Tag Archives: Hurricane Wilma

A Hurricane Refugee Unpacks ► Unpacking The Writer

Apologies to my faithful readers. I know the Not Now Silly Newsroom has been idle lately. To start I’ve needed to Lyft to keep up with my bills. Then along comes Hurricane Irma, which I fled before she ever arrived.

I lived through Hurricane Wilma, which was a Cat 2. Irma was a monster which, at one point, was a Cat 5 and headed straight for the condo. I decided that I didn’t want to see a 5. I had my hurricane fun during Wilma. So I fucked off, in the vernacular.

Drove to the Detroit area, where I have family and friends. Shared driving and expenses with a fellow I’ve known as a facefriend for several years, but we’ve never met before. I packed Marley up, picked Steve up in Boca Raton, and we headed north where we had adventures on the roads. This includes 18 hours trying to get out of Florida in bumper-to-bumper traffic with gas availability troubles. But, we got to Michigan eventually.

This is what they do when Rest Areas have no power. Welcome to the New World Order.

These ROAD TRIP stories go into the pipeline, if I ever get to them.

Click to read about previous Road Trips.

Definitely in the pipeline is a new Pastoral Letter, for those that enjoy that series.

I had been banging away at one in a desultory fashion before I left. However, on this trip to Michigan I took another drive to Ann Arbor. This time I had the honour to watch Pastor Ken Pastorize his flock at Blue Ocean Faith.

That was followed by lunch with several of Ken’s parishioners, one of whom I may have made hate me. That’s a story I will definitely write about. Stay tuned.

Then I convinced Ken to visit the old neighbourhood in Detroit, some of which I posted on the LIVE facebookery. [Trying to figure out how to post those here.] All of this time spent with my oldest friend in the world not only focused my thoughts on the next Pastoral Letter, but has also given me insight on many of the other topics the Not Now Silly Newsroom tends to commission from me. So, look for some of that sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, here’s Pastor Ken Wilson giving me a Shout Out and then going on to talk about his struggle in finding his place within Jesus Christ. I’ve probably described it wrong, but I found it fascinating. Your mileage may vary.

10 Sep 2017—Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor Celebration
from Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor on Vimeo.

ALSO: I think I’ve figured out a way to go back to writing about Miami politics. Therefore, consider my recusal a partial recusal. I just have to find the exact right wording. So, you can also look for that.

Taking Marley on a Road Trip was an experience. I’ve never traveled with a cat before and Marley has never spent much time in a car before. I hope The Traveling Cat is a post I can eventually get around to. Suffice to say for now: Marley did wonderfully in the car for all those hours. She got to the point where she wandered around the car at will, including on my lap and under my feet, while I was driving. Ahem.

A shameless plug for my other traveling companion:

Steve Dibert is a Mortgage Fraud Investigator.

Altho’ we’ve been facefriends for several years, we had never met. After almost 50 hours together in a car, we’re tight now and he knows enough to blackmail me. He tolerated Marley, even tho’ he’s allergic. He tolerated all my stupid stories. He tolerated all of my tunes without complaint, including — and especially — the hours and hours of Frank Zappa. [No exaggeration. Not only did we hear nearly 8 hours of Frank Zappa, but I explained everything I knew about every one of the songs.] And, after all of that, he didn’t kill me.

If you need some mortgage fraud investigation, give MFI Miami a try.

I went to a great Drum Circle at this place [pic to the right]. It’s the 2nd time I’ve been there over the years, and I will write a little bit about it eventually. I want to compare it to Drum Circles I know.

While in Michigan (as I always do) I talked to marijuana enthusiasts and learned more about the Michigan MMJ laws. This will eventually be published as a long-form article, but I’ve been adding to my knowledge and connections for years.

As well, I made a business connection on this trip which could put me on ground floor of a start-up [tangentially] in that field. You’ll be the first to know when I can announce that. However, I don’t want to be on the ground floor. I want to be on the elevator to the penthouse. Rub your lucky rabbit foot.

There’s more in the pipeline, but here’s the bottom line, literally: 10 days away from my Lyfting — and the gas money and other associated expenses of running away — has really put a hurt on my bank account. I’ll try to post a few quick one-offs in the coming week, but I’m really going to have to hunker down behind the wheel of the Grey Ghost and grind out the Lyfts. If I can drive to Michigan and back, this should be a cinch.

See you on the flip flop.

Hurricanes I Have Known

The crazy trajectory of Hurricane Wilma. When it began,
the liklihood of hit hitting Florida was almost zero.

DATELINE: October 19, 2005 — On this day Wilma became “the most intense hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.”

Everybody remembers Katrina, but Wilma has always been the bridesmaid. But, it should be the other way around. Here’s why from the WikiWhackyWoo: “Hurricane Wilma was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Part of the record breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the six most intense Atlantic hurricanes ever (along with #4 Rita and #6 Katrina), Wilma was the twenty-second storm, thirteenth hurricane, sixth major hurricane, fourth Category 5 hurricane, and second-most destructive hurricane of the 2005 season.” 

At the time I had just moved to Florida and wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. All the news stations down here were going crazy with hurricane coverage and were saying that such an active hurricane season might be the “new normal.”

CLICK TO ENLARGE: Top left: One of the building’s roof peeled off by the wind;
Top right: Trees took the brunt of Hurricane Wilma; Lower left: A neighbour’s
car after the roof was peeled of its roof; Lower right: Roof where it don’t belong.
That yellow thing is the ‘igloo’ where we put our recycling. They became airborne.

While a couple of hurricanes had skirted by Florida prior to Wilma, and Hurricane Katrina crossed the state much farther north, no one thought that Wilma would hit Florida.

It formed as a Tropical Depression, as they all do. But, rather than getting organized in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, it formed in the Caribbean, near Jamaica. Two days later it became a Tropical Storm and received a name: Wilma. A day later it was already a monster Category 5 hurricane.

Then it moved over the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, where it simply stopped moving. Hurricane Wilma churned over the Yucatan for almost 2 days, as tourists in Cozumel and Cancun hunkered down as best they could. During those 2 days Hurricane Wilma lost much of its energy, decreasing to a Cat 2 when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. Then the fucker made a right turn and headed straight for my condo.

My condo’s on the east side of Florida. First it made landfall in Cape Romano as a Category 3. However, it also picked up lateral speed, moving across Florida faster than it had the Gulf of Mexico.

Top left: Why trees didn’t do well. Roots have a hard time going down in sand, so
root systems grow outward. With not enough purchase, winds just push them over;
Upper right: Same car. Lower left: Pops giving the ‘thumbs down’ to the tree my
mother, who had recently died, planted when the condo was new; Lower right:
A totally different tree which shows the horizontal extent on the root system.

Pops was an old hand at hurricanes. He’d ridden out many since moving to Florida. In fact, during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 I was working in the CityPulse [sic] Newsroom on BreakfastTelevision. [sic] Through sheer luck of the draw, it fell to me to write up the Hurricane Andrew Story™ that morning. While it was on my mind — and I had free long distance at my disposal — I called Pops in Sunrise to check up on him. At the time I didn’t really know Florida geography and didn’t realize that Homestead, which took a direct hit from Andrew was almost 60 miles away. While on the phone with Pops, who was hunkered down with my mother in the interior closet, Producer Bud Pierce asked if he’d be willing to do a live phoner during our newspacks, which is how he ended up on the air 3 times that morning.

As I said, Pops was an old hand at hurricanes and nothing was going to budge him. That’s why we remained in the condo as it took a direct hit. However, rather than hunker down in Pops’ closet or my bathroom (the only 2 places in the condo that doesn’t have windows), we wandered around the condo, occasionally looking out the windows to watch huge things fly past. We were crazy and lucky nothing happened.

There was one point when everything calmed down and I walked outside in the eye of the hurricane. It was beautiful and clear and one couldn’t even see the eye walls. That lasted only about 15 minutes. Then it all started going to hell again, with the wind coming from the opposite direction.

These pictures are just a small portion from my facebook album Hurricane Wilma Damage.

BTW: We were without power for 18 days after that. People ask me how that was. It was like camping, but with more comfortable furniture.