I know the feeling .. it does make you sick. I call it flashback anxiety. I've had it every hurricane season since Andrew .. I could crawl under the bed in a fetal position. And I've come to HATE THE WIND ... I HATE it!! My insides just turn to jello. I've been glued to this storm for the last 3 days .. almost non-stop.

Thank you for that view of Andrew .. I've never seen it ...and it's horrible to see again how fearsome it was .. a Cat. 5!

I was 5 mins. from Homestead Air Force Base -- 280 St. and 157th Ave., Naranja Lakes .. didn't have a chance. Across the street were 5 mobile home communities, so all that sheet metal peeled off and ended up as a lethal hazards everywhere. Even experienced pilots who had flown in Viet Nam bringing us our salvation and food said it was worse than what they'd seen in Viet Nam. That's where the bomb went off, and where the most deaths in one development occurred.

I was homeless, and lived at 6 different places in 6 weeks .. until I got based in a house in Leisure City that survived ... so I could salvage for about the next 6 months (had friends I was helping salvage two of their devastated homes, too).

30% of the Homestead population moved out after Andrew .. big chunk of the population.

After last season's terrors, where I had located after Andrew east of Tampa, I finally cracked ... fell apart .. had to get out after 30+ years, and I'm SO grateful I don't ever have to face these again. It becomes a wound you carry with you forever. I'll take winter and snow gladly.

I pray for the folks suffering there today ... may God bless them .. what they're facing now is pure heartbreak.. especially after last year, but when you have your life, you have everything .. the rest comes with time. Take care.

Star .. in Chicago