Fly's first hurricane

Into every life, a little rain must fall -- and sometimes it's six inches of rain, along with 50-mph winds.

Tropical Storm Fay is headed our way.



JP and I feel we're set for whatever Fay does -- even if she becomes a hurricane, as forecasted.

(Bring it!)

(Update: Fay never became a hurricane. We got a lot of rain, some cool breezes and that's it. Our house is 12 feet above sea level (!) and there was no flooding in our community.)

People here are a little on edge because the last hurricane that came through was Wilma in 2005, and that was a true disaster. Trees blocked roads. Traffic signals were missing or didn't work for about a week. Two of our neighbors had trees fall on their houses and cars; many others had tarps on their roofs for up to a year afterward while waiting for insurance companies to sort out the damage and waiting for roofing companies to get down the long line of people needing repairs. For a short while, you had to boil any water before using it because it had been contaminated. Some places had flooding.

JP and I didn't have electricity for 10 days. He lost a week of work. When he finally did go back to work, because of the traffic signals being down, his commute time doubled. We lost several trees. There was an eight-foot-high, 14-foot-long pile of debris we picked up in our yard.

My wildflower garden was flattened. It looked as though a giant came and stomped it with his boot. I started from scratch with a bare dirt floor and a few stripped shrubs. I made the garden even better than it had ever been.



In the midst of this crazy aftermath, two months later, Fly was conceived. With my garden fresh and budding, and my boy growing inside me, I was inspired to start Growing A Life.



Good things can come out of hurricanes.

But of course, we hope Fay won't be a big deal.

Anything you want to know about my experience with hurricanes or the storms in general? Ask, and I'll try to answer!

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Lissete, I was here for Hurricane Andrew in 1992. That wasn't just a disaster -- that was a war zone! I couldn't possibly write a short response to Andrew. That's a whole 'nother post!

MMTAM, since Wilma, JP and have replaced some of our windows with hurricane-impact windows. We also have shutters for our windows and doors. We have enough bottled water and food for several days. Also after Wilma, we had the local power company install a unit of some kind that allows us to hook up a generator to it and power the whole house. It won't run everything, but it will keep the refrigerator running, let us have some lights, and let us cook a bit. That's a huge improvement. We also put gas in our vehicles and have extra gas in cans (for the generator and for the cars) -- after Wilma, some gas stations installed generators too, but it's still a good idea. Those are the main preparations. Of course, if the storm spawns a tornado that wipes out our house, those things won't matter!

Kristi, as you know, Punta Gorda is on the southwestern coast of Florida. I've been there, and I remember it was hit bad by Hurricane Charley in 2004. In fact, I heard Fay is following a track similar to the one Charley took. The track of the eye of the storm takes it through that area, as I found online, "The state's southwestern coast is predicted to suffer the brunt of the storm and was put under a hurricane warning at 11 a.m." No matter where the eye goes, however, it looks like all of southern Florida is going to get lots of wind and rain.

Groovyoldlady, I remember Hurricane David too! It missed us.