Homeowners spared from Isabel's wrath
As
Isabel pounds north Florida, it appears we have been
spared yet again. The storm decreased from peak Category
5 status to Category 2 prior to landfall. Everyone in Florida should
know there are five categories, and Isabel has been all five.
Category 5 storms are the ones with winds at more than 155 miles an
hour. A Category 4 is still enough to scare me into leaving. That is
another problem with Isabel. If it were to hit mid-Florida, there
isn't anywhere to go.
The
eye of Isabel was almost 60 miles wide. Hurricane force winds can
extend almost 300 miles across. New Florida homeowners should
be thankful the new hurricane codes are in effect for all new home
construction. Hopefully, the new homes are built substantially better
than the ones that were demolished by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Hurricane Fabian just clobbered Bermuda and although exterior damage
was severe and four lives were lost, there were few problems with the
homes on the island. Bermuda requires all residential dwellings be
built to withstand 130-mph winds.
Many
Southwest Florida residents still cling to their lucky rabbit's feet
and go about their business as if we live in a protected bubble. How
about you? Did you check your hurricane kit this past weekend when
it was the right time to prepare for Isabel? Do you even have a
hurricane kit? Fill the car with gasoline and stock up with canned
goods and a mechanical can opener? Have you been to one of the many
free hurricane seminars?
You
will never forget the sound of the tiles being ripped off your roof
in the middle of the night after hours of incessant, roaring, almost
evil-sounding wind. You will cringe and hold your breath every time
something slams into a glass window or door, and you will do it for
hours. The walls of our inside hallway, our "safe" walls,
bowed back and forth during Andrew, causing me to think for the first
time I had made a mistake by not taking my family to a shelter. My
garage door, with a 120-mph hurricane kit mounted on it, blew in and
wrapped itself around my van. Yet, we were lucky. Many others,
including our daughter who lived in Cutler Ridge, lost everything.
We
lived 20 miles inland. We did not live near any coast, where
unfortunately, the media always seems to focus its coverage. The
average Florida homeowner complacently watches sailboats being blown
ashore, or breakers smashing over a seawall somewhere and doesn't
relate to the intensity that can destroy his or her house as well as
business. Too many reporters standing by the water's edge in damp
slickers trying to make an impression with viewers simply don't
convey the sense of urgency that emergency management people
everywhere wish they could turn on with a switch.
Watching
Isabel slowly move past us to the north, I think how lucky we are
again.
George
Mindling ©
2003
