Yeah, that was a pretty gruesome time.
Connie and I had been so busy getting ready for Expo that we really didn't pay much attention to the forecast. After all, Charlie was down off of the SW coast of Florida, so why would we worry about Daytona?
We got into Daytona on Friday and did the set up, and were pretty beat, so we went to the hotel and just crashed. I remember opening up the sliding glass door facing the ocean so the sound of the surf would be soothing while we slept.
Next thing I know I awoke because of some screeching noise which turned out to be the wind blowing past the opening in that door. I got up and closed the glass door but then noticed that the glass was BULGING slightly from the wind pressure. And then I noticed that I could feel the entire building swaying slightly. Yeah, I was AWAKE then! Connie and I dragged chairs into the bathroom, as that seemed the safest place to be, and just sat in there thinking that coming to Daytona probably wasn't a real good idea. And I'm thinking to myself, "Gee, I bet this hotel was probably built by the LOWEST BIDDER..."
It was a miracle that the show still went on, but I guess Wayne Hill wasn't going to let something like a little ol' hurricane mess up his plans. Heck, he might have had to REFUND everyone! The horror! The convention center had power, but evidently all the towers for the credit card services had been knocked down. Several people were in shock because they had gotten news about their homes down in SW Florida, and I remember Steve having a really lost look on his face all that day. Heck, who wouldn't? Traffic was very light at the show, and I believe the wholesalers really cleaned up that weekend. Some of the vendors sold off everything for whatever they could get because they didn't know what they had waiting for them back home, and probably didn't have anything to feed whatever they took back home anyway. So this was certainly a prudent move on their part.
Saturday evening we went with a couple of friends to try to find a restaurant that had power, so we had to drive inland a bit to find one. On the way back home it was dark, and I'll tell you that was a harrowing drive. I was driving, and it was terrifying driving through intersections with all the stoplights an streetlights out. I had to stop at every one (which weren't all that easy to see anyway with NO lights anywhere) to make sure there wasn't any cross traffic that would plow into us. When we finally got back to the hotel, I had to literally peel my hands off of the steering wheel.
That sure opened my eyes up about hurricanes. Prior to that, they were basically just a theoretical worrisome possibility. I mean, it's just water and some wind, right? Since I lived in Florida, of course, I had to think about them, but honestly even if I knew there was a strong possibility of a direct hit at my home (where SerpenCo lived too), what could I do? No way I could evacuate all those animals. And if I left, suppose I couldn't get back for a week or more? I live in the middle of the woods, so the road could literally have a hundred trees laying across it. But if we stayed and got killed, what purpose would that serve? Luckily I was never put to that test. Now, heck, we've got nothing holding us down. Hurricane MAYBE going to hit here, we're outa here. Kansas here we come! After being in a Cat 1 hurricane, I've got absolutely no interest being anywhere near a more powerful one.
Oh yeah, it was YEARS later that Connie and I drove down to the Englewood, Punta Gorda area, and there were still lots of homes with tarps on the roof and with damages that obviously were not repaired since the hurricane. We heard MANY horror stories about people's problems with their insurance companies not wanting to pay for the damages, using every trick in the book to try to wiggle out of their responsibility. Honestly, that was one of the deciding factors for us to just drop our home insurance completely. State Farm would not itemize out the hurricane policy, and the deductible they were charging was absolutely ridiculous, so we just said screw them and dropped it completely. If we do get our house destroyed, then we buy a trailer or mobile home and live there the rest of our lives. We aren't throwing that money away any longer. Insurance is such a scam anyway, and then you have to sue them to get them to do what you were paying them for anyway. Speaking of State Farm, heck, they isolated the part of the company responsible for Florida clients so that if a major hurricane were to hit this state, they could just declare that arm of their company as bankrupt and then walk away from the liability. IMHO, of course.
Thankfully we haven't had another hurricane season like that one. But I guess that's life here in Florida. There is always the yearly possibility of having 364 days of pure paradise, and one day of a category 5 hurricane.
