Hurricane Wilma head toward us in October. As always, the first thing we did was strap down the shed.

Then we dropped the hurricane shutters.

Then we prepped the windows without shutters...

...so that we could put up plywood.

After watching the radar and hearing weather reports, Mike decided to take down the shed. First we emptied it.

Then we took it apart.

Finally we stacked it and strapped it.

We brought all the stuff from the shed inside. A.C. likes hurricanes. It gives him so much to explore and so many new places to hide.

The amazing back room absorbed everything from the shed and all the garden stuff too.

We took down the privacy fence this time, instead of waiting for it to be knocked down only to put it back up and start all over again.

Mike got the first hurricane injury this time.

Bogart spent the majority of this one sedated. This was a bad storm, and it was scary for him.

This was the morning Wilma hit. She started early. The power went out at 6:21 that morning, and it didn't come back until two weeks later.

We took a direct hit from Wilma at a category three.

This was the worst wone we've been through, and it was also the first time we were ever directly in the eye.

Compared to Wilma, Frances and Jeanne weren't even really hurricanes.

Look at the Palm Tree in the yard across the street. And this was even before it really got going.

This was taken during the eye of the storm. It really does get calm during the eye.

We lost a lot of shingles during the first half of the storm.

We also had a tree limb puncture a hurricane shutter and break the window.

Once again, it wouldn't be a hurricane if Mike didn't have to patch up the roof in the middle of it. This was during the eye.

This is the one window that we didn't board over. We were drinking Watermelon Margaritas and filming the neighbor's roof being blown away.

Bogart and Sydney remained calm throughout the chaos.

And there was some chaos. That's the attic. You aren't supposed to look up and be able to see daylight. Our roof was disappearing shingle by shingle.

Mike had to drill relief holes in the ceiling so the water could drain, so that the ceiling wouldn't collapse on us.

We started putting buckets under the leaks. If you look closely, you can see water pouring out of the airconditioning vent.

It's an indoor waterfall.

Uh oh. We need more buckets.

When we ran out of buckets, we started using plastic storage tubs.

The wind was blowing so hard that water started coming in under the door.

It also started to come up through the floors.

The attic was soaked.

Mike pulled out all the wet insulation...

...so that it wouldn't collapse our ceiling.

Most everything that was up there was a loss. We threw away a lot of stuff.

When it was over, we went out to survey the damage. The garden was trashed, the pond full of organic debris.

This Rubbermaid thing on the patio flew over a fence to land right here.

All of the reed fencing was torn away.

The shed lost most of its roof.

Shingles and debris everywhere in the back yard

This poor banana plant got knocked down in Frances, then again in Jeanne, and now yet again when Wilma tore through.

Limbs, coconuts, shingles, and palm fronds littered our front yard.

What a mess. Most of the shingles aren't ours; ours are in the neighbor's yard. These came from the house across the street.

The phone and electricity wires are sagging.

This tree ended up in our neighbor's driveway.

And this tree landed on her house.

This branch used to be attached to our Mango Tree.

This poor little tree hasn't made its comback from Frances, and it's been knocked flat again.

The Mimosa tree stood its ground this time, although it did lose a lot of branches and leaves.

Lots of organic debris

This very large branch from a Ficus tree landed in our front yard.

The amazing thing about that is that it came from the house across the street, from the back yard. That means that it actually had to seperate from the tree, be blown over the neighbor's house, across the street, and into our yard.

After the worst storm we'd ever been through, and with no commercial power, Andie produced a feast.

We had brautwurst, potatoes, and Carl brough over clam chowder.

Sydney was so tired that she didn't even make it all the way onto her bed before she passed out.

Wilma was violent but fast. This was taken the same day that she hit.

Sunset the evening of Hurricane Wilma.

The next day, we began the clean up.

This is our roof and what came out of our attic.

This is the pile of limbs that we could drag without having to cut them up. They cut up pile isn't even here yet.

It's time to start patching rooves.

This is what's left of our roof.

That big bare patch is right about our front room

What a mess. This is a huge project, and Mike is the only one who isn't afraid of heights.

Mike pulled out all of the stray roofing nails.

Then he started laying out the tarps.

That's tarps, in the plural. Mike waited in line at Home Depot, the day after Wilma for almost an hour...

...and they'd run out of the big roof sized tarps.

So he had to piece together a bunch of little ones.

Progress...

Hopefully this will keep us dry.

We're now officially one of those tarped Florida houses. It's a common sight these days.

The roof tarping project also exhausted the dogs. They had to run around all day and keep track of everyone.

After about a week of no commercial power, we needed to do our laundry. Our new generator will run the washing machine but not the dryer.

So Mike hung a clothes line in the garden.

Laura hangs some laundry.

Mike runs another line.

Now there's something you just don't see in Palm Beach County.

I don't think the neighborhood association would approve.

After a week of having no power at all, our friend Joe came over for a hot meal and a hot shower.

Joe poses with Carl.

He brought his guitar...

...and sang for hi supper. Everyone was transfixed...

...the neighbors...

...the cat...

...the dog.

We had a hot meal in the garden.

Joe sits transfixed in front of a football game. He gave up is hot shower in order to watch this game.

Hot food and football energized Joe.

Bogart rests after the festivities.

When UPS started delivering again, we ordered an entire meal from Honey Baked Ham Co.

We had turkey breast, honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and broccoli rice caserole. Desperate times call for desperate measures...

This gorgeous banyan tree used to stand in our median.

FEMA finally came and started collecting debris.

We had seperated everying into piles, as requested--organic, yard waste, household waste, shingles, etc.

Then they shoved it all together and dumped it into one truck.

The FEMA truck deposited shingles and other debris in the top of our Mimosa tree, with their big claw.

Yay! It's a power truck from Missouri.

They're finally working on our neighborhood.

We still didn't get power back that day, but all hail Uber-Ginny. This generator was a real life saver.

We had lights, refrigeration, TV, airconditioning, computers, microwave, hot water, and washing machine.

Time to replace the insulation

After the electricity finally came back, Mike celebrated by installing a ceiling fan in what will eventually be the dining room.

This debris is in the parking lot of a local Publix, two weeks after Wilma hit. Can you imagine the mess it was on the day after?

This is the parking lot of the same grocery store.

Parking lot at Publix

This is the parking lot at a local movie theater. The asphalt actually came up.

I don't know what this is, but I do know that it doesn't belong in tree tops.

This was taken at a local gas station, two weeks after the storm.

Usually this color associated with Mike means that he's bleeding, but this is just an automobile touch up paint mishap.