Good Bye Wilma

OK so it has only been two days but it seems like a year has gone by! I survived Hurricane Wilma.

Friday I broke down the office putting all our puters in the conference room, closing the doors to the offices with windows and sent our staff and portfolio manager to our Atlanta office. Our assistant trader refused to leave town and I decided to stay and ride the storm out.

Saturday was spent getting my home ready for the storm. It showered off and on all day. All the furniture from the liana had to be placed in the garage. Anything that could become a projectile had to be secured, including my plants (herbs for cooking and some flowers). I did manage to get a brief 10 mile run in but it wasn't as long as the schedule called but hey a hurricane was coming. I helped Tony briefly put up plywood on his windows and I chose not to put up plywood on my house.

Sunday was very overcast with it threating to rain all day. There was an erie quite, like just before a big snow storm. The wind was calm. Tony and I did our Coconut Point ride and saw three dolphins. I stopped at 30 miles but Tony continued on for 40. After a brief dip in the pool, I continued on with my prep for Hurricane Wilma. I made ice, got my cooler filled with water and beer and more ice, filled the guest room bathtub with water so I could flush the toilet when the water didn't work. I checked the batteries in the flash light, filled my oil boat lamp with oil and boiled some eggs. When everything was done all there was to do was wait. and wait and wait and wait....

Sunday night at 11 pm was when it all began and begin it did with a heavy downpour that sounded like hail from a winter storm on the glass. The wind began to pick up after having been a relatively calm day. I decided to try to get some sleep before the storm got to bad. I was able sleep until 2 am when the winds began to howl in earnest. My trees in the back yard looked like they were in a Warring blender. There was no sleep from that point on.

At 6 am Monday morning the eye passed just south of my house, 20 miles or so, I was so happy to have the eye pass because of my experience with Hurricane Charlie. During Charlie that backside of the storm was much calmer but not so with Wilma, the WINDS INCREASED! It was then we saw the winds speed pick-up. The winds topped out at 121 mph in Naples. I had my front window begin to leak and three trees went down. Tony (my riding buddy) lost his cage and had water coming in his front door. As the day worn on I kept expecting the winds to die down. By noon the local weather people we saying the storm had passed us but we were still experiencing a 25 mph sustained winds with gust to 40 mph! That lasted until dusk. Most people around me lost electric and phone servcice. Fortunately I had electric but no phone, cell phone or cable. Tony had no electric or phones.

Tuesday saw the dawning of a new day! In our community there were trees down everywhere! Naples was flooded and had no electric, water, sewer or telephones. I worked from my house as much as possible but even cell service was sporadic. Tony, my neighbor from Iceland and help me pull up my three downed trees and we help my neighbor with two of his trees. Tony brought over his frozen food to put in my beer frig. I did mainage to get a brief 10 mile ride in to survey damage to the neighborhood.

Today, Wednesday, it looks somewhat normal. Just a few down trees. Tony and I did our 25 mile ride plus a little to look at the collapsed carports. Yes some people parked their cars under the carports and now had squished cars. By 2:00 pm our office building was opened but we have no water or sewer. I reconnected our puter system and re-started the servers. Surprise!!! every thing works. So tomorrow is a "normal" business day.

Thanks for the emails and notes. Sorry I could answer the phone messages since the neither the cell phones of the house phones work. But eveything works now!