Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Hurricane Update -- No power until November 22?

Well, I don't have any pictures of the storm yet, and that is for good reason. Both families are still without power. FPL's website (Floride Power and Light) is saying that it could be November 22. When I told my mom that tonight she just started laughing. Jb's family is using a generator, but my parents don't have any electricity. My poor dad could only listen to the World Series on the radio. I taped it for him, but he said he has already decided that he will end up buying the whole DVD at some point in the future. His White Sox finally make it, and he can't even watch it. He can't go over to the Kits and watch it either because there is currently a 7:00 pm-7:00 am curfew for the whole area.

As far as damage, both my family, John's, my brother Keith, and Keith's girlfriend AD, did not really suffer any major damage. The Kit's did have some damage to the roof in the back of the house, but I am not sure of the extent of the damage. Both groups also had a lot of debris and trees down.

My dad and mom walked to the grocery store today (they said driving is next to impossible right now and they want to conserve gas), and bought a few things. My mom said the grocery store is fairly well stocked with non-perishables Dad said that today would probably be the last day that the food in their freezer would be good, but they have enough dry goods to last awhile, and like I said, place with generators, like the grocery store, are open again. I asked if there were any restaurants open and my mom said she heard there was one place in Boca selling wings but other than that, the restaurants are all closed.

The fam can take showers now (with cold water), but still have to boil water before they drink it so they are sticking to bottled water. I think their biggest complaint right now is boredom. Yesterday, when I called at mid-day, they were on their fifth game of scrabble. I also seem to interupt naps whenever I call :)

As far as Fort Lauderdale Christian School where both my brother, dad, and mother-in-law work, and Robbie goes to school, they are out until at least the end of the week, and the damage was pretty extensive. Keith said the gymnasium roof was torn off on one whole side and the isulation got wet and was everywhere. Two of the classrooms in the gymnasium are also flooded. Keith said the dugouts on the softball field are gone and the light posts on the baseball/soccer field are bent in half. Another very sad thing is that the HUGE TREE in the playground (and for those of you who went to FLCS, you know INSTANTLY which one I am talking about -- the ones with tunnels and caterpillers under it) was basically destroyed. Dad said he is not sure whether or not it has enough left to regrow. That literally almost made me cry! I have played under that three since I could walk!

My mom has also not been back to work. Without power, Doormark cannot run. In addition, they were about to move to a new building and according to my mom, the roof is no longer on that building at all so the move-in has been delayed. Roy & Joan VanWyck our very good friends, are the owners of Doormark, and I ask you to pray for wisdom and guidance for them as I know all of this is probably very stressful. This is a very large company and if there is no power, and people can't work ... well, you know how it goes.

I will put the pictures up as soon as the power comes back on. Also, if I got any of these details wrong, I am sorry. I am not there and am trying to find these out on short phone conversations with my parents (when I can manage to get a line in). Thanks everyone!

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