It is hard to believe that it was just one week and a couple of days ago that my wife and I, along with 4 storm refugees, were in our home with hurricane shutters closed. We were listening to the whistle of the wind against the shutters, small items hitting the shutters, and the sound of incredible amounts of rain slamming against the roof and shutters. Every once and a while we would peek out through a peep-hole to see the rain blowing horizontally and our neighbors grandfather oaks (which are very close to our house) blowing around madly. It was later that night when we lost our electricity. The next day the wind and rain were calm enough that we could go outside to investigate what happened. That is when we realized how lucky we were. There were tree branches and bunches of leaves (and other foreign items) scattered about in the yard and the neighbor across the street lost one of her large palm trees. Fortunately, it fell out into the street. We were lucky because Hurricane Irma was a Cat. 4 when it made landfall in the FL Keys but by the time it passed by us it degraded and was transitioning from a Cat. 2 to a Cat. 1. We only had gusts that reached about 85 to 90 mph. Neither we nor any of our neighbors had any major damage, nor was there any bad flooding (although our little lake did rise about 3 ft). We were also on the "good-side" of the storm (the west side) and were about 30 (+or-) miles from the center. We got our electricity back in about 3 days. Back in the summer and early fall of 2004 we had 3 hurricanes (Charlie, Francis, and Jeanne) that passed by the Tampa Bay area. That is when we had the shutters installed.
Our neighborhood came through this recent hurricane well. However, my heart goes out to those in the Caribbean that were devastated by Irma. It also goes out to my fellow Floridians who suffered so much from this storm. My second favorite place in Florida (the Keys), South Florida, Naples, areas along the eye's path, etc. not only suffered from the winds but also by the flooding and storm surge caused by a Cat. 4 hurricane. Areas such as Jacksonville suffered from bad flooding. My prayers are with them as they are with the folks along the southeastern coast of Texas who suffered from Hurricane Harvey.
I wrote this song after Hurricane Katrina and submitted it to the forum way back then. I have cleaned it up a bit using the suggestions provided back then. I think that the sentiment of this number is just as relevant now as it was then. Those of us long time residents, who have lived in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, love this area and here we will stay. I guess only sea level rise will drive us out (at least the younger residents ---- for old guys like me it probably won't matter).
Anyway, if you listen, I hope you will enjoy this number.
Thanks!!
Children Hiding From The Storm (3rd song up from the bottom of page 5)http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=963481&songID=7730826