It’s predicted to move all the way up through Florida and It is wider than our state. The news shows our highways leading out to the north both 75 and 95 bogged down with cars moving slowly, while some ran out of gas and are abandoned on the side of the road.
Our Governor is on TV saying “Get out! We can rebuild your house but we can’t rebuild your life.”
Our next door neighbor took off for the north before all the rush, the one on the other side of us is in that slow moving line of cars going north. Our neighbor and best friends here in Deer Creek are packing their car and hurricane proofing their home as best they can getting ready to go to a shelter.
What to do is now the big decision we have to make and time is running out. My daughter Pamela goes shopping for necessary supplies, including three chairs that fold to fit in a cloth tube, (it is amazing the items you can find in Florida stores) special foods to be eaten cold and anything else that caught her eye. And oh yes, many bottles of water.
Tracy thawed steaks from the freezer by putting them in the microwave then fried them along with fried chicken we had meat for protein.
With our car packed with everything but the kitchen sink we, Tracy, Pam, me along with our two dogs Kiki and Rambo, piled in Tracy’s van and took off for just opened shelter (all the other shelters were full) at Sarasota Riverview High School.
The parking lot was already full of cars and, look at that long line of people waiting to get in! Tracy stopped up at the end of the line for Pam and me in my wheelchair the dog cage, Kiki I held on a leash and Rambo on my lap to get our place at the end of the line as more people hurriedly came in behind us.
At long last we could see the end of that line, finally!!!!! After signing in, since I was in a wheelchair, a volunteer took us to the third floor where we chose to bed down in the wide hallway just around the corner from a rest room. Good show!
Tracy took Kiki, Rambo along with their kennel, food and dishes to the boys locker room set up for everyone’s pets.
Almost 95 year old Flo wasn’t much help as Pam and Tracy took my wheelchair out to the car, loaded it to the hilt and brought in most of our things which took up a lot of the wall space around us.
There were people coming in after us who took nothing, they jumped in there car and took off. We shared what we had taken with others Pam was the Good Samaritan, and was greatly appreciated by many of these bewildered people who sought refuge.
Although three meals a day were served in the cafeteria we stayed put and ate our own food. It was stand in line at the elevator to go to the first floor, stand in line for food and again stand in line for the elevator back to our third floor,
The night the hurricane came roaring in our electricity went out and the generators came on making our lights as bright as before. AMAZING!
Next morning light and we were all alive. No broken windows. All was well. After breakfast was served and the loud speaker gave an “All clear” every one started packing up to go home.
After loading the car, gathering our two little very happy to be back with us little Kiki and Rambo, we headed for home to see if we still had a home.
There were leaves and broken tree limbs along the way but at last home never looked so good.
On inspection only a tree limb in the back had broken off. A panoramic vie of broken tree limb outside of pool cage in back.
THANKFULLY WE LIVED TO SEE ANOTHER DAY AND PROBABLY ANOTHER HURRICANE.
FRF❤️
