Ginny, an older lady who used to go to my church, had gone out of town with her husband to help their son move into his dorm for college. While they were gone, Andrew hit. Their house was destroyed. They came home while others were trying to escape and had no home to go to. Their insurance company provided a trailer which was parked in their front yard for months while their house was rebuilt. I'm pretty sure they still live there today.
Suzie, a woman I used to work with, had just had a baby. He was 6 weeks old when the storm hit. As the storm got worse, they hid in a closet. Water poured down the walls of the closet and she held on to her baby. When the storm passed, they came out of the closet to find the house a wreck, but the closet had kept them safe
Patty, a good friend of mine, was in high school. She and her mother and sister went to a local shelter, but her dad stayed home. When they went home after the storm, the house had fallen in on her dad, but he was OK.
These pictures are all from our area.
Wow, thanks for retelling those stories. I do remember Andrew--can't believe it's been 20 years--but those stories really put a personal face on it.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there also a pretty big one the first year you lived in Miami? I remember several of us in the dorm worrying about you down there. And now you're such a south Florida vet!
There was a mild hurricane that first year. I think a Cat 1. Probably the worst I've been through was Wilma when Caleb was a baby - that was in 2005. We had bits of 3 that year. (That was the year of Katrina too). Even the worst we got was probably no more than a Cat 2. Andrew was a 5. I'm not sure how long it takes to become a "local" down here, but I've passed that mark!
Deletescary! I can't even imagine it.
ReplyDeleteI remember the U of M campus the next time we saw it. All the palm trees were just sticks in the ground. No tops. And I remember Rob's dismay at missing it all.
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