This isn't going to be a pity party here. But I thought I would have to excuse myself for not writing a single post in the past week.

The evening the hurricane struck, a Sunday, September 1 in-fact, We (mom, dad, my brother and I) were sitting around enjoying the breeze. The weather is wonderfully cool just before a hurricane.

Our neighbor had gone to his apartment that afternoon, and invited us but We were pretty sure we we safe. Our house is a wood one composed completely out of mahogany and casema wood, which is some of the most dense woods in the world... the logs don't even float. The only thing that could harm us we said was a flood.

If you haven't guessed by now, We live in the Bahamas. And on our Island (Freeport) The Port Authority, the company that runs a section of the island, carved a bunch of canals that runs straight out to sea. The great thing is you can buy property right on the canals, and it's like living right on the ocean. We happen to live on one of the canals, but we said: "The water has to come over the canals, up the property, up the foundation (3 ft), up an smaller step (6 in), and finally get in the house. Which then, how far could it really go?"

Around 7pm Mom all of a sudden wanted to leave the house. There was nothing going on outside (relatively speaking), but Mom said we should go to our neighbors apartment, and just stay there for the night until the hurricane blows over. Dad, and all of us said no, because, "Why leave? Things are going to be fine." In the end, Mom won out. Around 10 'oclock, we left the house.

Mr. Claude (the neighbor), was surprised when we showed up, but let us in, and we slept on the spare bed.

In the morning Mr. Claude came over and said: "Good thing y'all come here, down there they say your area get hit bad." So we called our other neighbor, who didn't leave. She said "You all made the right choice [leaving], the water is over the fence (6 ft) and still coming. We are on the second floor, our entire downstairs is underwater!"

At this point we had to thank Mom for saving our lives by convincing us we had to leave.

Mr. Claude's Apartment is shaped just so that when the wind blew it pressurized the entire apartment. So much so that it felt like you were in an airplane because your ears popped. Well, other than being uncomfortable, we thought we were safe, that is until the window got sucked out. (That almost gave me a heart attack).

The government that afternoon made an emergency call for everyone with a jet skis, or a small boats to come rescue people.

Other than the window, that day went uneventful (for a hurricane). Mr. Claude turned on his generator, and we even watched a movie.
Around 12 that night though I woke up, and mom and dad were talking about leaving the apartment. Because the hurricane was dumping so much rain, the ceiling was falling in room by room. So we fled that apartment and went to stay with one of Mr. Claude's friends apartment.

The next morning, we heard the apartment above us collapse, because of that, our roof started to leak, and by the afternoon, the floor was completely wet.

On the fourth day, We made it to our house (or what was left of it). Come to find out, the water in our area had rose over 20 feet, so there were still many areas underwater. It was a terrible scene. All the houses including ours are basically gone. The road is covered with an of inch sea mud, plus a few dead fish. The entire area looks like it was set on fire because of how the sea water managed to stain everything brown. The trees have no leaves, but worse, most are all dead. There are boats in the middle of the road, furniture in the trees, and debris everywhere.

I am in the U.S. now, and since I am American we had no problems getting off the "Rock" (as everybody calls it). We were flown off of the Island by somebody who out of the goodness of their heart was flying their private plane to deliver supplies and rescue people.

I only have my laptops now, I lost my web-server, and my desktop computer, so I am going to have to really scale down my operations until I get a new one.

Now I'm not the best story teller, but I decided I might give you some info "from the horses mouth" that is.

Have fun!