My Neighbor's Eucalyptus Tree and Wilma

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Wilma made a bull's eye strike across Palm Beach County. During the calm of the eye, I went outside. My neighbor's eucalyptus tree had been uprooted and was lying in the street.

Now if you're not in hurricane country, you might not know that generally the front wall of the eye contains the worse winds and the backside is milder. Not with Wilma. The backside was worse. My house shook under the howling onslaught. When the storm had passed, I went outside to begin the long task of cleaning up debris.

There across the street, Wilma's backside had flipped the tree up and over so that it was lying against the house. Talk about power.

My neighborhood had many huge trees upended and blocking roads. Light poles/wires down everywhere. We have no power and there's a gas shortage as the stations have no power. Since was my first year having a generator, I had no clue as to how much gas to have on hand. I ended up yesterday in one of those 2-hr lines waiting to get gas at one of the few operational stations. I am rationing my use, running the generator only enough at mealtimes to keep the food cold, cook meals, and check email.

However, I turned my book in on time. Using the last of my gas on Tuesday night, I printed out SHADOW LINES, on Wednesday found an opened post office running on a generator and mailed the book to my editor. The second hurricane season in a row I made deadline despite not having power.

Now back to cleaning up the debris.

:) Carol Stephenson