Whether the Weather

 So this am I did 5.2 miles on my morning constitutional, chased back at the end by a torrential downpour. The whole of the walk was very windy -- outer bands from Tropical Storm Laura, even though it's hundreds of miles away -- SE of Cuba, I think. The trees swayed, and the clouds cruised by at high speed -- reminding me of the sheer power of tropical weather.

Ha. Like I EVER need a reminder. Today is the 28th anniversary of the scariest weather event in my family's history. Hurricane Andrew hit us -- we were north of the eye.  I tell the tale each year, but like any cataclysmic event that changes everything, I think it bears annual repeating.

D1 was a happy 3 year old, and her baby sister D2 was 6 months old. We lived in the house we called "the house where it's impossible to be lonely," since an adorable child, or friendly black Lab (Midnight) or cute Cocker Spaniel (Alfred) were always underfoot.  My Mom was visiting, and early reports had the storm hitting close to her place, so we decided to keep her with us. It gave her, to steal the title of the classic Titanic book, a night to remember.

Our house could have been used to teach a course on shoddy, pay off building inspectors to look the other way in the 80s, construction. It was pretty enough -- with a glass atrium separating the living room from the master, but the second story was all plywood, and the roof deck, it turned out, was stapled to the beams, rather than nailed. We had no shutters -- few of us in the 'hood did -- as the last real storm had hit decades before.

We hunkered down in a front bedroom. The power went out after midnight, and then the sound started. I was wondering how in the world wild animals were fighting on our roof. It was the sound of the roof panels being ripped from their places by the howling winds. I was sitting next to a wall, by an electrical outlet. The air rushing through it felt like being in a swimming pool by the filter return -- that much rushing.

The atrium imploded -- with a terrifying crash with broken glass everywhere. A large window in our master got loudly pierced by a thousand pound piece of fascia -- ripped around.  The ceiling above us was filling with water, and threatening to crash down on us.  I led us to the garage and into our car -- my '92 Mitsubishi Diamante -- to this day one of the best cars I ever had.

Wifey got in the passenger seat, nursing D2. Grandma Sunny was in the back with little D1. We had the windows open -- left the dogs on the garage floor. Not for long. In a feat of Labrador derring do, Midnight leapt into the car with us. It was greatly needed comic relief -- I still recall D1's howls of laughter. Of course, I fetched Alfred, too, and we all hunkered down.

I had a small battery TV, and like thousands in our spot, listened to Bryan Norcross. He was truly the calming voice in the maelstrom -- telling us what to expect as the monster ripped over and through South Dade (we weren't Miami -Dade yet). Finally, near dawn, the winds died down. I led the family to a back room where I cleaned the pink fiberglass insulation off a couch. Grandma Sunny watched the girls -- Wifey trudged through the flooded, destroyed house, pretty much in shock.

I realized I'd better check on Wifey's parents, who lived a few miles north of us. I got on a bicycle and made my way up SW 107 Ave, avoiding downed power lines, some of which were sparking. I found them ok, huddled in a bedroom closet. Their house a few miles North, and built correctly in the early 60s, with Dade County Pine tongue and groove roof, was barely damaged -- one window had broken. I told my in laws to be ready in a few hours -- we would try to make it to my Mom's in Delray, where I knew there was no effect.

We did make it, later that afternoon, and spent a few days there. My in laws opted to go back to their house -- my father in law loved cooking on his hibachi "Even De Scrambled EGGS!" he would proudly proclaim. They got power back in a few weeks.

We lucked out. Wifey's friend Linda, living on Brickell Key, without asking went to her rental office and put down a deposit on one of the few available apartments. We grabbed it -- and are still in Linda's debt for that wonderful gesture. We lived in the Island Club, in clear violation of the no dog heavier than 20 lbs rule, until New Year's Eve, when we moved to my in laws' house in Kendall. They had decamped to Century Village in Pembroke Pines.

So we survived a calamity. D1 told everyone in preschool, at Beth David, that her house was "mistroyed." Funny thing about Beth David. In 1960, my in laws arrived in Miami from Israel with a 4 year old girl who spoke only Hebrew. They moved to The Roads, and my suegra Rachel went to enroll Wifey in the day school. Enrollment was closed, but they made an exception, and took in the scared, adorable immigrant girl.

D1 was supposed to go to our local JCC preschool, but it was closed. So Wifey took her to Beth David -- they had already closed enrollment, too, but made an exception for the nearly 4 year old little girl, a hurricane refugee. Wifey wrote a letter to the Congregation about history repeating itself in a nice way, 32 years later.

And you know what else? It turned out 1992 was a banner year for us, in spite of the cataclysmic storm. D2 was born -- the main thing. And I made my first big money as a lawyer -- life changing money. We got rid of a lot of things -- reinforcing the lesson we already knew -- possessions are so much crap. 

The rebuilding process took a while. Our house wasn't ready until March of '94. But we decided to keep my in laws' place as a rental property. The first tenant was a Baptist minister and his lovely family. The second was a "Chabbid" rabbi, as our Kentucky born realtor Joyce said. It was, in fact, Yossi and Nechama, who became lifelong friends -- our true shepherds back to Judaism for our family. Yossi Bar mitzvahed me, he and Nechama presided over the Ds Bat Mitzvot, Yossi married both Ds, and presided over the Bris of our grandson. He also, sadly, handled the funeral of our father/grandfather/father in law Richard. Yossi and Nechama are truly circle of life friends.

So Laura will just blow by. Andrew destroyed. But the lesson I will take is that even the worst can lead to the best. May that happen with the Corona virus. I'm thinking more and more each day that it will...