Florida Chat

**Mary Kay** · 06-24-2009, 01:26 AM

Didn't want to clutter up the nice neat threads with off topic stuff.

just wanted to say how glad I am to have some people who live in this state to talk to!! Hubby's family are fro Ca. and they think we are weird to want to live here. Like they can talk, we have hurricanes, tornados and big bugs. They have santa Anna winds, mucho wildfires and earthquakes!

This morning the winds and lightning were so bad that my neighbor lost her pump house building..it's draped over her porch. her maple tree split in half and flattened the fence between out houses. That was one bad thunder boomer.
Who else here went through the hurricanes of 04? LOL I sound like an old codger..remember the 'canes of ought 4? We got all 4 of them!

**Corki2** · 06-24-2009, 02:19 AM

I was in Clearwater. None of the storms hit us, but we had no electricity for a while. I got my generator that year. I also noticed that my garage door tracks were nailed on when I went around trying to reinforce and prepare (just in case), so I ended up having a new garage door put on. Then I lost a bunch of shingles, so I had to have a new roof. Man that was an expensive year for me! I'm lucky, all the storms missed us.

**Mary Kay** · 06-24-2009, 02:36 AM

Hi Corki, My daughter was in Brandon one year, she had a whole houseful who were hiding out from the one that hit around Ft. Myers. She too lost elec. but I had set her up with flashlights, batteries, radio, water and canned goods. She mangaged just fine.
Another one came across from Miami and threatened to hit Tampa, so I went down and got my grandsons. It decided to hook a right and hit us instead! The boys went nuts with only weather on T.V. Thank goodness I used to own a Video store, we kept a lot and I bought more since then. The boys alays have something to watch!
We got our ginny after the second Hurricane. The first one left us in the dark for 10 days. With all the windows boarded and no elec. sleeping was a misery.
We lost our stable/chicken coop. We didn't have horses and it was a very old stable. It was all over the yard along with some very angry chickens.
We also lost 5 pines. Thank goodness Mike (hubby) had 5 around the house cut down a month before or I wouldn't be here to tell the tale. FEMA was very good to us...6 weeks later.

**Corki2** · 06-24-2009, 02:53 AM

Yeah, we had five kids in the house, all sitting around complaining about being bored when we lost power for a couple days. That, and trying to get dressed for work while the sweat is dripping, was the worse. I grew up in Miami and remembered that my folks always filled up the bathtub with water or flushing, etc. So I did that, then with five kids, decided it wasn't enough. So I went in the garage and unloaded all my Christmas stuff out of my totes so I could fill them with water too. Then I decided the best place for them was on the screen porch. So, I'm lugging these heavy totes full of water out there and killing my back in the process. Thanks god I only hauled two of them out there when I remembered I had a 10,000 gallon swimming pool full of water! Duh!

**Mary Kay** · 06-24-2009, 02:59 AM

LMAO!!!! I laughed out loud..hubby was wondering what was so funny!
We did the same thing! I have a pool..of course it was full of pine limbs and the debris from 4 houses, but at least we had water for flushing and watering the animals. Not to mention a dip or two after we hauled out the junk! I had a rubber camp shower that heats when you lay it out in the sun (full of water) so I could wash my hair.

**smokingclam** · 06-24-2009, 03:06 AM

Gee I don't remember any hurricanes hitting Punta Gorda in 04? Oh it's time to wake up now!

Hope it's a quiet year this year.

**Corki2** · 06-24-2009, 03:18 AM

Weekends were fun. We would either be putting the plywood on the windows, or taking it down. After about the 4th or fifth weekend either putting it up or taking it down, I finally relented and we left it on. I could really see the value in those see through panels I've heard so much about. I just took cold showers. It was so hot that it felt good after the initial shock wore off. We had our BBQ grill cranking along with the coleman. And the generator, oh my GOD, I never realized how damn loud those things were. There weren't many running them in our neighborhood and I felt like I was disturbing the peace every time I fired it up. We only turned it on once an hour to keep the fridge cool. That reminds me, I need to order a cigarette charger or my new 510.

**Corki2** · 06-24-2009, 03:21 AM

Originally Posted by smokingclam

Gee I don't remember any hurricanes hitting Punta Gorda in 04? Oh it's time to wake up now!

Hope it's a quiet year this year.

I was feelin your pain. It was supposed to hit Clearwater and that's where everyone was focused. Then all the sudden, sharp right and you were nailed! Do you still see a lot of blue roofs?