Everyone living in Florida since 2005 has a hurricane story; some are truly devastating. Since I am writing this in “real time” I don’t know the outcome of MATTHEW. Hopefully, he’ll be less destructive than ANDREW, a category 5 monster that side-swiped those of us living in Palm Beach County back in 1992 but devastated southern Dade.
FRANCES hit us in 2004, two years after we had moved into our present home. It was the first time our new community had to deal with the racks of aluminum screw-on hurricane shutters occupying our garages. Thirty percent of the damn things didn’t fit properly, and pounding concrete nails into stucco while balancing on a thirty-foot ladder in gusting winds is insane. I swore that on my next book deal I’d get the accordion shutters.
