Hurricane Katrina

I'm like most people where you think these kinds of things would never effect you. Well, this week I've been down in Miami for work and will be here for next week too. I was suppose to fly home on the weekend but decided to stay to check out south beach and maybe even the MTV Music Awards. Well, panic struck when we were at our clients on Thursday and they were like "we're leaving at 2pm today and we won't be in tomorrow". How do you react to something like that...but they keep telling us, it's nothing...just a tropical storm. Could we believe them? I didn't think too much of it...I figured, just get back to the hotel and we should be fine.

On the way back to the hotel, the winds are blowing hard and it's raining. We're watching palm tree branches fall all over the road. Till just before we have to turn off to our hotel. Yup...one of the branches hits the roof of our car. Ok...don't panic...at least it didn't hit the window or anything. Is there damage? Nope...didn't see any...we pull up to the hotel and notice a dinner buffet is being offered cause all the restaurants are closed down already.

Nothing bad yet...go to the buffet and back to my room to watch the rest of Season 2 on DVD. The lights flicker a little, my laptop dims. Not bad yet. Then the fire alarm goes off. What to do now? Should I go down...I bet it's just a false alarm. But what if...damn it. I pick up the phone to call the front desk...but of course, no line. Ok, I hear people in the hall...they are going downstairs...I should go too...so I take my purse and Dim Sum and am ready to go. We start walking down the stairs (thank God the hotel is only 5 floors). Towards the lower levels, the stairwell has water all over the floor...it's starting to flood. Great. We get to the bottom and realize that there is no exit...great. We walk back up to the second floor where we get out and gather around the elevators. Yup it's a false alarm...people are coming up the elevator saying, it's false. So I finally get back to my room and the alarm is still sounding. It goes on and off for the night until finally at 11pm it turns off for good.

I wake up in the morning and look out the window...yah!! The rain has stopped and it's just windy. I take Dim Sum for a walk and it's trees everywhere and even some signs of business' are on the ground. Wow that's so bad. I turn on the news...tv's still out.

I finally got to watch the news today and realize that it's pretty bad in some areas of Miami...boy was I lucky. Some places have no electricity and are still flooded. People lost or dead. That's not a pleasant site. I'm so glad Dim Sum and I didn't have it so bad!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050826/ts_nm/weather_katrina_dc