Day 44 (Tues., Oct. 25)

If you've read my Las Vegas Internship Journal, you probably know what the above photo is all about. I didn't get too much into detail, though, so I guess I can give you a better story here. Yesterday was a crazy day. I started it by waking up at 6 a.m. West Coast time. My dad drove me to the airport and I slept the whole way there. I felt bad for my short, hit-and-run visit to my L.A. yesterday. But I guess I would have felt worse going all the way down to Las Vegas, being so close to L.A. and not coming down and visit my family and friends. I've missed them so much.

So, I got to the airport yesterday morning and I was excited for my flight back to the East. I was looking forward to do some post-Hurricane Wilma coverage, but I never thought it would be too crazy. So, I checked my bags, got a boarding ticket and sat at the airport for about an hour before leaving. We lifted and headed for our first stop in Kansas City. Wow! The scenery as we landed there was beautiful. It was so green. After about a 45-minute stop in KC, we headed toward Florida, this time toward Tampa. My flight back from L.A. was making two stops. Yeah, it was annoying, but not a bad thing considering I only paid $94 for my ticket -- a bargain, I thought.

Once in Tampa, I figured the next (and final) stop would be Ft. Lauderdale, but everyone was instructed to leave the plane.

"What?????" I thought as I began to get scared.

After exiting the plane, I went to the airline's counter and talked to the representative. I showed her my baggage claim ticket and she told me that the airline's representatives in L.A. had dome something bad.

Turns out that they shouldn't have issued me a boarding pass and checked my bags to FLL because that airport was shutdown due to the hurricane. I guess everyone was under the impression that the hurricane would hit on the west coast of Florida as a category 2 storm and be a category 1 by the time it reached Ft. Lauderdale. It never happened that way and the storm didn't lose intensity as it ripped through the peninsula.

So, now I was in Tampa and I was stuck there. I was told by the airline representative that I would not be able to catch a plane to FLL for at least two days. Being just 300 miles away, I couldn't just wait at the airport. So, I was able to get a refund from the ticket and used that for a rental car.

Man, that car was my third rental in less 10 days, I was so ready for "La Huera". After renting a Ford Focus (ironic name for a car rented by a photographer, don't you think?), I headed out. Since I had no communication because of the long flights to Tampa, I figured I get some basic info about what was going on in So. Florida. So, I approached a news van that was parked at the rental car lot.

That's where I met Tampa Bay's Channel 10 reporter Valerie Boey and cameraman Bobby Bills. They gave me the rundown about what was going on. Being that I was asking questions, Boey started asking questions of her own. Next thing, she asked "would you like to go on tape?"

"Sure!" I said w/o thinking.

So, they followed me to my car and interviewed me as I stood in front of the trunk. I felt kind of cool being on the other side of things. I made the news and I got my 15 minutes of fame. Too bad I didn't get to see it since I left Tampa as soon as I could.

Valerie and Bobby were very helpful and they even gave me directions w/ the quickest way out of town. So, there I went on my drive down to Ft. Lauderdale.

I spent the night listening to the news on the radio. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I swore they were just exaggerating because the storm was not predicted to be too strong. Five hours later, I was exiting the freeway and I was scared. There was absolutely no light in sight. It was complete darkness. The moon was just rising over the horizon and it was enough to see that there was massive destruction.

My block was hit pretty hard and I was scared when I saw that everyone's backyard was gone. All the fences that I am used to going by during my jogs were gone! Trees covered the street and I had to zigzag my way through. I reached my parking spot and was upset because it was taken up. No, not by another car, but by trees. That's when I was glad I didn't leave my truck at home during my trip, it would have been under that tree. Of course, I got worried about "La Huera's" well-being since it was in the Park-N-Save lot at the airport. There were plenty of trees around, as I recalled. I hoped my truck wasn't lying under one of them.

Walking in the dark was scary. Everyone seemed to be asleep because there was no sound. Then again, who would be loud at 2 a.m. in complete darkness. There's something belittling about being in the dark. People lose courage.

I called out for my roommate as I entered the house. I did so w/ the intentions of letting my presence be known. I wanted to make sure whoever was in the house know that it was I walking in and not some looter. The last thing I wanted was a baseball bat swung my way for coming into the house in the middle of a scary night. I felt my way upstairs to my room and finally found the camping lantern that I keep on my bedside w/ the help illumination that came off my cell phone.

I turned the lamp on and walked downstairs. Inside things seemed fine. I knew the next few days would be hectic and I would need all the spare gas containers that I could, so I rushed to the backyard to pick up my jugs. I felt awful as I stepped out the door. The covered porch that I was so happy to see the first day I came in the house was gone. All of it!

It was as if someone took a huge eraser and said "hmm, that porch doesn't look good there, let's get rid of it completely."

I was scared. I walked over the focus and I got my luggage. I brought it upstairs and went directly to bed, I didn't want to be awake at such a scary setting.

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Today was even more scarier than in the middle of the night. I figured things weren't as bad as I had felt them last night. I thought it was all my imagination from the long trip home. So, I headed out and tried to go to work. I was amazed at the things I saw as I drove. When I got to the Sun-Sentinel building, the security guard told me that the office was closed. I asked about all the other Sun-Sentinel offices in So. Florida and he said they were all shutdown. So, I figured I had to do some photography on my own. I couldn't make a single call on either my business nor my personal cell phones.

As I drove away from the office, I came by the Broward School District's building. I had heard a lot about the destruction to it on the radio all morning, so I had to check it out. There it is, the building was pretty banged up:

I remember looking at a building like that in New Orleans. I think it was a hotel building. This building's windows could not hold up against the strong 150-plus mile per hour winds.

A person on the radio said the building was hit hard, but I didn't believe it until I saw it.

If a building did not have good luck, the street lights had no chance.

This restaurant's walls completely came down. The sight made me worried for "La Huera" and I had to go check on her even though the airport was closed. Luckily, the Park-N-Save lot is three miles away from the airport and I was able to come in and check on my truck.

Whew!!!! There were many cars under trees, but "La Huera" was untouched. I felt happy about it, then I got jealous. How can my truck go through a hurricane and I didn't, not fair! I couldn't return the rental because the airport was close, so I had to leave the truck there and continue on w/o her. That sucked!

This truck didn't have much luck, but then again it was asking for it w/ the aggie sticker. Booooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! Go Longhorns! Haha!

Uh, oh. It's going to be hard getting gas when stuff like this happens at gas stations.

That's going to be one gas pump we won't be counting on.

Wow! The sign at the Days Inn hotel was twisted. My roommate said there was word on the street that our condominium complex was battered by a tornado. The Days Inn is about four miles down the street from our place, signs that a twister did go through here.

My poor parking space as under trees. I am so glad I left "La Huera" elsewhere. I would have been real sad if anything happened to her.

Tonight would have been worse than what it ended up being. I came home and it was 6 p.m., an hour before the 7 p.m. curfew that was in place. I relaxed and fell asleep. I woke up and it was completely dark. I felt as if I slept for hours and I hoped it was sometime after 2 a.m. or so. Turns out, it was only 7:30, not long after I had gotten home. The lack of power made it seem as if it was later in the night. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I turned on a few candles. I took a cold shower and sat down to write. The candles gave me the inspiration to write. Then, at 9:34 p.m. the power came back on. The neighborhood went crazy, you could hear people screaming and laughing. It was definitely time to celebrate.

I quickly ran to the television and turned it on. No, I didn't want to see the news, I wanted to catch the Astros-White Sox World Series Game. Houston was doing pretty well, but then blew a 4-0 lead and lost the game. Booooooo!

I was happy to have power back. I wasn't so scared any more. I knew everyone around felt good. It gave everyone a sense of hope. That's all we got for now: hope!

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