Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Hello, America! Just a quick post to let you know that we survived, and are back in the office on the second, simply beautiful day after Wilma roared through. And roar it did! A lot of trees down in Miami Springs, trees that survived Katrina's winds, even small oaks. Our power is out, and the prospects for restoration within a few days seem poor. (FP&L is talking about 4 weeks before we have complete restoration, as Wilma destroyed transmission lines, which the FP&L spokesman referred to as "the I-95s of the South Florida Grid".) But we do have power downtown. There is also power in Hialeah, just north of us, where my mother lives (she never lost it at Epworth Village, even though one of her bedroom windows blew in during the storm).
One of our paralegals and a church member, Cyndy, had a tree fall on her house, damaging the roof, so she is home dealing with that. But structural damage in Miami Springs is minimal. We lost two big fishtail palm trees, but they will grow back, and that was all the damage, except for a small coconut tree that blew over during Katrina and blew over again, despite my attempts to stake it up securely.

We completely buttoned up at home this time, even to taking the turbines off the roof and pulling the van and the car close into the protected area in front of our entranceway. That was a good thing.

The storm's main fury came during the daylight hours of Monday morning. On the south side of our house we have a screened porch, separated from our den by storm-proof sliding glass door and panels. So Carol and I sat and watched from the den as the wind and rain pounded Miami Springs, first from the SE, then the S, then SW, and finally from the west, as the storm moved from SE to NW. They eye passed north of us, so we saw sustained fury without let-up. But we did fine.

Carol took some pictures, and we will post them at some point. Now we are trying to refocus on the work here at the office. I have a big hearing tomorrow in WPB, and we will see whether that's still going on. Another big hearing next week in FTL, but we understand that the court house there suffered extensive damage. When we can, we will post on other observations and comments.

Prayer would be good, especially for Cyndy, with her housing situation, and for Sue, one of our paralegals, who lives in Broward.

Adios.

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