I don't see Florida represented

[bdjeepers]

I live in Ocala, and we went through Frances. The 5 days after were worse than the storm, though. No power, no water, and no sewer system. I got through on the phone to a man who was donating bottled water through a radio station, though, and he got us help. The radio station broadcast performed wonders. I live in a retirement community of about 1,000 homes, and the really elderly were truly suffering. No power for wheelchair batteries or those on oxygen, no ice for medications that require refrigeration; and the ones that normally help their invalid neighbors had evacuated. On the 5th night volunteers brought huge grills and cooked everyone a hot meal, the fire department brought ice, and a pharmacy donated lots of things for diabetics, etc. The residents from all over the city brought ice chests full of cold foods. We had one 92 year old house-bound couple with no teeth who couldn't chew anything else, and they cried when volunteers took them the cold foods like pudding and Jello. They were literally starving. A huge crew from North Carolina came to get the power restored that night. Our power company had just sold to another, and they didn't know that we should have been designated a priority one community. We are now, which means the difference between our oldest residents surviving or not. Two of my sons were here and used my big Jeep to pull trees out of streets so that emergency vehicles could get through. We all pulled together and no one was lost, but some were in pretty rough shape. Am I prepared for another one? Sure! I'm going to my son's house in Texas! We do have lots of 2 liter bottles of water frozen, though - they are less messy and last for three days or more, and I have a footlocker and a linen closet full of supplies. My disaster nursing courses were of immense help, even after all these years. Our house had no damage at all, but some had trees on their roofs, and others just minor damage. The biggest problem was having no electricity to run the pumps for our water supply and having no way to pump out sewage.