Hurricane Hugo, 1989- I was 6 years, and this was the first hurricane I remember. I remember not being able to finish watching The Little Prince movie because the lights went out. My parents had moved all the furniture from the living room into the library, one of the bathrooms, and the two bedrooms. They had boarded up the living room windows, and turned the dining room table on the long side so that it served as a barrier/door protecting the hallway and rest of the apartment from the living room/dining room. Oh, I should mention, I lived in the ninth floor of an apartment building.
I also remember listening to the radio… and what seemed forever without electricity and water, going up and down nine floors of stairs (I felt bad for the folks in the 21st and 22nd floors).
I wasn’t really scared, and don’t remember the damage to my apartment.
1989-1998- Several hurricane and tropical storms tails and bands, weak storms, and some whose eye didn’t pass “close enough” to my city to feel it (or even to miss class!). I think I remember Luis and Marilyn from 1995… Mom ordered me to sleep on their bed for Marilyn because she was worried about the rains and wind. Also Hortense… and I think a couple of others which names I don’t remember.
Hurricane Georges, 1998- I remembered how my parents had prepared for Hugo, and while this hurricane was being compared to Hugo, I noticed that my parents had some… um… defects of craftmanship while they boarded up the stuff… and they were not even thinking about moving the furniture away, like had been done in Hugo. I prodded them that maybe it would be a GOOD IDEA to do so, just in case. So all the furniture got put like before.
This time, though, they camped out in my room (Hugo was passed in the master bedroom). My room has a door (but no lock, dad is against locks). While listening to the news, we heard a crash coming from the living room.
The boards had given up, and the wind had entered the house through the living room… While the table still stood up like before, the winds were around the house. So we closed the door, and in order to keep it closed, pulled my twin sized bed against it and leaned against the other wall.
I spent what seemd like hours praying the rosary and pushing against the freaking door while listening to the radio on the background. It finally stopped and we were able to relax… and 2 adults and one teenager slept on a twin sized bed (very uncomfortably).
The damage was worse this time, but I think the wait for water and electricity was less than for Hugo. Years later, we could still see the blue plastic roofs in some of the houses and buildings.
Then I moved away to Gainesville… The only hurricane was the remnants of a storm named Gabrielle… I think the rain was enough that they cancelled afternoon classes.
Then I went to Baton Rouge, when in 2005 I had the joy of getting the bands of both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. My house didn’t suffer, nor got flooded, nor I got displaced, but we lost power for a week almost thanks to Katrina (and 3 days due to Rita), and some tree branches fell around the city.
Oh, and we got flooded by refugees. They wanted to start classes at the vet school 3 days after Katrina, but the students protested since many of them either had no power (us!), or 10+ people living on places meant for 4 at most. Plus we were volunteering with setting up the animal shelters around town (one in LSU and one at Lamar-Dixon).
On 2004, though, classes were cancelled pre-emptively because another hurricane was supposed to strike soon. It didn’t get very near (maybe some light rains), and didn’t cause much (if any) showers.
Now I’m in Athens, GA. I hope no hurricanes come this way!
