Hello family and friends:
Attached are more Hurricane Wilma pictures from our home and street. (If you cannot open the zipped pictures, let me know and I will send a few at a time.) We still are without electric and water and Florida Power and Light has now told us that it will be at least a month or more due to the major feed poles that are down in our area out by the Everglades. We have a generator running the water pump and a refrigerator. The City of Homestead is almost completely restored with electricity but the further West you go, the worse it is. It seems our major problem is that we live too far out West and there is no buffer between us and the Everglades National Park which is where the storm came across.
Gas lines are tremendous and you wait for at least 2 hours in line and get only $25 worth of gas. Today my husband drove down to Islamorada in the Keys and got $170 worth of gas to keep neighbors, family and friends generators going for at least a few days. The Keys are completely restored. Grocery stores are slowly opening up but items like milk and bread are scarce.
The pictures will show you how our screen patio enclosure (all metal) just collapsed like toothpicks. It took the metal out of the tiles and left nails sticking up and also took some tiles. It is hard to see our roof tiles that are off because I took the photos with my phone camera. The roofer is to come as we have leaks in kitchen, family room, garage and dining room. The insurance people have been no where to be seen although if you do not know how to get to our home, it is hard as there are so many electric poles in the middle of the road that you have to drive on the farmer's fields. You also have to dodge low hanging wires. It is like an obstacle course to get home. We cannot use our street as there is a toppled semi truck in the middle of the road and that truck took out four to six electric poles with it. I have not seen any monkeys loose yet from the research center nearby and I am thankful for that. After Hurricane Andrew, we shot a baboon in our home! There is an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. curfew here.
Debi and I did laundry in the bath tub last night and then hung it out on some line we rigged up. I feel like a pioneer! Cooking on the gas grill is getting old as well but we are surviving and making the best of it.
I do have internet at the office so this is my lifeline and I escape here. The hospital where my daughter Debi works just got power today so she is back to work but her college classes are cancelled. Regular school is closed for the week and they will announce over the weekend if they will have it next week.
Well...more later. We are all safe and sound and hanging in there for dear life!!!
Love..........Sissy (Doris Hollenbach Meneses)
Pictures from Doris's cell phone
No comments:
Post a Comment