Nomen Est Omen

Notice the hanging "walk/don't walk" sign.

Those aren't exactly light planters up on that patio.

I don't know if you can tell because of the angle I was compared to the street light but the wind was so strong it bent the lamp.

Do you know palm trees? They are extremely strong and it takes a hell of a lot to uproot the damn things.

This is the street I parked my car on before "hunkering down" for the storm. I tried to find the best location for my car so it would not get damaged and I chose this street because the storm was coming from the west. This street is to the east of the bay but one block from the ocean. I parked away from any street lights that may fall, away from trees and had only a half height brick wall nearby. My car still got damaged because an awning, with sharp, metal poles came crashing off of an apartment building and landed exactly behind my car. The metal poles scratched a little bit on the bumper of my car but nothing major. The worst thing that happened to my car was that the hurricane, coming up this street like in a wind tunnel, ripped off the passenger side mirror, ripped of the car emblem that was on the back of the car to the right and loosened up the...trim on the right side of the car. However, seeing the pic above, I know I got lucky. Also, where I live, people in condominiums were apparently looking out their window during the storm and saw cars being flipped around, flung on top of each other and totally smashed up. They called into one of the local radio stations to talk about it. So I got really lucky.

Same street just about two car lengths up.

Same street, other side.

The parking lot of the local Publix I shop at. The store did open the day after but for cash carrying people only and the line was enormously long. They were letting people in a few at a time, almost like at an amusement park, and they had only a certain amount of time to go in and grab what they could. The store did not have power for almost a week and for a few days after they got power they still didn't have any refridgerated or frozen items. I never realized how much I depended on refrigerated and frozen food until I went in there about 10 days after the storm and couldn't find a damn thing to eat.

The sidewalk just across from the beach. Everyone always shows the big damage but they never show the endless debris. I thought it would be interesting to show that it's not just trees and power lines that have to be cleaned up, it's all this little debris that collects everywhere.

This is my walkway to the beach. Looking kinda messy.

Another palm tree uprooted. Again, that isn't easy to do.

This is the back fence of a hotel at the beach..completely knocked over.

As you can clearly see, this was no light breeze.

No trick of the camera, the winds were so strong, those traffic lights are stuck in that position. Well, they've been fixed now but they were stuck then.

More of the little debris stuff.

Part of a tree at the back of my apartment building. Oh, and pieces of the roof from my apartment building. In the video you can see those pieces flying around all over the dang place.

Where that part of the tree came from. You may remember photos after Katrina where this tree had split....well, Wilma finished it off. Also please note how the downstairs idiots left their ghetto furniture outside to be blown around. Fucking morons. That is a dresser, a very large dresser, that they left, upright, before the storm...because they are geniuses...sheer, fucking geniuses. Thankfully the stupid thing only fell over and drawers didn't come out and fly around. Assholes. I think they must be mentally retarded. There's no other explanation for the way they act.