Wilma - 1, Fluffy Knitter Deb - 0

I'm posting this mainly to have a permanent record. Pumpkin and I are ok, Casa de FKD is not!

This morning at about 8 am, Wilma arrived at FKD with a vengence. The winds had been clocked at 120 miles per hour (category 3) and were howling like a freight train outside and rain that sounded like machine gun fire was pelting every window. The front wall of Wilma was to last about 90 minutes, the eye about an hour and the back wall another 90 minutes. She made lanndfall on the west coast of Florida and headed for Broward County with a spiteful gleam in her eye.

The winds were so brutal and frightening, Pumpkin and I retired to the safety of my walk-in closet. I brought my knitting for comfort, some Diet Coke for me and Greenies for the P-Man, a cell phone and a flashlight and we hunkered down to ride out the storm, thinking that all would be well by noon.

At about 8:30 I heard an enormous BOOM and my whole condo shook!! With trepidation I peeked out my bedroom door and to my shock and horror, saw that my front door had been blown right off its hinges and a giant, twisted hunk of metal was wending it's way over my threshold and right towards me!! I quickly shut the door and ran back into the closet.....

Suddenly, another huge BOOM....the pressure from the missing front door caused the huge sheet of glass that was in the the sliding glass door in the back of my condo to be sucked right out of door frame, sucking the vertical blinds out with it!!! And the wind and rain that was now ripping thru my HOME was almost strong enough to knock me off my feet! I grabbed on to my bedroom door and with Herculean effort slammed it closed and ran back to the relative safety of my closet where I could do nothing but shake and cry. I have never been so frightened in my entire life!! Poor Pumpkin was curled up in a firghtened ball way in the back of my closet. I know he was crying too!

At about 9:30 everything became eerily silent....the eye of the storm was passing over. I ventured from my "bunker" to see what damage had been done....OMG! I returned to my closet and my uncontrollable sobbing, as the raging wind and rain again began to batter my condo in resumed fury.

At about 11:45 am the winds began to slow and the pelting rain to taper. I has gained a modicum of composure by this point when I heard a male voice calling my name...my downstairs neighbor Alberto, had come to see if I had survived. I thought it was the voice of God.....

This is what I saw when I emerged....pics by Alberto. Click to see a larger view.

door from outside


door from inside


wood from door frame


giant metal roof piece

roof chunk in living room, flattened door behind it


living room

shattered glass curio cabinet


kitchen

kitchen 2

sliding glass door to balcony


back door with bowed out glass, verticals sucked thru

I have no power and my computer battery is about done. I have no front or back door so I can't leave, and I've had no word from Mom and Dad who live an hour north! What else don't I have? Well, that would be homeowner's insurance.....I'm a "starving" Grad student, remember? I do however have leaves everywhere, a completely saturated carpet and a melting fridge and freezer, torn screens on my porch and raisins scattered everywhere as they were sucked from my kitchen cabinets. The good news? I , and my condo association president I might add, do see this as clear culpability on the condo's part since the giant, flying metal thing that caused all this just happens to be big hunk-o-condo ROOF!! ( there were other peices hanging from tree branches and scattered around the property) Between the condo association's insurance and FEMA, we should be ok altho it will take a while and I'm not sure where I'll be staying or when I'll be able to post again but thanks for all your well wishes! Imagine if the P-Man and I didn't have those? ::::shudder::::

Oh, and knitting content? I actually turned the heel of a new sock thru my tears by flashlight, in my closet.

Hope to be back soon.... addendum: Bro in Sanfrancisco spoke to the 'rents, they are fine, no damage but no power.