Natural disasters

Mother Nature in all her glorious wonder has her moments where I really feel She's channeling Kali, the Destroyer. England had an earthquake quite recently and I was surprised at that. I had no idea they got earthquakes. I guess it doesn't matter where you go in the world some sort of natural disaster is waiting to occur, whether it be floods, snow storm or hurricane.

I've lived in S. Florida for over 20 years. In that time we've had to batten down the hatches due to hurricanes. After Andrew hit Miami in the early 90's, no one messed around when we heard "We're under a hurricane watch". Lines out the door of food markets, home improvement stores were a given. People got serious very quickly. And then when nothing happened for a bit, people became complacent. So Mother Nature decided to let us know again just how destructive she could be. Two hurricanes hit a county north of us about an hour away and to the west of us on the west coast. She made those loop back around after everyone thought once again they were safe. Surprise!

Once again hurricane season rolled round and nothing happened for a bit until October of 2005. Everyone did their stockpiling and had dropped shutters or put up plywood. The night before was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky. I thought, "We'll be safe again. No way is she going to hit us. It's so late in the season and it's rare when they come ashore then." We live approximately 10 miles on the east side of Florida. And Wilma was coming up through the Gulf. No way was it going to hit.

My husband, son & I are up early the next morning watching the news to check the status. At 7:10 am we hear the winds pick up and the lights flicker on and off. "No big deal", we think. Cha! Suddenly, no lights and the wind is howling. My patio doors even in lock down are shaking. One cat is under the bed, the other is stretched out on top taking a nap. I really wanted to join the one under the bed. Instead I went out on the patio, which has it's own large shutter, to get some air as it's stifling in the house. My son and I are out there talking, when we suddenly hear a train. Trust me when I tell you, this is not a good sign as that means Tornado and close by. We haul ass back into the house and now the train sounds like it's right over us. My son is very fearful of tornados and rightfully so. After a few minutes, the sound passes and the wind dies down.

My husband is out in the garage with the door open taking video of what has transpired so far. Not too bad we think after 2 hours of none stop wind and rain. We used to have a huge Black Olive tree on the east side of our house. My husband had gotten the video of it toppling over. So in the eye of the storm we go out to check around and see what's happened thus far. Everyones yards were stripped of any foliage and we had our tree lying from the corner of our house out into the street and into the neighbors yard across the street. The wind started to pick up again, so it was time to get back inside. Two more hours of rain and wind ensued.

Afterwards, no power. We had 2 weeks with no power. The sound of generators fills the air. One good thing is that the hurricane picked up all the hot surface air, so it was quite chilly for 2 weeks. I tried to drive to work a couple days later and wasn't able to make it through the debris. Had to take a shortcut and came across a trailer which had been flipped up and over onto it's neighbor. Scientists tried to say it was only a category 2 hurricane. No way! That was definitely a 3. So I made it through my first, and hopefully last hurricane. Chef Boyardee by candle light gets old very quickly, as do freezing cold showers. And living through enforced curfews sucks, but it's not as if anyone had anywhere to go anyway. The one redeeming factor with no lights is that the stars were beautiful. And they felt so close as if you could reach up and pluck one from the sky.

Natural disasters- there's nothing natural about them. In fact, they feel quite supernatural. It makes you contemplate and realize you are powerless in the face of the wrath of Mother Nature when she's throwing a tantrum.