Powerless? Not Quite.

Friday, 8/26/05


Around midday, I went out looking for fuel.

A mistake.

I blew about 1/8 tank looking for fuel and didn't find it. The power in my little community is so badly wiped out that no pumps or stores or anything or anyone has any electricity. If there's no juice, then there's no working gas pumps. I thought some power would be back on by now but it isn't.

And of course, I need the fuel not just to get supplies but for my home's electricity.

Most traffic lights were still out, and people were still blowing the intersections instead of doing 4-way stops. Seemed to me they knew they were doing wrong, too. Very wrong. We had several deaths last year due to exactly this behavior. Today I got so I'd move (slowly and carefully) into the intersection, blowing my horn, not letting 50 cars whiz through not their turn. I told Walter. He was shocked. "YOU were blowing your HORN?!?" --Yeah. I had to look around first to find it. Didn't know where it was.

Watching the outpouring of generosity and sweetness and helpfulness of ordinary humans in natural disasters is really uplifting to me. Seeing them blow those intersections like that is so disheartening.

And my usual Walgreen's got ate by the hurricane. Seriously so. It not only didn't have any power, the parking lots were covered with downed trees. I'd refilled everything I could, but I missed picking up my anti-inflammatories - which I ran out of yesterday - and a special anti-MRSA antibiotic. Not good. Especially when I'm seriously low on funds from unexpectedly refilling all the others so soon. (Hurricane tip: Have at least 2 weeks of rx's on hand.)

All phones are so dicey I can't even blog. Ok. Write now, post later. Emails are weirdly logjammed. Bear with me, folks. Don't stop sending them. I'm getting most of 'em, after a while; and they mean a lot to me just now. I'll answer as I can.

FPL tells us they are Assessing. Until Tuesday. 8/30. Tuesday they hope to have 90% of us restored. Till then: don't get your hopes up. After then: the remaining 10% by Friday, they hope.

Which doesn't mean they aren't quietly fixing power problems while they Assess. Broward now has almost half the outages restored.

Not mine.

I'm so crushed about my digital camera. I loved it and it seems to be totally gone. I got out my treasured old Nikon FM2 but somehow it broke my heart and I couldn't use it. What an awful time to be without a camera. Maybe I can get over it enough tomorrow to get some pix...

For the first time in a long time, I got depressed, suddenly and sharply. Hurricane fatigue. So I went to sleep.

At night I woke up feeling some better. With only a hair of fuel left, I let my fingers do the walking. I found a place that swore they had fuel only a few miles up the coast.

Oh no! By the time I got there they were pumped dry. I watched a man milk about $.70 worth out of a pump. It took several minutes.

Such suspense, watching that fuel trickling into his tank. I found I couldn't leave. I was riveted, staring, until it was all over.

He told me to head up Dixie Highway. And lo and behold, not far from my mom's condo, I found Gas.

They even had REGULAR.

The nice man even PUMPED IT for me!

Filled my tank ALL the way up!

THERE WASN'T EVEN A LINE!!!

I told him he should have a line around the block. --You need to Get the Word out. Put out a Sign! Send Emails! Call the Local News Channels!

Oh, so cheerful.
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Friday, 8/26/05

Condo Check


The road to Mom's condo was blocked off, flooded, cop car there flashing its lights. I went around another way, not flooded, and squeezed the car in to check the place.

I hadn't pulled the furniture away from the windows but everything was fine. No electricity though. Last hurricane season I'd packed her freezer full of gallon jugs of water. There they were. Frozen solid, looking all nice and hurricane-ready.

The cell phones and land lines are only working sporadically. I got Mom on my cell phone and she told me where all the candles were. Told me to take all I needed. Oh, lucky!

And went home.
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Saturday afternoon, 8/27/05

Coffee and a Fan


A lovely morning.

It started with my usual morning espresso. I missed it Friday morning, we were worried about whether the 1000-watt inverter ("max load 2000") could handle the 1000-watt espresso maker, and the 1000-watt nuker for my milk and cream. I shut down all other appliances, everything. I made the coffee. The electricity held. I nuked the milk and cream. Still no blowout. I drank it and it was sooooo good.

I picked up Geoff and took him with me to Sam's and Walmart and Walgreen's and Mom's condo. No traffic lights. Good for Geoff, he didn't go white knuckle on me. Not so's I could see anyway.

When you don't have a car you may not realize how isolated you become. And for such a proficient cook, to have to pay retail for food - only middling-quality food no less - is just awful.

He got a kick out of Sam's. And maybe got a little embarrassed at how much fun he was having window-shopping and riding around town. I said, No. When I get stuck in the house sick for two or three months, I call it being in jail. When I can finally use my Get Out of Jail card, I feel like a little kid at Christmas. Isolation does things to you that you don't fully feel until it stops.

I had about $23 cash left after fueling up last night. I got a no-cost advance on my meds at Walgreens, hooray! The store Katrina ate had already filled them, just before the storm. So the other Walgreen's couldn't pass it through the insurance, see? Neither could they contact the dead store to say, Put that filled rx back and we'll fill it here! So, they'll supply me up until that dead store wakes up again. A very nice pharmacist, swapping hurricane war stories with me on the phone.

I got milk, cream, and eggs at Sam's. At Walmart I got butter, super cheap candles, and - a FAN.

This is South Florida in late August. No juice, no A/C. I have edema and it hurts and without A/C or air moving over my swollen hands and face and feet, it's just...awful. My $6 fan is indescribably wonderful. Finally I can clean house.

I had $6 left. $5 went into my gas tank.

Now I have 3/4 of a tank and $1 to my name. Monday I'll have at least $20, maybe I can even fill up. I get about 30 hours of electricity on a tank of gas.

Question: Should I spend some of that fuel cruising around tomorrow with my plant sale partner-to-be? It's not just for sightseeing. There are thousands of dollars' worth of plants sitting by the side of the road waiting for garbage pickup on Monday. I'd rather root them and sell them than see them die. And post-hurricane is the best time to do such scarfings, bar none. This is a truly exceptional opportunity that won't last.

It would mean losing power before Monday.

OTOH: Any reasonable thing I can do to support myself, I will.

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Saturday evening, 8/27/05

Help. However You Can.


Now y'all have listened to a tiny slice of the gory details on what a minimal Cat 1 hurricane does to a big swath of land and all those people on it. Sure, I know you see all this on the news too. But maybe reading about it from one small person's perspective makes it a bit more personal. I hope so, anyway.

Not so much because I want to keep blathering on about my life.

I want people to think about this:

Katrina is now heading to a place that's been battered and battered and battered by one major hurricane after another, all still within one year. She's a strong Cat 3 as I write this, and will probably be either a Cat 4 or 5 when she strikes again.

I love the Gulf Coast, tremendously. I've lived and traveled on many parts of it. I would not want to be any Gulf Coast resident, anywhere, just now. I can't imagine how all those people can still endure.

Whatever your religious or other type persuasion is, please include those people in your thoughts, prayers, your positive energies, your compassion. If there's a way you can help them after it hits, please do. This can get tiresome, surely so many Americans know what disaster fatigue feels like now. But please - don't go that route. Don't stop being giving people.

We need help in South Florida too, don't get me wrong. A hurricane's a hurricane. But wherever Katrina hits next, those people will need help far more than we do here.
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