DenDen

Well gang, I am back, FINALLY, with my random report about Wilma! What a scary BEOTCH she was. October 23-24 was probably one of the scariest nights of my life. Not only was this my first direct-hit category 2 storm, this was my first one being on the "dirty side" of the eye wall. Being on the dirty side, we were in prime conditions for wide-spread tornadoes, and the strongest gusts from the hurricane itself. Having a small tornado just a week prior, I was quite nervous to begin with. Needless to say, I got no sleep until the tornado warnings were lifted. By daybreak, conditions were getting really bad, (so I thought,) and of all the times to get sick, this was the worst time. (I suffer from Crohn's disease.) Being curled up in pain, with no electricity, and hearing the strangest sounds outside, it was not pleasant. By this time, I had forgotten about doing the video report, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, it was REALLY dangerous outside. The rain was flying horizontal, and the only window I could see out of was the little one on my front door, which has a terrible view. The only other windows I had that were not protected with storm shutters were being pelted by rain so bad, you couldn't make anything out, and the water was just pouring into the entry. Then, the eye came... For approximately 5 minutes, calm. (When I say calm, I mean, it was like just a normal rain storm...) I had the radio on, and everyone on the air was exclaiming not to go outside. I was on the very southern tip of the eye, so the calm didn't last long. And then... WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The winds instantly changed direction at 110 miles per hour. It was absolutely incredible. It was like a bomb went off, but the destruction lasted for almost a solid 30 minutes before letting down. I could hear things crashing everywhere. At this point, I went into the closet with a flashlight and the radio. (The center of my house) But once this major part of the storm died, I came back out into the living room, and listened to the radio for a couple more hours, and the storm outside, until the tornado warnings were lifted. I was so exhausted, I passed out after being awake for 32 hours. But I wasn't prepared for what was to come when I woke up later that afternoon. At about 2pm, I hear my cell phone ringing, and hear lots of people talking loudly outside. I missed the phone call, so I just open my front door to see who's outside. And my jaw just dropped. All of my neighbors had large trees on top of their houses, with my next-door neighbor's being the worst, a 70ft ficus tree. There was debris everywhere. Tree limbs, traffic lights, furniture, garbage, it was just everywhere. Concrete utility poles snapped, power lines down, and the ones still up were all twisted and tangled in trees, or just tangled in other lines. And the view had changed forever. I'm a few miles inland, but could now see the hotels and condos on the beach, as well as downtown Fort Lauderdale. People were already cleaning up, even when the winds were still gusting around 40 MPH. They were just happy everyone was safe, and that the could go outside. There's no water, no electric, thank god I have a hot tub full of toilet water, and a few gallons of gas for the generator. On Tuesday 25, the weather is absolutely beautiful, so we decide to take a walk through the neighborhood to one of the main highways to see how bad everything was. It was just a mess everywhere. I was in such shock, I didn't take many pictures. Our area of Fort Lauderdale, north to West Palm Beach was the worst hit, with the max wind being in our area at 110MPH. It was 107MPH in Downtown, and many of the high-rises took major hits. Most of the roads were closed, or blocked by debris, so we couldn't go joy riding much to see everything. There were no traffic lights anywhere in the city. Wednesday 26, was a little bit better as far as getting around, but all of a sudden, everyone was looking for gas, with no stations open. People looking for food, water and ice. (Most of the people didn't prepare as they should have, 3 days of supplies.) Looting and fights were breaking out in random areas, mainly at gas stations. Phone services died after back-up generators ran out of gas. (Both land and cell) I went to see if my employer was still standing, and it was. But it would be 2 weeks before we open back up. Being a waiter sucks during disasters, because even if we recoup our wages, we can never recover our tips, which is 87% of what we make!) We FINALLY get power back November 4, at 5:15 pm. Yep, that's almost 12 days without power, and people are still without it. I'm only getting my Internet connection now. (Damn cable disadvantages!) Sure, a generator helps, but at $3 a gallon for gas, it's quite expensive! (Saved my food in the fridge though!) Enjoy the pictures of what I actually got, they really aren't that good, and don't do things justice. I'm going to go through my video to see if I actually got anything interesting, I can't even remember it's been so long. So happy to be back, and so lucky to have barely gotten a scratch. These pics are from my phone, more pics coming... Uh oh, better call Macco... oh wait, nevermind. Total Chaos Store fronts everywhere were blown out. This WAS a 40 Ft oak tree at church. No icecream either Damn, no TV dinners! Store shelves were empty after the storm, as all stores that were open ran on generators. I wanted meat so bad!

I'm alive! We made it ok. I will have a full report tonight after work! WHAT A NIGHMARE!

AW MAN! It's not even in google cache! I wanted to see this so bad. She looks like she's permanantly sucking on a lemon. American Idol she is not!

Post-script: We just got verification that we did in fact have a small tornado that skipped in our neighborhood 2 nights ago. The house 2 doors down from us had their patio furniture sucked away, and thier awnings ripped off.

I just downloaded Accuweather Service on my Cell phone, (God i love my new phone) just in case we don't have TV for a bit. Time to put up the storm shutters!

Well, as it stands now, We are predicted to be in the "dirty side" of the hurricane Wilma, which we won't feel anything real until later tonight. But we already got a taste of it... Last night, we got a small feeder band, and we had a tornado in our neighborhood. It didn't cause serious damage, but for those that know what a tornado sounds like, you KNOW how scarey it is. (I've been in near them before, its a very horrid sound!) All it did was blow furniture and branches around. But just thinking of that sound gets my blood pressure going... (cringe) The news is now on 24 hours a day locally. They are all warning that conditions are extremely favorable for off-spring tornados in our area, because of the cold-front that is pushing Wilma. This same scenerio happens a while back, and 7 twisters hit the south-east coast. We only have one interior room, it's actually a clothes closet, that I'm prepping today, JUST IN CASE! Welp, Wish me luck. I would like to think I will have a humorus report again, as I did with Katrina. All cameras are charged! Hope to see ya soon! Dennis "who is gathering his crack-stache"

O H M Y G A W D ! That's histerical, and very perturbing! (Yes, pull out that dictionary!) The word of the day is "perturbing".

Yes, definately a "MUST LOOK" gallery.

The only stand-up I've done was a TOGO, and it was good. I think I rode it 10 times during my visit.

Actual question. Hmmm, I would feel quite limited with what parks offer as far as what you've listed. Although, Non-looping coasters are coasters I actually prefer them right-side-up myself. I used to love loops, then I got old.

Well, I had never been to Universal before. And with all this wonderful talk about how Universal and IOA were so wonderful, and then walking in to see how fake and plastic it was, it was just disappointing. I was expecting realism. Let's face it, Universal isn't small change when it comes to movies, guess my expectations were set too high. Not to mention, I rode everything they had in 3 hours. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my share of big parks, CP being my favorite. SFMM was ok (it was kinda culture shock to me, so I have a wierd opinion on it.) I think we all can agree on the most disappointing over-hyped park of all time... MGM Grande Adventures Las Vegas! BTW, If you're not a fan of coasters or flat rides, what else is left?

I struggle with quitting. I will be making my 4th attempt soon, after smoking 18 years. Starting was the biggest mistake in my life.

Well, being the cruise industry has ruined Key West, this is quite appropriate.

here's a couple from me... Fireworks in the back yard

You can say that again, IOA is probably the most disappointing park I've been to. Lets see now, $50 for what, 10 adult rides in a plastic Hollywierd atmosphere? VS. Kennywood: Not a corporate park, 30+ adult rides, and a genuine atmosphere, $30.

Um, this speaks for itself.

^LOL All the do is restart the alphabet again, switching the sex of the names. (ie, if they started with a female name this year at "a", the they will start with a male name, and vic versa.) NEW TRACK of the storm moves it a tad south of yesterday's track, moving just southeast of Lake Okeechobee.

There were a couple listening parties at the bars here last week. It's a good collection of songs. I can't wait for the remixes.

I'll be dressed as a butt-pirate and serving coffee to a bunch of angry lesbians at work.

^Trust me, I will. I have to work Saturday night, so I'm taking the video camera with me.

hehehe, i just uninstalled firefox. I lost ALL of my bookmarks 4 times. It has a bug that if your computer shuts down while the browser is open, you lose everything. And living in Hurricane heaven, that happens a lot. So, not worth it. I'm now using opera.

Instead of spending the money on a plane, just get a hotel room. For the most part, pretty much all the hotels are acceptable hurricane evacuation places. (The university should provide transortation to the nearest public evac shelter, another option, that is, if the university isn't the designated shelter itself.) looking at a map right now, just go west of Interstate 95, and you should be fine. You're on the east coast, (same as me) so we'll have heavy storms at first, but once the eye makes landfall, it will die off a bit, and won't get the worst of it at all. Just don't be a fool, DO NOT go outside during the storm, or in the dark if the power is out. Down-powerlines are your biggest invisible enemy, and the creatures are your 2nd.

LOL, cute vid! Now I can't get that song out of my head. LOL

I first check the main page, to see if there are any big updates! Then I head for which ever thread I was more active in previously. Multiple times daily. First page only. Photo Trip Reports, either theme-park related, or random. Your photo reports and updates are the best! Chat is fun from time to time. Other than the annoying sig-banners and animations, I have no complaints. It's a very entertaining site, with a great bunch of peeps to go with it.

They are now having mandatory evacuations in the keys for tourists now, and for residents tomorrow. Welp, there goes the week end shot to hell.