Tuesday, October 25, 2005

LUCKY

I am so damn lucky! I have water! I never lost phone! I lost power for less than 24 hrs!!!! No water entered my apt (just some sand??)!! It amazes me that sand can get inside a 25th floor balcony. Almost every one else in the bldg had water coming in, but those of us on the northwest facing corner fared very well b/c the storm came from the southeast. Some windows did break though not as many as i had thought.

Statistics:
*98% of Dade county is w/o power. That would be 2.9 million. I am one of those very lucky 41,ooo with lights. I knew the beach would get pwr first b/c they do it in a way that gives the most people pwr at once. The hotel next door went out at the same time we did and here, tourists are more important than locals, plus this is a very tall bldg and elevators are really nice when they work.

*22,000 sq miles were affected

*Broward county got hit the hardest - harder than were the storm hit landfall.

*Out of 2,600 traffic lights in Miami-Dade county only 18 are working.

*All schools in Dade, Broward and Monroe counties are closed this week

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Ok - I JUST heard that Miami Beach is under a boil water order. After I drank about 2 glasses of water and fed the kitties water. This is something I really should have assumed but was so psyched by that fresh glass of ice water that I wasn't thinking. I really hope we don't get sick but I guess considering my other wonderful luck something bad has to happen. I really hope the kitties don't get sick. They should not have to suffer from my stupidity, and i guess i would suffer too from picking up their runny poo. NOT ON THE CARPET PLEASE!

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Nature can be a wonderful self cleaner. During the night all the windows and balcony were covered with leaves and twigs. The balcony floor was all mud. But when the winds shifted in the morning they wiped the windows and balcony squeaky clean.

Its so weird when you have no power. I knew things weren't that great for me but I also knew that things were horrible for others but I had no idea. Now that I can watch the news I know that all of South Florida is fucked in comforts but mostly safe.

There are only 8 ice and water distribution centers in Dade. Thank god I don't need to go to one b/c the lines are hours long. -Just heard my first complaint about FEMA - we really need to have more of these and have them more spread out b/c this is a huge county.

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My power went out right after sunrise and that was when the wind REALLY started to howl. The metal frames were squealing and the windows were vibrating like crazy. I got some video w/ the camera against the window so you can really see the vibrations. All the paintings on the wall were crooked afterwards. The chandelier was swaying so I guess the building was too - probably why the non-opening window frames were also squealing. The wind did not stop howling until last night - about 8 hours after the all clear. Basically this morning was perfect. I woke up w/ all the lights on and everything stopped shaking.

I was so happy that the worst of the storm hit during daylight. I would have been scared shitless hearing all that wind and squealing in the dark. I have been watching the bridges and they have had stopped traffic all morning. Now they seem to be letting people on and off the island so I think I am going for a drive.