Mmm, I'm having images fly through my head right now. Geez... really makes you think, doesn't it? I certainly do agree that one cannot understand an event if they weren't there, tis why I tend to roll my eyes at modern historians these days since they keep arguing that certain things could not have happened because of XYZ while actual people there claim to have.

oh yes... total agreement there. That's why I try to approach everything with just a touch of suspicion. The husband of one of my wife's friends told me how a six foot tall electrical transformer came through one window and out another in his dining room. It was a pure miracle no one was hurt. A very close friend had a very old style Florida home, and literally it looked like a bomb hit it. The only thing left was the back bedroom and the closet they were sheltering in. Another friend told me how he watched a pickup truck come down his road on its nose, and then in front of his house was tossed up and took his roof off.

And then, life goes on.

Vix

"And then, life goes on." The amount of depth behind this is so baffling yet true.

Thanks for sharing.

most welcome...

Vix

Damn, that hits deep, glad you were safe! Good job on the piece!

Thank you... yes we were fine. The day before it hit they were saying six feet of water in my neighborhood, so we went north and stayed with friends.

Vix

Nice story.

thank you Werty...

Vix

Gracious, glad to hear you were okay. I don't believe an 'oops' really makes up for a misunderstanding on this level though.

*laughs... neither do I, nor does the government - that's why they cover things up...

Vix

I won't lie.
I saw H Andrew as it passed, from the front door of the facility I was working at (this was about 200 miles north of the storm's track). It covered the southern horizon, but there was this vast, slate-blue shadow that visibly moved from east to west.

My agency sent crews down there at the request of the Dade County Sheriff's Office. The deputies came back speaking about roads with street signs at the corners, and all signs of construction other than those scoured away by the wind (this was Homestead).

exactly! And there was so much more to it...

Vix

I know that one lighthouse was shoved slightly off its foundations.

which one was that?

Vix

Cape St. George. The storm eroded the beach and, it was assessed, partly undermined the foundations. The light was deactivated in 1994.

I didn't know that one... thanks...

Vix

How did "they" cause it? Or is that "I could tell you,but..." ?

I'll note you...

Vix

Kay.

I'd appreciate a note as well V! And that's quite an event to have lived through!

I'll send it on.

Vix

Can't happen here. Planning and preparing like nothing bad will happen like a storm of the century. How dare nature assault us. Humbling.
Coincidentally (?) Alas Babylon mentioned Homestead AFB as part of the scene as the residents of Fort Repose reacted to man made devastation -- probably better than IRL emergency responses thirty years in the future of the books setting..

sci-fi writers have long been the prophets...

Vix

I was a year old in '92. Thanks for making me feel young, Ms. V; I needed it.

*laughs... that makes my children around ten years older than you... good memories. When we finally got back to our house, I was busy pushing water out the door and noticed my daughter was very quiet back in her room. I went to check and asked her what she was doing. She holds up a troll on a surfboard and says, "Surfing."

Vix

Some people don't believe in big cover-ups. They view the government as too incompetent to pull them off.

This story illustrates that the inverse is true. Cover-ups happen because the government is incompetent.

pretty much I think you're right on the money...

Vix

Department of Misinformation does work overtime somedays it seems.

24/7 any more...

Vix

My family left Florida 8 years before Andrew. I only remember the news reports and the pictures of leveled neighborhoods. That was enough to make me glad I lived 900 miles away. I feel for anyone who had to go through that misery.

*Catagory 5 hugs*

*smiles and CAT 5 hugs back…

Vix

Went through one and worked after one. Also have been through 3 tornadoes and cleaned up after several. When people say "looks like a war zone" they generally have only video game ideas about what a war zone looks like. And, what a war zone looks like depends on just exactly what kind of "war" was brought upon the place. For clarity I would say as such;
"The island of Puerto Rico, when it was hit by hurricane Maria... compares to Joplin Missouri when it was hit by a #5 tornado... which compares to Nagasaki and Hiroshima when they were hit by nuclear bombs. If you ever get a chance, google the images of those places in the aftermath and note the similarities.
I cleaned up after Maria and in Joplin... it nearly wrecked me for a year or so afterwards (emotionally). Even knowing what I saw and what I know, I cannot begin to fathom a nuclear bomb strike and the aftermath. I doubt anyone living can. Most that survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are gone from this realm... their memories and stories with them.
In some ways I wish mankind could wake up and realize what they're sitting on... or that I could implant the memories of all those living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki into everyone's dreams for a month... or a year... or whatever it takes to wake us the hell up and decide enough is enough. The alternative is, of course, to let them fly and the survivors can clean up and make sure it doesn't happen again.

I have the same feelings Theo...

Vix

Makes you wonder just how many things have been covered up or downplayed to keep the powers in charge. The most insidious lie is the lie by omission as they can always deny that they did indeed lie, but the truth is as distorted as if they had made something up anyways.

and so it goes - mostly like it always has...

Vix