Memory Monday- Hurricane Wilma (October 25, 2005)

This post marks my 101st blog post! Pretty excited about that!

I’m taking a page out of Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s book and starting a new series of posts called Memory Monday. I won’t do them every week, but at least once a month I want to write about something that happened before I started blogging. Just a fun trip down memory lane. And I love taking blog posts and turning them into journaling for layouts.

Yesterday we felt the effects of Tropical Storm Isaac, so I have storms on the brain. Luckily we’re all safe and have power back on now. I’ll write up our experiences with that tomorrow probably.

To help me remember some of the details about Hurricane Wilma, I turned to Wikipedia. Of course that’s not the most trusted source around, but I just needed a memory jog.

Wilma hit our area as a Category 3 hurricane on October 25, 2005. This was two months before we got married, so I was still living in Nashville but I’d come down to visit Jason and stay for a week or so. This was only my second visit to WP, and my very first hurricane. Jason had gone through two hurricanes the previous year, so he was more used to it all. He has always had a very laid back attitude towards storms. “A little wind, a little rain”. I don’t remember being very scared, but I must have been pretty nervous, because I plowed through almost an entire bag of Doritos the night before while watching the news coverage. Ever since then, I always need something salty and crunchy to get me through storm nerves.

We could have used either of the bathrooms in our old place as a safe room, but for some reason we decided to pile up in the upstairs hallway. We had blankets to hide under if necessary. We talked and napped a little. At some point my mom called on the home phone. This was before I had a cell. I went downstairs to answer it because I thought it Must be important if someone was calling us in the middle of a hurricane.

The conversation went like this-

Mom- Watcha doin’?
Me- ummmm… kind of busy being in a hurricane right now…

She hadn’t been watching the news and had no idea we were even in the pathway of the storm. It was pretty funny.

So we made it through. I don’t have a lot of memories of the actual storm, except that it was loud. Not tornado loud, just really strong windy storm loud. At some point we lost electricity. And water. I’m mostly ok with no electricity, but for some reason I freak the eff out without water. I can’t stand not being able to wash my hands. It took us a day or two to get water, but it was still under a boil order. Which would have been okay but we didn’t have electricity for almost a week.

We ventured out to check out the damage and forage for food. Our neighborhood had some damage and several trees that had fallen or lost limbs.

One interesting sight was at the Texaco.

But despite everything, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

The next few days were kind of a blur. We went downtown and got to experience Price Gouging at Cheeburger Cheeburger. $30 for two hot dogs and two cans of soda. Unbelievable!

Another night we walked around the neighborhood and came across a taco truck. This was before food trucks were cool. We ate the most delicious pork tacos ever. Also super cheap. I think that was my only other hot meal all week.

Jason went back to work and I was at home for a couple of days by myself. Luckily it was nice and cool, so I was ok without having AC. I hung out, cleaned, read a Steven Womack book, and ate a lot of Halloween candy. I had to throw out all the food in the fridge and freezer because we were out of power for so long. Jason’s company gave away free supplies and he brought home ice one day. It was one of those really really grateful for the little things moments. Ice is a wonderful thing when you don’t have a working freezer. I remember being cranky because the only sound I could hear was the roars of other peoples’ generators. You really start hating your neighbors with generators when you don’t have one.

The morning I was supposed to leave to go back home, I woke up at about 3 or 4 to discover we had power! It would have been nice to have it back sooner, but at least I got to have a hot shower before I got on a plane.

So that was my first hurricane experience. 🙂