The ferocity of Wilma returned but only now, the winds whipped from the west and her severity had increased greatly. At some point between 8:30 and 9 am, Ashlyn came into her room to get the cat (Tuxi) from under her bed as Joce and me sat out in the dining room watching Wilma's wrath unfold through the windows. The winds picked up and began to howl violently when all of a sudden we heard a loud explosion followed by a blood-curdling scream coming from Ashlyn's room. I ran and had to fight with the wind to open her door and when I finally opened it, I found Ashlyn on the floor surrounded by pieces of glass. I picked her up and brought her out of the room to safety and cleaned her all up. She had a few cuts but nothing a little peroxide and some Band-aids couldn't fix.
She was so very lucky that she was on her belly half-way under the bed when the window blew in otherwise, things could have been pretty horrific. There were chunks of glass embedded in the walls and floor that resembled darts...Jesus, I guess we're all very lucky.
After the storm passed and we got some sleep and later drove around and checked out the local damage and it was pretty intense...much more than I think anybody was anticipating. The next day we set out to my sister's house on the west coast of Florida (Port Charlotte to be exact) seeing as how we had no electric, water, and things over here looked really, really grim. We stayed there for a few days and just returned home to find that our power and water was restored and Ashlyn's broken window was replaced. The whole neighborhood across the street from us is still without power and as I sit writing this, I can hear the faint buzz of several generators in the near-distance. Stores are beginning to open, gas lines are not nearly as long as they were a day ago, and normalcy is slowly coming back to our world...whatever the hell that means.
And yes...just because I know some of you may be wondering, Tuxi is fine and dandy and he's glad to be home too.
