Hi Jean, yes I remember the six week period in 2004 when Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne hit us ... I will never forget that year! We were very fortunate that we had no structural damage to our house from any of those storms, the only thing we suffered was lots of landscape damage from Charley so we were very fortunate indeed! From Charley we lost very large trees, one large one that fell onto the garage but luckily it was at the end of the property so only the very top hit the roof. We couldn't get our vehicles out of the garage until my husband got the chain saw going and it was a very hefty tree so it took him a few hours to get it totally off the roof and out of the driveway. That's one Cane' season that I will never forget. "Charley" hit our area on August 13th which was my brothers birthday, then @ four weeks later Frances came through (my mom's name is Frances!) and then a couple of weeks after Frances, Jeanne came through (and my middle name is Jeanne!) Whew ... I was beginning to wonder about all of that! They were all only Category 1 storms by the time they got here but I have a very healthy respect for even cat 1 storms after seeing the damage. I just felt so bad for the folks who were affected by them when they made landfall elsewhere in the state because those folks got hit really hard!
When Charley came through Daytona Beach my (almost 97 year old) mother in law was in the hospital and we got a call that morning after the storm passed saying that they were releasing her so they'd have additional beds for emergencies from the aftermath of the storm. My husband told them that we'd be there as soon as we could get the debris cleared and get our vehicle out of the garage. It took quite a few hours to get the huge tree down and out of the way but we got his truck out and got to the hospital to find out that they had transferred her to a nursing home ... and it was the worst place I've ever seen! We found the room she was in and she was so very confused; my husband went to the desk and told him we were taking her home and someone said "We can't release her without a doctor's permission!" My husband said "She is my mother and I am not leaving her here for one more minute, I AM taking her home!" So, they had him sign a form for responsibility and we brought her home with us. She'd been living in an assisted living facility right nearby but we did not want to take her back there because they had no power and no emergency lighting. We had no power at home either and no generator at the time ... it was very hot and humid as August always is but we felt that she was safer with us than at the ALF. She had a bit of dementia and we brought her in the house and put her in a recliner and got her comfortable. She sat for awhile and then realized it was a bit warm, looked up and said ... "why don't you turn that fan on?" and we'd tell her "Remember mother, we just had a hurricane and we don't have electricity right now" and she's smile and say "oh, that's right." But, five minutes later she'd again look up and say, "why don't you turn that fan on up there?" It was so cute. We had her with us for four days and when they got power back at the ALF we took her back there. The summer of 2004 was a very long summer, it was a trying time but I smile when I remember it. My dear sweet MIL passed away September 3rd that year, a few days before Hurricane Frances came through; her 106th birthday would have been this year!
With Hurricane Charley we were without power for over a week and had to use water from the swimming pool to flush the toilets. I lived in bathing suits for over a week, LOL and my husband even took a picture of me one day sitting on the edge of the pool shaving my legs.
Boy, I now sure appreciate electricity and being able to take a shower and wash my hair! I have a very healthy respect for hurricanes ... they are powerful and can cause a lot of damage even at the lower end of the category scale!
Geesh, I've gotten way off track with my reminiscing! Anyway, I know what you mean about the weight loss from all that hurricane clean up work; I think I did the same, losing about 10 pounds and then ended up gaining it all back. I'll have to go easy on the creamed corn when I make it!
