We lost electricity last night about 8:30 PM in the height of this weak category 1 hurricane. Thank God I had all those batteries. My laptop, which serves as my backup computer, has a bad fan, so wasn’t usable as a backup. The wind got pretty strong, probably at 60 MPH with gusts above 74.

We came out very well. Our plastic shed collapsed, and we lost dozens of branches, but it appears no other damage at this time. We will have to check the roof later. Can’t say the same for many others in South Florida. The sad part is that this was a Category 1 storm – not the category 5 that Andrew was almost exactly 12 years ago. There should not be the damage that there is from this storm. Bad building codes and crooked politicians are to blame for this.

But hats off to Florida Power and Light, who got our power back so quickly. Those people will be working 24/7 to restore everyone. Thanks FP&L!

And thanks to God for protecting us from harm. And may He steer the remaining hurricanes of this season off into the distant Atlantic!

Chill out folks!

Our friends about 7 blocks east of us lost power two hours ago, and our other friends about 10 blocks south of us lost theirs about an hour ago. Thank the Lord we still have ours. It has gone out twice, but only for about 10 seconds. Our small plastic outdoor shed, one that plugs together like tinker toys, has collapsed. We have lost many tree limbs too. Looks like the worse will be over for us in about an hour. However, there will be wind and rain well into tomorrow.

The television reporters are out en masse. There must be a hundred of them all up the coast at every point where the wind and rain would be the worse. They keep telling everyone not to go out in the storm, but since they are setting the example, guess what? There are lots of people driving around, going to the beach, experiencing the storm. I will admit, standing outside in a Hurricane is an experienced. But a dumb one.

It is amazing that normally we as a society with our moon landers, space station, cell phones and so forth feel so superior to nature. It only takes something like this to make us realize how weak we really are. I hope that some will let this sink in, and somehow realize that really, we are powerless. We can’t trust in our technology. We must place our trust in God instead.

I have a feeling though that tonight there are a lot of people who are placing their hands together, bowing their heads and praying to God. Probably for the first time in many many years.

Please keep all the people of Miami-Dade and Broward County in prayer tonight. Two have already died. Pray that no one else dies.

Two of my neighbors have their roof tiles peeling up. Hopefully they won’t lose many. Two people have died, both being outside when trees fell on them. I think downed power lines were part of the situation. Pray for them and their familes.

The wind is pretty constant, and then gusting to near 70 MPH. I’ve been through much more powerful storms, but still, you don’t mess around with these storms. Because it is just barely a hurricane, people are not paying it much respect, and they are outdoors. South Beach is about to get hit hard, so I hope those people there are safe.

So far, I’ve eaten about 75% of our hurricane supplies. Junk food I don’t normally purchase. Cookies, crumb cake, and chef boy-r-dee. Yum!

Power has flickered, and I expect it may go out before the night is over with. Thank God I made it to Wal-Mart last night and bought all those flash lights!

Peace out people.

It is 3:45 PM Thursday August 25th, and Katrina still hasn’t blossomed into a full fledge hurricane. However, she is right on the verge, and about 35 miles off the coast of Florida. Since 1 AM today I’ve been to Wal-Mart for water, batteries and flashlights, Publix grocery store for tuna fish, Gatorade, crumb cake and red wine. I’ve been to the local hardware store for unusual hurricane panel wing nuts and bolts, which none of the stupid useless big box stores like Home Depot, Lowes etc don’t carry. This is the kind of family owned hardware store where you can’t leave without a conversation about something. Today it was everyone admitting they voted for Bush but now that gas is $3.00 bucks a gallon and he is taking five week vacations and oblivious to the difficulty triple priced gas gives people, we are all admitting our mistake. Not that any of us would have voted for Kerry.

I’ve traveled to Miami to check on my work and put my papers and computer in plastic bags, just in case. While leaving, I met a student. Yeah, it is raining cats and dogs, branches are soaring across the sky, and this student is here for financial aid. Ooookay. I helped her out as best I could, but with no computers and no network, it wasn’t much. I asked her if she knew we were under a Hurricane Warning. She did. Oh well.

I came back, put up the hurricane panels in the front, picked up everything that could blow about in my yard, and then went to a friend’s house to assist him with dropping down the hurricane awnings.

I’ve fought with people in crowded stores; I’ve gotten soaked by rain about five times, and pulled muscles putting panels and awnings up. So, after all this work, we better damn well get some excitement out of this storm! If Katrina peters out and just throws rain at us, I’m not going to be pleased. I did all this work, by Golly I better see a tree or a cow fly by my front window!

So far, we are getting winds about 20 MPH gusting higher, and lots of rain.

I’ll be posting photos later today or tomorrow maybe.

Peace out People!