Chicago is known as the Windy City, but this year Florida is definitely earning the title of "The Windy State." With three hurricanes striking in the Orlando/Kissimmee area, and four in total striking the state, I don't think that Hurricane Season 2004 will ever be topped (at least, I hope not).
My husband has already changed our plane tickets so we can get home next weekend. We were planning to skip that weekend, but we won't rest easy until we see that our house is safe. Even though it looks okay from the outside, I can't help but have visions of leaks and waterspots and damaged drywall lurking on the interior.
Early in our marriage, my husband and I had our house destroyed by a flood, so we know just how much damage water can do. It's as bad as fire in many ways; our flooded-out townhome had to be totally gutted and rebuilt, displacing us for three months. That experience gives me a lot of empathy for the people whose damaged roofs haven't been repaired yet, leaving them open to the destructive forces of Frances's rain. With one disaster, at least you can pick up the pieces and go on. With two, and now a third, things just keep getting compounded.
Cookie Kelly, a Celebration, FL, real estate agent, captured some impressive photos of whitecaps on the downtown lake and the sign of D'Antonio's Restaurant down on the ground. Click here to see them. The downtown area held up really well during the last two storms, so the winds must have been particularly fierce this time around. Or maybe everything is just getting a little weaker with each strike.
If you'd like to compare the destruction of Frances to Hurricanes Charley and Jeanne, Tom has plenty of photos on his site, www.celeb96.com
Throughout all the turmoil of this year, I contemplated whether we would have still bought our house if we were looking right now. I really don't think it would have made a difference, especially seeing how well Celebration has held up compared to many of the surrounding areas. Plus, I know that this is an anomaly. I've visted the Orlando/Kissimmee area often enough to know that hurricanes are usually not this frequent and destructive. I know that "past performance is no indicator of future probabilities," to paraphrase a stock prospectus. But I'm hoping we've gotten it all done with in one season so we can have many years of peace, calm, and good fall weather.
Feel free to email me with questions or comments at celebration@mailblocks.com
My Celebration website can be found at www.celebrationinfo.com
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