Latest as We Hunker Down

This one is going to be stronger. My husband just informed me he expects the damage to his office to be far greater this time. They’ve already been hugely compromised. Of course we have concern as we are not being paid for this month and probably not for next month. Most everyone is in the same boat. People lost their businesses in Frances and most of us have lost sales or pay. We have insurance for when business is closed, a business interruption insurance, but that only ensures our employees get paid and we can pay electric and landlord. It keeps the business afloat. We take no pay.

The tracks my shutters attach to are bent. They weren’t bent before Frances. Don’t get me wrong, everything fits, but the windows that received the brunt of Frances are the ones with the bent tracks. The wind force tried to pull the tracks off the house.

Most of us are still missing roof tiles. They’re concrete type tiles. So even though our roofs have not been structurally compromised, they are not at the same structural level of integrity they were before Frances, if that makes sense. That has us a bit nervous. Some of us still have errant roof tiles scattered along our roofs that will now become missiles. We just haven’t been able to get roofers to our homes yet.

My husband has gone around and braced all the trees that remain. We expect them to snap in half this time.

They say we could be without power for 4-5 weeks this time. I am trying to find some positives in this… it is now almost October which is infinitely cooler than August. Losing one’s power in October, while it totally and completely sucks, is not like losing it in August where it is akin to living in Hell. Also, I am hoping that Frances did such a thinning of trees that there are fewer trees to fall on power lines. Hey, I can hope. But I fully expect the worst.