Charley hits home

Gail Best riding Antiqua Rapp. Photo by Summer Best

A note from Summer Best, Gail's daughter:
Mom called me at 7 a.m. August 13. "Summer! The storm is going right toward Ocala where you live! I hope you're ready!"

Was I ready? What can you do? You batten down everything you can, and you decide if your barn or your pasture is the better place for the horses. My barn is new and concrete, so I decided to leave my horses in the barn.

I filled up containers with water, filled the water troughs, made sure I had enough supplies for a few days, found the flashlights and candles, and then started praying.

Go Home
By noon, managers sent everyone home. By 2 p.m., Mom was calling me.

"Summer! The storm isn't headed your way! It's coming straight toward us!" she said in a voicemail on my cell phone. "We're doing everything we can. They are going to turn the power off in the county soon. What should I do with the horses? Turn them out or leave them in? What should I do?!"

I hated to make that decision. There was no way to know the best place for the horses. What if the barn crashed in? What if the horses were turned out and they were pierced by flying debris? What about trees crashing on fences and horses getting out onto roads?

I called her back. We decided to leave five horses in and five horses out.

Mom never had time to let any horses out.

Nine days after the storm, her phone was finally up and running. Here is an electronic letter she shared with friends.

*******

August 22, 2004
Late last night our phones started working and today I was able to hook the generator up to the computer and receive emails and also to send. I wanted everyone to know we were all right and to give out updates on our families.

As you know, Friday the 13th we were hard hit by Charley. Sustained winds of l40 mph and gusts of l50-l60mph. Weather forecasts had predicted the storm to miss us and hit Tampa and go to Ocala. Our concerns were for Summer and her animals. But Friday noon we received information that Wauchula was in for a direct hit. We got word that the power company would turn off all power when the winds reached 40 mph. We were bringing all the animals into the barn or kennel when the power quit, it was just before 4pm. The sky was clear and the wind calm. Catrena, my daughter, was just arriving to stay with us as was Ruthie, our dear friend. Catrena's husband, Billy, was working the EOC (Emergency Operations Center), and Ruthie's husband Bob was working perimeter control at the state prison located in the county. Catrena brought her 3 dogs to shelter and Ruthie brought one dog and one cat. Chase, my son, Chuckie, my husband, and us three nervous women.

By 5 p.m. we knew we were in for a ride. Chuckie and Chase were in the barn trying to keep the generator working and got caught in the full force. They were unable to make it back to the house. Chase tells me at one time as the tin was ripping off the barn and a few trees were swirling around, he said, Dad I'm about to climb in that tractor with the cab on it because it has a roll bar. Chuckie said he saw the board fence lay down from the wind and then when the wind started to blow from the other direction, it stood the fence back up.

The house was relatively quiet inside but when we opened a door it sounded like it was coming apart, the wind screamed at us until we went back inside and when I ventured upstairs, I could feel the upstairs sway. By 6:15 the eye of the storm was about one mile to our west and the winds immediately shifted from the east to the south. Things got calmer and we started to breathe. Although it was still bad, the worst was over. Just before dark we could venture outside and check on the animals. They were shell shocked but OK. Tin was off the kennel and the barn and we could not move around the yard for the blown down trees and debris but for the most part all seems intact. Saturday morning before daylight we were up clearing a path to our vehicles. We detoured many ways until we were able to get to my parents' house and found them to be safe. Cows were out all over the county, and I think we still have over 25 in our pasture to be claimed by neighbors when they can get their fences fixed. Our new home, in construction, close to my parents' house , sustained no damage except it lost tar paper.

The damage to my parents' home was more severe as the roof took on so much water that most of their upstairs ceiling has crashed and even damage to the downstairs ceiling. Their pool cage fell into the pool and their yard lost so many trees that it looked like a bomb blew up around the home.

Now one week and two days later:
Many mobile homes and houses are destroyed. I would guess that about 90% of the remaining homes are in need of a new roof. Shelters are packed with homeless. Families, churches, friends are pulling together. But our biggest problem has been that each and everyone of us are beat up in some way and it makes it so hard to get out to other needy because we are in the process of putting our own roof on or trying to move a tree.

Beautiful People
I just want everyone to know how much I cherish every phone call, every email, every prayer and every good deed. My county has been blessed with an army of volunteers. In a county the usually has 26,000 people, we now have 10,000 more volunteers. Without the hard-working power companies that have come from nine different states, I cannot imagine how long we could be without lights and water. People have painted their trucks with the name CHARLEY'S ANGELS.

Last week, one of the car dealerships fed 3,500 people, the Baptist church fed 10,000, and a friend of ours who went door to door in Highlands county collecting money fed 1,500.

Volunteers are just likely to show up with a chain saw and a grin and ask if they can help clear your yard. One group from Texas does just that and when they are finished they go to your front door and sing you a church hymn. Between crying and sweating the water is pouring out of me.

Everyone I talk to asks, what can I do? What do you need? Well here it is, I need your prayers. Everyone needs your prayers. It is hard to stay upbeat, it is hard to be positive when you keep saying to people, we are so lucky to be alive -- when they are beginning to question this when their home is gone. Please pray for us, I know God is so good and I know you know it, too, but when we start to pull back and our smile is gone, well just pray for us, please.

-- Gail

Depending on the progress and cleanup in Wauchula, Gail still hopes to show her favorite mare, Antiqua Rap, in hunter hack at the AQHA Bayer Select World Show in Amarillo. Antiqua Rap, though unharmed in the hurricane, is scared to walk into the barn most days. Oh, the stories that mare could tell!

Training for the show has been almost non-existent, Gail says. "You try to sneak in a ride now and then, and the ground is so wet you feel sure the horse's shoes are going to get sucked off. And I keep finding things out in the pasture that I have no idea where they came from! They blew onto our property from who knows where. But even worse, riding a horse feels like such a luxury. You feel guilty when you spend time with your horse instead of helping feed homeless people or making sure people are OK. The cleanup and recovery is going to take a long, long time, and none of us will ever be the same again."

Editor's Note: If you would like to help but are not sure what you could do, please call: 1-800-FLHELP-1 for more information.