DEADLY CATS

 

I hate this time of year the season of the hurricane!!! As I look at photos of the recent devastation wrought upon Texas & Louisiana those same feelings that sickened and stressed me when Hurricane Michael struck Mexico Beach in 2018 came flooding back. These should be once in a lifetime storms or at least once in a generation and not frequent occurrences.

And now we are into the peak of the season!

I wish science would create something that would blow these monsters right back out to sea and keep them there! Hurricanes are fueled by warm waters. Thanks to climate change we can count on even more frequent and stronger ones in our future.

As a resident of a coastal Florida town I fear it's just a matter of time before it's our turn. In the recent past several Cat 3 and 4 hurricanes have skirted our coast. I've personally gone thru 6 Cat 2's in my lifetime, half of them alone. Plenty of expensive damage was done and I've seen trees uprooted during Cat 1's.

I know a Cat 4 would turn my home into rubble! And despite the whopping insurance premiums I pay, I'd never be able to rebuild my home as it stands now. If I survive, after rebuilding and with all the losses incurred, I'd be better off moving. At my age, it wouldn't be a new start, but an ending.

In only 4 months I'll be 70 years old.

My options would be some type of senior housing, possibly in a group setting. -- As to the latter, I'd rather be dead! I love living alone! I don't have to deal with anyone else's drama, nonsense, or toxicity and I've put up with way too much of that in the past!

I'd rather make a date with the Grim Reaper in my garage before I'd let it come to that. Except there would be no garage anymore!

The only good thing in that scenario is that if another major storm came it would no longer be my problem. I'd need not worry about the bother and expense getting my house boarded & unboarded. I have a two-story and no one wants the job!

The last Cat 4 that threatened (last year) cost me $600. The man wanted another $300 for unboarding. But I talked him out of it by agreeing to remain boarded until the end of the season. Living in a dark house for weeks at a time is depressing, not to mention dangerous. I'd be a cooked piece of meat if a fire broke out. And this was the second time in recent years I was forced to tolerate this. -- And to think in 2004 I paid only $40 for the same job.

The 2004 back-to-back hurricanes were a nightmare but could have been much worse! The checks I received from my insurance company were a joke! Had I no insurance at all and just banked the premiums I would have had more money to cover my expenses.

I needed a new roof, plus all the screens on my big back porch were ripped apart and the shreds blowing in the wind.

Just the spring before, I had rose bushes planted in the border along the front of my house. Hurricane Frances killed most of them and the ones she didn't, Jeanne killed striking 3 weeks later to the day.

October 1 was the end of hurricane season when I was growing up. Now it's November 30! With global warming, climate change, whatever you want to call it; I wouldn't be surprised if we see year round hurricanes in my lifetime and I am far from young.

Nowadays entering each new hurricane season I worry and wonder if it will be the one taking my home, the place I rediscovered my happiness. Would I want to survive?

Death comes in many different categories; the loss of a cherished lifestyle is one.

However as long as I'm able to remain alone and stay in control of my own life there's always a chance at happiness!