TheBanyanTree: Hurricane Charley observations

[Sachet]

Modern candles and candle holders are not intended for practical use. 
They cast no usable light and a lovely scent is the least of your 
concerns when there is no light as far as your eyes can see in any 
direction. It's good and very helpful to have old-fashioned candle 
holders that magnify and reflect light. It's also a catch-22....you need 
candles for light, but too many give off more heat than you wish to add 
to a suffocatingly hot room. (Heat index 110 during the day with only a 
slight improvement at night)

It does absolutely no good to have 5 extra 9 volt batteries when your 
transistor radio that you haven't used in years, uses AA. Your camping 
lantern is also useless if you haven't bought any of the huge batteries 
it requires.

Media personnel are total idiots when they repeatedly refer to the video 
clip they are showing as they simulcast broadcast and no one but them 
for 3 or more counties has power, therefore no TV. They also need to 
focus on providing PRACTICAL information on the hour, instead of 
rehashing the crisis and telling us the refrigerated mobile morgue has 
arrived. Radio personnel need to be trained in how to convey succinct 
and clear information in emergency situations. A crisis is not the time 
to ramble on about their past experiences. Nor is it the time to play 
commercials telling us how good some food at a local restaurant tastes 
when said restaurant may not even be 1) still standing 2) safe to enter 
if still standing 3) or have any power.

It's overwhelming to realize that the hurricane has caused so much 
massive widespread damage that you can't depend on help arriving within 
mere minutes as usual. And that when you are told not to leave your home 
or property because it's too dangerous due to power lines down and other 
hazards, and you are placed under a strict curfew, time passes very, 
very slowly as you wait for things to be determined safe. You also take 
great care to later not do things that could cause serious injury as you 
try to clean up downed trees, branches and fences because the emergency 
rooms are overrun with injured people and one local hospital is actually 
closed because its roof was ripped off.

Pets give off entirely too much heat when you are desperately trying to 
keep cool. You notice this all the more when they insist on sleeping in 
the same room with you because they are scared and you can actually feel 
the heat wafting from their furry bodies. And when they rapidly pant 
because they are so miserably hot, it increases the heat and humidity 
all the more. Especially Great Danes. Dogs like to be rubbed on the neck 
and head with ice cubes when they are overheating. They also like to be 
doused with cool rain water. Especially Great Danes.

Cats, on the other hand, think it's great fun that all the windows and 
patio doors with screens are open, because somehow the lizards manage to 
find a way in, therefore hunting is wonderfully entertaining. Until Mom 
takes away the now tail-less lizards and inexplicably lets them loose 
outside again.

Toilets can actually be flushed only 3 - 4 times a day when water is 
needed for drinking first and foremost and you find that it takes 3 - 4 
flippin' gallons to flush just once. Who knew!?!?! Rain water is 
excellent for flushing, although the buckets are heavy to tote around 
the house. Toilet paper should not be placed in the toilet at such 
times, in order to conserve water, because ironically it doesn't rain 
everyday after a hurricane. Hoarding plastic grocery bags does come in 
handy. You can also never have too many large plastic garbage bags at 
such times.

It's important to keep a flashlight in every bathroom.

A person can bathe using less than a gallon of water, even though some 
teenagers don't know this fact and are skeptical until reality sets in. 
And then they are somewhat appreciative of the fact that their mother 
filled 8 empty gallon water jugs with water from the water system before 
the loss of power. Those with long hair cannot wash their hair though 
and are a tad jealous of the guys who can, because it looks so much 
cooler and more comfortable.

Baby wipes are a wonderful convenience, both for cleanliness and coolness.

No matter how many times you habitually flip a light switch as you walk 
into a room, it still won't work if there is NO POWER. You'd think you 
would remember this by the umpteenth dozenth time.

Mosquito's are one of Earth's true menaces.

The people who invented air conditioning and refrigerators deserve 
sainthood, some kind of Nobel Prize and anything else I can think of to 
show my awe and appreciation for such luxurious comforts.

Electric company linemen are modern day knights in shining armor, brave 
warriors and all around great guys. They should be paid more than any 
athlete on the planet.

Linemen like to be hugged.

It's important to track them down and profusely thank them for working 
so hard 24/7 in such terrible heat and persevering beyond countless 
obstacles to return your power and water. Especially the team of older 
guys who kept working to solve a tricky and dangerous problem when the 
young studs tell you it's too dangerous, that they will get fried if 
they try and that "you" have to arrange for a tree-trimming service to 
come and remove the tree off the power lines in your neighborhood, even 
though that's the power company's job. The older guys knew more and had 
a do or die attitude and got the job done. Hero's, every single one of 
them!

Heat exhaustion sneaks up on you, even when you are being as careful as 
possible and the toll can be felt for days afterwards. The feelings of 
nausea, headache, muscle aches, agitation, confusion and fatigue are 
just plain yucky. But you don't complain much, because you ARE alive and 
some are not as fortunate.

Games are crucial for the emotional well-being of a family. Scrabble, 
Monopoly, Uno, Password, Twenty-questions, The Word Game, Clue, and Life 
are reassuring fun and do pass the time. Teens like Rummy and especially 
Poker since betting is a wonderful new discovery. You quickly and 
adamantly decide that you will forbid your teen son to ever enter a 
casino during his lifetime.

Food supplies, such as beef jerky, nuts and M & M's are not allowed to 
be used in the place of poker chips, no matter how much your teenage son 
insists, because he has chosen to gobble most of his portions of said 
supplies down because he did not choose to believe that his mother knew 
what she was talking about when she explained that a massive power 
outage cannot be quickly or easily fixed and that food shortages will 
occur in local stores because people panic and also because one store 
with restored power cannot feasibly feed 50,000+ people, in our area 
alone. Not to mention the people driving over from other cities and 
counties.

It's disconcerting to walk into a grocery store and find empty freezer, 
dairy, produce, meat and bread sections. In the "land of plenty", it 
seems an alien concept and you realize that mother nature reigns 
supreme, even over all our complex technology. You also develop a fine 
awareness and deep appreciation for all the layers of communication, 
effort, action and organization it takes to help our lives flow so 
effortlessly each day. And that there are no unimportant jobs. All are 
needed to make everything function.

Ice is a precious, precious commodity.

You learn that although camping skills are very helpful in the aftermath 
of a hurricane, there is a total and complete contrast to camping for 
fun as opposed to using some of those same skills for the necessary and 
vitals aspects of day to day life with no power or running water for 
several interminable insufferably hot days.

It turns out to be very helpful to run the dishwasher, do all the 
laundry, fill the cars with gas and especially to have turned the A/C 
down to 75 on the day of the hurricane, mere hours before it hit. Even 
though your family thinks you are overreacting and worrying too much.

Because the tile floors that have seemed too hard, and you've been 
wishing you could cover with carpet, end up being a tremendous blessing 
as you discover that you can actually feel the coolness radiate off of 
them as the outside (and therefore inside) temperatures rise to 
hellishly high levels. And laying down on them is pure blissful heaven 
as you feel their blessed coolness against your overheated body.

It helps to tape the fridge and freezer doors closed to keep everyone 
from accidentally opening them too much. And when you do have to open 
them, it's best to have two people to quickly grab what's needed so you 
can slam the doors shut asap. It ends up being very expensive to have to 
toss every single thing from your refrigerator and freezer because the 
power is off for so long. But, you figure that losing a roof would have 
been considerably worse. And always, in the back of your mind, is the 
humbling knowledge that you are so very fortunate to have a house and to 
be alive.

Jacaranda trees, although graceful and beautiful, are dangerous and 
foolish to have in your yard if you live in a hurricane prone area. 
Their branches alarmingly break off like mere matchsticks in the high 
winds and blow around creating a hazard. Whereas, the Live Oak tree 
stands strong and almost protective over our house. Palm trees are 
useless and dangerous, of course, since they are stupid trees anyway.

I think the most important thing we learned is that how we chose to 
react and interact with each other, when the storm was raging and then 
when the heat was so oppressive and we were scared and isolated and not 
sure what was going to happen next, or what we should be doing, defined 
who we are and how we will remember this crisis. When tempers started to 
flare the first day after the hurricane, I told the kids that they 
would, by default, remember Hurricane Charley for the rest of their 
lives and they had to decide then and there if they were going to work 
to have memories of family togetherness or damaging family strife. 
Thankfully, they heeded my words and we have a feeling of having worked 
together as a family.

The quandary we face right now is in giving ourselves permission to 
acknowledge that it was indeed a challenging crisis and that we do have 
to process the gamut of emotions vs. the very real knowledge that we are 
so very fortunate and in contrast to what people in other parts of Lee 
County and especially Charlotte County are surviving, we have no right 
to complain. My mind shies away from contemplating what could have 
happened here in Lehigh as I watch the news. I can only handle a few 
minutes at a time, because these news reports aren't abstract far off 
tragedies that I feel bad about, but also somewhat distant and removed 
from. These reports are very personal and harshly real. I look out into 
my own yard and see a mere minuscule example of the awful reality that 
so many people are facing nearby.

I've contacted two places to see where we can volunteer to help. Part of 
the recovery process is for the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) in 
every city to organize people and provisions in the best ways possible 
to keep people safe and to facilitate an orderly process. I hadn't 
considered that important aspect. They don't need people running around 
willy nilly.

It's interesting to talk with people who only lost their power for 12 - 
24 hours. They have a much different perspective then we do. It's like 
nothing much happened for them. Which makes me aware that my present 
perspective is much different then those who are still without power, 
water or a home.

I am in awe of how FEMA, the Red Cross and other emergency agencies are 
responding. Overall, the attitude here in SW Florida is supportive and 
encouraging. I've noticed that people tend to smile at each other much 
more quickly as they reorder their lives.


...Sachet