NOT!
No, I can honestly say that I am not sorry to see . . . hurricane season end. What? Did you think I’d say Tom Ridge? 
If you live in Central Florida, the end of hurricane season is a very, very important event this year. Heck, even Govenor Duh! (sorry, Jeb Bush for those outside of Florida) gave a speech in honor of this important day.
Florida was hit with an unprecidented 4 hurricanes this year. Three of those hurricanes came right through Orlando. Three of those hurricanes hit my house head on. Thank you Mother Nature.
In recognition of this very important day, I bring to you
First came Hurricane Charley. Charley struck Florida on the night of August 13th. Since Charley had places to be, he roared across the state in a few hours. He wasn’t satisfied with just dropping in to say hi. No, like any rock-n-roll star, he had to leave the place a mess.
The picture above is just a sample of what some of the houses in my neighborhood looked like the next morning. We were very lucky. Most of the top of a cherry laurel tree snapped off and landed on the roof of my bedroom. It didn’t come through, though. It just broke a couple of tiles on the roof.
It took 4 days to clean up all the branches in the yard. We were without power for 7 days. Not fun. Not fun at all. Especially not in Orlando in the summer time. Needless to say, I went to bed early and woke up early nearly every day. Since the tree top was blocking my window, I couldn’t get any air flow through my bedroom. Yes, it was miserable.
School had only started the Monday before Charley hit. It restarted in Orange County a week later.
Charley told Frances all about his stay in Florida. Like any younger sibling, she had to check out the place. Frances had to take her own path, though. And take her sweet time seeing all the sites. After all, it was Labor Day weekend.
Frances was huge! She covered the entire state and took over a day to get from one side to the other.
Frances was also capricious.
Sometimes she snapped off trees.
Sometimes she left branches twisted by Charley but still in the trees alone.
It took 2 days to clean up this time. We were without power for 5 days. Yes, that was a shorter amount of time. However, one of those days was a full day before Frances came to town.
Besides the stifling heat, we had to deal with the trucks pumping water out of the storm drains on one side of the lake and pouring it down the man hole for the storm drain on our street. The city was worried about the storm system overflowing.
Since our side of the lake is on higher ground than the other side of the lake, the water just flowed back to where it came from. It took nearly a whole day before the city realized that they were wasting time and money.
The next evening, the water was coming up out of the man hole covers on Edgewater Drive. It was something to see as I drove to Publix to get ice. Again.
We had yet to complete a full week of school in Orange County. Frances made sure we didn’t get a full week in once again.
Ivan threatened Central Florida for a short time. My mom didn’t want to go through another hurricane so she skipped town to visit with my sister and her family in Alabama. Ivan was adamant about visiting mom and followed her.
Ivan wasn’t as big as Frances but was meaner. He tore right through North Florida.
I have relatives in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Right in Ivan’s path on the coast of Florida. We were unable to get in touch with them and worried about them for nearly a week. They finally called my aunt. They had fled to their son’s home in Tennessee (I think). Their son’s new home. The new home that no one had the number for.
Finally, Jeanne had to see what all the fuss was about. She took a leisurely tour of Central Florida.
I refused to take pictures of this one. No sense in encouraging more of them.
Some say she was the worst of the three that hit this area. Some say she wasn’t . We were without power for 24 hours and it took a single day to clean up the yard. What do you think is my opinion of Jeanne?
There is one bright spot in my tale. In between Charley and Frances I was introduced to an adorable kitten that would soon join our family. She came to live with us the same weekend Ivan hit Florida. She helped keep us entertained during Jeanne. She’s gray and white and I named her Stormi for obvious reasons.
Bruce -- Harper Blue says:
Hello; the Brother-in-Law here. We’re the ones mulligan’s mother (Laura James) came to stay with, bringing Ivan in tow (grin). It should be noted that the blasted storm dropped most of its force on the Panhandle and Mobile-Baldwin Counties area of Alabama, plus a shade north. It did seem to make a beeline for us here between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, but had dropped most of the power (though it could still spawn a tornado or two). We did get some damage; a brand-new roof, put on just before we bought our house, developed a leak…probably through an old chimney stack over the kitchen. We’re gonna get that repaired in the next few months, but we trace the problem back to that.
Oh; and after Ivan came through, we took Laura James back home FAST (grin)! And, of course, a week or so after I left Florida, Jeanne came through…Orlando. The tropics did not like Laura James this year.
12/1/2004, 2:14 pmHeatheranne says:
My aunt lives in Pensacola. She just moved there a year ago from Ohio and was so excited for Ivan to come because she had never been in a hurricane. I called her throughout the night because her land line still worked, for a while. I made her give me updates while I watched Ivan approach on the Weather Channel.
I don’t think she will stay for the next hurricane. I hope she learned her lesson!
12/1/2004, 8:58 pm