
We had to close the restaurant down for 2 days, so it always hurts to lose money, especially since the few places that were open were raking in the money. Our place is in such a low area close to the water that we were mandatory evacuation, plus no electricity.
So all in all we came though pretty good, besides losing a lot of food that we had to throw because our freezers and refrig's were off for longer than 12 hours.
It makes me feel so bad for the people who were without electricity for weeks after Charlie.
Roughing it for 2 days without the basics made me really realize why Florida wasn't really the place to live before A/C. When the hum of electricity came back on yesterday we all were dancing and slept like babies last night.
Now to get ready for Ivan. I'm thinking generators.
At first it wasn't that bad I put a turkey in the oven thinking that it wouldn't hit us bad and we would lose power for at least 12 hours, so my answer to stress is to cook. I started to put a Thanksgiving dinner on because I wanted to give thanks that we were getting a Tropical Storm rather than a cat 4 storm. Halfway though the power went, no problem I put the turkey on the gass grill and finished the dinner on that. We feasted, our house was still relatively cool for hours after the power went, because the weather outside was windy, rainy and not sunshine. That night we opened the windows and the wind from Francis stressing but kept the heat at bay and the mosquitoes away. We played poker and drank a few, not to bad. The next day was the worse the heat settled, all the people in the house got cranky from the heat, cleaning up the storm damage (lost a few screens around the pool and alot of tree limbs down and found a new leak in the #@$% flat roof).
without Electricity, its hard to sleep, when you open the windows, you have mosquitoes feasting on your flesh (because they always find a way though the screens, especially when hurricanes tear holes in them). Without Electricity when the sun goes down, even when you have hurricane lamps, its hard to see.
Without electricity everything feels damp and dirty including you.
We had to close the restaurant down for 2 days, so it always hurts to lose money, especially since the few places that were open were raking in the money. Our place is in such a low area close to the water that we were mandatory evacuation, plus no electricity.
So all in all we came though pretty good, besides losing a lot of food that we had to throw because our freezers and refrig's were off for longer than 12 hours.
It makes me feel so bad for the people who were without electricity for weeks after Charlie.
Roughing it for 2 days without the basics made me really realize why Florida wasn't really the place to live before A/C. When the hum of electricity came back on yesterday we all were dancing and slept like babies last night.
Now to get ready for Ivan. I'm thinking generators.