Another Moment

This moment in my life seemed like it lasted forever.  I know it was many hours but it was wayyy too long! 

Hurricane Andrew - August 1992.

I was newly married and we knew that the Hurricane was coming.  We didn't evacuate, because Brad had to work (Marine Corps), so I went down to Homestead to a friends house to ride out the storm.  I'd lived in Miami my whole life and the closest we came to a Hurricane was Hurricane David - where the streets flooded and we got to canoe down the street after the storm.  I wasn't worried.  I figured we'd lose power and trees.  Brad and the rest of his gang were told to go home around 7pm that evening, so he came over to Kelly and Kelley's house with our cat.  (Kelly and Kelley are our married friends - boy Kelly and girl Kelley).  So, it was me and Brad, the Kelly's and their two kids - like 7 and 10 years old, their dog Gator and girl Kelley's sister, who lived on Miami Beach and her one whole wall was floor to ceiling windows.  She felt safer in a house. 

So, we had a couple of Margaritas and played Scattegories until the lights started flickering.  We went outside and it was just weird how the clouds were swirling and the rain came down in gusts.  We went back inside as the power went out.  We got out the flashlights and turned on the battery radio to get Brian Norcross to tell us what was happening.  The wind picked up and so did the rain.  I honestly don't know what time it was by this point but maybe midnight?  We heard things hitting the house and shingles being ripped off, so we made our way into the hallway.  Girl Kelley, the kids, her sister and I went into the closet in the hallway and Brad and Kelly stayed in the hallway with mattresses over them. 

This is hard to write about even now.  It was so scary.  The storm got really loud and we heard part of the roof tear off and blow away.  We were now sopping wet and sitting in about 2 inches of water.  Brad was holding my hand and I was praying that we wouldn't die.  We heard what sounded like trains but later found out that there were many tornadoes that ripped through Homestead.  We were in the worst hit place - not even a mile from the Homestead AFB. 

When the eye of the storm hit, we ran into the Kelly's big walk in closet  in their bedroom and waited for the back end of the storm.  None of us spoke.  We knew the worst was yet to come.  As the tail end hit, part of their roof in their bedroom was torn off.  Kelly yelled at us to go back in the hallway.  We ran as fast as we could.  Kelly was the last one out and he slammed the door shut and held on.  He didn't want that door to open and the debris from their room or anything that was coming through the roof to fly into the hallway.  He held onto that door for at least two hours.  It had to have been pure adrenilan (sp).  The worst part of that was Gator was stuck on the other side and he was barking and whining the whole time but Kelly didn't dare open the door.  Kelly just kept talking to him and Gator kept barking - as long as he was barking, we knew he was okay. 

At this point - all I could hear were the tornadoes-  ripping through.  I prayed then asking God to make our deaths quick and painless.  I really thought we were going to die. 

And then the sun started coming up.  The rain and the wind started dwindling.  Then we heard a knock at the front door.  We got up and the walls around the front door were gone, but the door was standing.  It was the next door neighbor checking on us.  We laughed that he didnt just walk around the door to get inside, but he said it might be rude... lol.  We walked out into this dawn morning to see a glorious sunrise but also to see that every house would be completely totalled.  The Kelly's roof was all but gone.  What was standing were the walls to the hallway and their front door.  Oh and her china cabinet didn't have a scratch on it.  Gator was okay and survived in the room with no roof for over two hours.  We were so exhausted, we all pulled up chairs in the driveway and fell asleep for a few hours.  We woke up and it was over 90 degrees - go figure and of course 90 percent humidity.  It was horrible.  We drove around in shock at the city I grew up in.  It was destroyed.  But we survived,  thank the Lord.  It was probably the scariest times of my life......