South of the South
“

We just got power back. We’re utilizing it to the fullest to update livejournal. Charley is coming right for us. The eye will probably hit sometime in the middle of the night. Hans has a bottle of whiskey that should last him until then. We have about ten or a dozen people here to hold down the fort. We probably don’t have enough food so we might be drawing straws in an hour or two.

The Weather Channel is playing smooth jazz and scrolling info about 150mph wind speeds. God save us.

”
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From the old Casa De Familia Livejournal, Friday, August 13th, 2004 at 4:37 pm as Hurricane Charley was approaching. This was the last post. We didn’t survive.

I’ve never felt more alive than that summer, 2004. Charley, Frances, Jeanne. Three direct hits from category 3+ storms, one week apart from each other. Throwing the patio furniture in the pool, to prevent God from hurtling a chaise lounge like a rocket through the neighbor’s window. Swimming around the sunken obstacles until the winds and the sky have an eerie, ominous feel to them. No neighbors in sight, no cars driving around for last minute preparations anymore. Then, the most beautiful chaos on the horizon - green transformer explosions in the darkness, like an extraterrestrial invasion. Trees falling on cars. Mattresses holding sliding glass doors in place. Standing outside next to the wall of the house that temporarily blocks the 120+mph winds a few inches away, before it changes direction. Live wires in floods. Curfews. Tales of looting on the AM radio by candle light. Walmart barricading it’s doors shut. No electricity for over a week at a time during the peak of heat & humidity season. Total darkness at night. Total silence during the day. It seems like forever ago now since we haven’t had a single hit since then. I recommend the experience to anyone who thinks they have control on this Earth.
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2 years ago