Popout

But, my special story is a little different.  As is the usual thing for me to do on Friday night, I am online working and playing at the same time with my buddies from the UK and various parts of the world.  I have made some very special friendships on Skype, but I wouldn’t find out how special until that September night.   As the winds started picking up, I was on the conference call with several of my buddies, just passing the time until about 1:30 when the power went out.  As the storm started its onslaught, I sat on my front porch in the safety of the landing and covered porch watching the wind start and rain sprinkle.  The gusts were not so bad .. until the one gust that made me head for the safety of my bathtub.  One good wind gust knocked a tree limb from one of the many trees that surround my home and sent it flying like a paper airplane. I quickly dismissed myself from the call and took cover.  Me and my dogs in the hallway, free from any possibly flying glass.  The wind died down a bit and it was quiet for a stretch.  This was the front wall of the hurricane – Pretty much uneventful as the eye approached.  Still a bit windy while in the eye, the power went off and on, lights flickering, online connection instability but nothing bad … until the power went out for good.

I had forwarded my Skype calls to my cell phone prior so when the power went out and my buddies were worried, they rang me and my cell phone answered.  “Anni are you OK”, were the first words I heard.  God Save the Queen, I thought.   I missed the first Skype call because I was hiding, but the message I was left was so sweet and wonderful.  “Anni’ we’re praying for you … we love you … hang in there”.

Over the next 6-7 hours, in pitch black, the wind and rain came and ripped my neighborhood apart ripping trees from their roots, sending wooden fences and debris flying against my home.  Branches and other trash hitting my roof made such a sound, much like beating a large tom tom and echoing in the walls of my home. Without electricity, and no way to hear the news and weather reports, I was totally blind.  Anyone who knows well knows my fear of storms, especially the thunder and lightening.  But my beacon, my light house was my Skype calls.  From across the pond on the hour came my phone call forwarded from Skype to my cell phone.  My reporters and support where there for me piping into my local news live streaming weather reports on the internet to let me know how much longer this would go on.  As the back wall of the hurricane landed the wind was relentless.  The sustained wind speeds were clocked at between 75-80 mile per hour (that’s120-128 kilometers an hour) with gusts of up to 92 miles per hour (148 kilometers per hour) and sometimes exceeding that threshold.

Mesmerized by the force of the wind, I would watch outside my window at times when it felt save to see the trees bend.  I thought surely they would break but they would snap back up with there was a reprieve from the wind and then bend back again when the wind took them again to the nearly touch the ground.

At approximately 3AM the water began to rise in my backyard.  Fearing the water would enter the house, I had only but one choice and that was to go out there in the storm and open the gates to let the water flow and clear the drains.  Having prepared with my neighbors (and older couple from New Zealand) I shared with them one of my two-way radios so that we would not lose contact if the phone service was interrupted.  I radioed Don, and told him I had to go out and clear the drains and open the gates.  He stayed with me on the radio. He wanted to go out there with me but my search and rescue training taught me that one goes with one back up for emergencies.  As I rounded the house, a huge wind gust came from around the corner, and slammed me against the house.  Once around the corner between two houses, I was able to get to the fence with no problem.  The water at that point was about up to my mid calf and rising.  I waded through the water, unsecured the lower slide bolt and main lock on the gate and swung it open.  As I did this, the wind came from behind my house and threw open the gate and launched me with it.  Ok, I thought, “Screw it”; if I’m under water, I’m under water.  I’m not tackling the other gate.

Once again, on the hour, came my Skype call.  Scared to death and frazzled, I was calmed by the voices on the other end of the phone and my favorite DJ playing music so I would not be so occupied with the sounds of the storm.

At approximately 7AM, the storm started to let up, still windy but not as much. At times there were some of those HUGE wind gusts that scared me so.  In the light of day, there were tree branches and leaves everywhere.  Fences were downed, some huge oak trees were downed that had been standing for decades and pine trees 60-70 feet tall snapped at the top half and lying in the streets.  None of my neighbors suffered any injuries or severe damage.  One man towards the end of the block boarded up his windows and left town only to have a quite sizeable pine tree fall on his roof.

For the next couple of days cleaning up, I still continued to get those Skype calls forwarded to my phone – My lifeline, keeping me calm and cool as possible.  If this is not a good example of how we SHOULD use technology I don’t know what is.

I am sending a huge THANK YOU to those who stayed on the line when I couldn’t; Roz, Daz, Jade, Lady K , Arman, Comfy; and those whose names escape me at the moment.  And a huge THANK YOU to those of you who checked on me after I got my connection back up and running. A week without electric, and internet connection was enough for me.  Nearly three weeks after the storm there are still those who don’t have power or water so I am grateful I was one of the lucky ones, in many ways.  Some lost everything, including their lives. I lost nothing but some time cleaning up my yard and helping my neighbors (and little bladder control at times J ).

G.I Barbie Reporting For Xkype-Tails.eu

Share on Facebook