...The Aftermath
- Katie Rae
- Jan 7, 2018
- 4 min read
Sitting in a hotel room all day is never fun, sitting in a hotel room all day while you're drowning in your own thoughts is damaging to your mental health. So we decided to get out and turn this crappy situation at least into something fun. We took a drive to Rock City & Ruby Falls and decided to explore something new to get our minds off of everything. The first stop Rock City, everytime we drive to Florida you always hit one part of the road trip where every other billboard on the road is an advertisement for this place, so I was expecting a lot. Don't worry it lived up to the hype. So many interesting things to see it was like you were walking through this magical trolls land, and then there was the view. Such a stunning site to see, and the photos do not do it justice. We stopped at the peak to have lunch atop the mountain, and tried fried green tomatoes for the first time (not bad at all). Then we made our way through the rest of the trails, hopped in our car and headed to Ruby Falls. This was the one I was most looking forward to, so intrigued to see what a waterfall inside of a cave underground would even look like. As the tour guide lead us through the winding paths down thousands of feet below ground, I was amazed by how much there was to see inside, we finally made it to the waterfall and it was better than I could have imagined. After a long day of adventure, we went back to reality.
...A couple more days passed, and now I'm getting worried. Some news stations are saying we won't be able to go home for more than a month. Knowing we couldn't afford to stay in a hotel for that long we packed up for what felt like the 100th time and headed back to Wisconsin. What a happy spin on a not so happy situation. I got to be with my family and have some fun in the sun. Shortly after we arrived in Wisconsin to our dismay they started letting people back into the islands. We stayed for one week to catch up with everyone and then we packed up yet again and headed back home to see what was in store.
The drive down was smooth sailing, not much traffic. Just the two of us, cruisin' to some tunes, wondering what lies ahead. Once we made it past Florida City it was time to enter into the unknown, the media always over plays things so I was interested to see with my own eyes how the islands made it. By this time it had already been a couple weeks since the hurricane made landfall and even at this time it wasn't the prettiest sight to see. I was in complete shock when i came driving through the keys, it was a disaster. From buildings completely collapsed to miles and miles of refrigerators lined up on the side of the highway, it almost looked like a third world country. We were hungry so we scoured the remains for a place to eat, and finally found Boondocks with an extremely limited menu but it filled us up and we were on our way to Key West.
As we pulled into the Conch Republic we were pleasantly surprised with what we found. The hurricane winds hit hard for sure (losing lots of vegetation on the island), rain was a given (still some flooding on the streets) , but for the most part Key West looked like a million dollars compared to what we had just seen. With that being said I didn't ever foresee there being a problem with our apartment, we were on the third floor and faced away from oceanside, so no problems right? Wrong! Unfortunately, when we walked into our apartment it was completely moldy. Furniture, clothes, dishes, countertops, even the toilet seat was moldy. It was unbearable. Yes, I lost everything I owned, but some of the people in our community had it even worse.
Defeated. This was how I felt. Standing in the bathroom, trying to soak my dishes in a bathtub full of bleach and white vinegar, I couldn't help but think ' What the Hell did I get myself into?!' I had four days to find a new place to live and move into it. When I say we looked at everything...believe me we looked at everything. From houses that had no bathrooms to houses that were smaller than my closet back in Green Bay. Plus, you would think people would be sympathetic after such a large disaster but no, they were raising the rent on apartments and house because they knew we would have no option but to rent them for the higher price. It's just sad that people have to turn their backs on things like that. The Community in general I believed worked together great, the efficacy and deliberation that went into making sure each resident knew how to handle and cope with situation was amazing, just goes to show you this wasn't their first rodeo.
As my days dwindled down, I thought it was large possibility that one either I was going to have to stay living in a moldy house, or two be homeless (I mean it's not a bad place to be homeless right..) We stayed in my father's friends place for a couple of days, even stayed in my hotel a few nights, finally we found a house. It wasn't perfect, but it's better than nothing.
Let's turn this house into a home.
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