Well, I've survived my first genuine Florida hurricane... we weren't
nearly as prepared for it as I'd have liked to be, but we weren't that
uncomfortable. John was sure that we'd be just fine since it was
'only' a tropical storm... so we didn't make any special preperations,
and then of course it turned into a hurricane and headed straight for
us, but it still wasn't very bad. I'd say it was more of an
inconvenience than a natural disaster...
We had one major scare - we headed out to the grocery store at 3pm on
Thursday to see if we could grab some last-minute drinks and supplies,
only to find that the grocery store was closed alread. We jumped back
in the car and the car wouldn't start! So there we were sitting in the
carpark at the mall with everyone disappearing around us, the wind
picking up, and a hurricane on the way... I was thinking 'okay, worst
case scenario leave the car and call for a taxi' but John got onto the
roadside service people and they managed to find a  tow truck  to help
us out. While we were waiting I went down to the other end of the mall
because Target looked like it was still open (and it was) and I
grabbed some muesli bars and water in case we were stuck in the
carpark for hours... The tow truck driver said 'it's just the battery'
and jumpstarted us so we could drive home - but we got less than two
blocks before the engine died right in the middle of Federal Highway!
Luckily there was a turnlane right in front of us, and John managed to
get the car to roll into it before the engine completely died so we
weren't in the middle of the road. He called the roadside people again
and said 'hey, can you get that tow truck back here asap?!' and we
were only sitting there about fifteen minutes before he got back to
us. John climbed up into the cab to give directions and I sat in the
car while it was towed home. A tow truck ride is slow and bumpy and
smelly, but it was only about a mile home so it didn't take long.
We got home at 4.30pm and I quickly  wrote up our little adventure for
my diary... and then I thought 'I'd better get our dinner cooked early
just in case we lose power later on...' The only problem was that
'later on' turned out to be in fifteen minutes! The chicken cacciatore
was only half-cooked and I hadn't even put the pasta into it yet...
luckily it was boiling when the power went off and I'd just added the
stock, so I wrapped the pot in a towel and let it cook in its own
juices for a couple of hours and it was fine - it was a warm chicken
soup! And it turned out to be our last home-cooked meal for three
days.
I could keep carrying on about this for pages, but to cut a long story
short our apartment building wasn't damaged, we just lost a few palm
trees, but our area was without power until Sunday. Originally FPL
said we'd get it back some time on Saturday, but they underestimated
the amount of tree and line damage and they said it would take much
longer to fix... so we were lucky because our power came back on at
11am Sunday morning and everyone in the building cheered! Our only
real loss was the contents of our fridge and freezer - I kept the
freezer door firmly closed, but apparantly it's not very well
insulated, because when I opened it at 10am Sunday to check it it was
a mess inside. It wasn't stinky yet, but if it had had another 24
hours it would have been a real mess... We'd just finished cleaning it
out and disinfecting it when the power came back on, so that was good
timing!
We were also lucky because it really wasn't very hot while the power
was off. It was very overcast and humid and rainy, but that kept the
temperature down and we had a lovely breeze in the living room with
all the windows open. The only time the heat really bothered us was
when we tried to sleep - our bedroom is hot at the best of times and
it felt like an oven! We camped out in the living room and moved
around as little as possible, and we were fine.
I was rather worried about the cats because they didn't want to eat or
drink and they seemed very stressed by the heat, but they adapted to
it too - on Thursday the hurricane noises scared them and they kept
staring at the windows and bristling... then on Friday they lay around
like little limp rags because they were so hot. I tried to get them to
drink cold water from the fridge but they weren't interested, so I wet
a handtowel and rubbed them down with it in the afternoon. They
weren't too thrilled about getting damp but it seemed to make them
feel a bit better... the rest of the time the power was off they
turned nocturnal - they lay around sleeping all day, and Scouty hid in
the wardrobe behind John's shirts or lay under the bed, and they came
back to life at night. I knew they were adapting when I heard them
cannonballing around the apartment at 3am! Scouty also shed about half
her coat to make herself cooler - on Saturday morning I noticed that
she was feeling very coarse so I combed her and I think I combed half
a cat off her, while she lay there and purred blissfully and rolled
over to let me get at her other side. Silly has a thinnner coat, so
she wasn't interested in the comb - all she wanted to do was to eat
it!