Post-Katrina Mess (UPDATED)

I lost power literally minutes after my last update yesterday evening (unfortunately my gut feeling was right). I'm still without power or telephone service at home, so I am sending this quick update from work.

It was a quite impressive show last night. Hurricane force winds and 10 inches of rain buffetted 26th Parallel headquarters. My mango tree tipped over (oh no!), banana trees are shredded, and leaves and branches are everywhere, including my pool which is a total mess right now and on the verge of overflowing.

Other than that, no structural damage which is really what counts. All things considered, we were pretty lucky. The eye did make a southward shift, passing very close to my house. But imagine if it would have been a 100 or 120 mph storm instead of an 80 mph storm.

And yes I agree with Val, hurricanes do suck.

UPDATED 9:35 PM - I got my power back late in the afternoon, very fortunate to only have one night without power and AC. Still don't have phone service, and our cell phones are getting very poor reception (thank you Sprint).

I'm absolutely exhausted after a stressful week, and I have to work all weekend.

I can't complain though, I have it better than a lot of people in Miami right now.

Here's hoping everyone gets their power back very soon. In the meantime, I'll try to keep everyone informed and entertained here and over at Babalu.