This is what it looked like at my house the day after Charley hit in 2004. It’s been almost 11 years now, but we still hold our collective breaths when the season starts, and hope like hell that we don’t have another season like 2004. How stupid of us to think that just because we live in the middle of the state, that a hurricane couldn’t cause that much damage, amirite? Roofs were covered in blue tarps for months afterwards and every time I saw a utility truck from another state I wanted to get out and hug the guys that came with it. A couple days later the road was clear enough, thanks to neighbors, to get one car through at a time, and weeks later all the tree debris was finally removed. The hurricane brought a couple good things with it, besides the showing of compassion and help between neighbors, I ended up with a cactus and a large tree that planted themselves in my backyard, which now shade the west side – the hottest side – of my house from the baking summer afternoon sun.
Thank God for little things.
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