Born and raised in Miami, my family and I went through the brunt of Hurricane Andrew, back in 1992.
We lost most of the east side of our house; windows were blown out, a glass sliding door popped out (but didn’t shatter!) because of the pressure, furniture and belongings were blown around INSIDE the house with rain and leaves, roofing tiles became rubble, trees were stripped, the screened in patio resembled a ghostly pirate ship… In the slideshow you will see *why* no one should ever try to weather a storm in a trailer.
Surviving something like this changes your outlook forever. And you know what? My biggest memory of this experience was, even though our house ended up looking like this, my family spent a lot of our time helping other people afterward. Neighbors were immediately friendlier. Disaster brought the community together. And it took a LONG time for things to become “normal” again.
We shared our school with a more devastated school for at least a semester – my classmates and I attended from 6am to noon and the other students used our classrooms from noon to 6pm. Military curfews were enforced county-wide. My family endured a month in our house without power (and weeks without some of our windows).
The power of nature can be pretty intense. I love it but I wouldn’t want to bet myself against it.
Erika Diane 