Me surviving the storm in FL...

It all started last thursday morning when i switched my TV on from bed. I was still in sleep watching NBC TV Channel which was issuing tropical storm warning in and around FL. Weather channels has started issuing warnings wednesday night at around 11PM and what the hell...was i sleeping like kumbakarnan ? I opened the window curtains and was surprised to see the sun missing and rain outside. Hoping that Katrina will move away from FL, i rushed to office after korn flakes breakfast only to see mail from HR department that office is closed until further notice. appaa jolly thaan...

being a new bee here in FL, i was enquiring colleagues here about the severity of the storm. they were shutting down their systems and locking their important documents. one guy was closing his monitor with some bags which other guy was searching for sand bag."It can turn in to Hurricane, may be category 4", they replied. i shutdown my machine and we both went to elevator and questioned him abt these categories. that cuban guy answered me vaguely that category 4 will have wind speed of 190mph. he asked me to check out "10 things to do during hurricane" in CNN.com/Weather.

I was slowly gaining consciousness and drove to tamil restaurant among heavy rain. had a good lunch and that restaurant owner who is a part time professor at University of Florida told they are closing the restaurant until further notice. grabbed some food for dinner. came back to hotel and when did weather channels become my favourite. called phoenix and told my boss about the situation here.he also advised me to get the hell out of FL. but the first thing to do during hurricane scene is "do not panic and do not migrate".

Weather channel reported that Katrina has fixed some muhurt time like 6PM to hit ground. Ft.Lauderdale and Miami was her first target & i stay in Ft.lauderdale, 27 miles from miami. they were expecting couple of land falls too. "oh my god!"...i called up hotel reception and they told that the wind speed will be 90mph and their hotel can sustain it.

Around 6PM, it was a show time and i was watching Katrina from lobby windows which blew out sign boards, parking lights & whipped out tree limbs too. suddenly a lightining strike and the whole power came down. i heard 20th century fox band music and Twister movie started running in my mind. Amidst few more transformers exploding sound, there was a hurricane party going on in the corner of the lobby. 'ada paveegala..yaedhukku yaedhukku party vaikanum noo vaevasthaeyae ellaya'.

Luckily power was restored after few hours time. I cooked some rice in oven and had with parcel curry from india south cuisine. I was watching TV, thinking lot and lot and lot of things and never knew when i slept.

as soon as i woke up, rushed outside for sun-sentinel and found that the near by town of ft.lauderdale, Miami Dade was worst hit. Local news paper advised not to drive outside as there all signals are severly damaged. but i just wanted to have a look at Hurricane Disasters and i drove till ft.lauderdale beach amidst tree branches in flooded water. I really evaluated how worst a natural hurricane can hit. will upload few photos that i have taken.
Hurricane Katrina turned slightly to the east before slamming ashore and its making much noise now in New Orleans, Missisipi.