Let me tell you what happens to a couple hundred thousand pieces of cardboard when they are submerged in water. Almost 7 years ago, during Hurricane Wilma, I experienced the worst conditions I ever have in all my years of living in Key West. Hurricane Wilma was a Catergory 3 storm with sustained winds up to 120 mph, but it was the storm surge and the direction in which she came, that caused the most damage. 6-8 feet of storm surge swept across the lower keys and flooded a large majority of the homes and properties in the area. Our house, a ground level duplex, had about 25 inches of water inside, with about 48 inches outside, just about to the top of our chain link fence. In the closet of my computer room was the majority of my 12 year collection, stacked in shoe boxes ranging from 2-5 row, well over 150,000 cards soaked and destroyed, roughly 32 boxes. I really don't know what I lost because I never looked in the boxes, to painful, but what hurt the most was when the flood insurance adjusted said '"You know you don't have contents?" What, we don't have contents, what? How do you have flood insurance and not have the contents covered? Kind of like have fire insurance and not having contents covered. Lesson learned, the hard way, but the pain wasn't done yet. After lugging all these cards out and putting the in a pile for trash pickup, several hundred cards were spilled and left on the grond by the garbage men. A daily reminder of the past. A friend of mine actually salvaged a few cards, and a crushed can of Pinacle Inside Football, unopened. I still have those cards and can, as well as the memories of cards lost. As we prepare for tomorrow, Hurricane Isaac is bearing down on the Florida Keys, and expected to make landfall late Sunday night. I hope that Isaac doesn't collect cards like his older sibling Wilma, that's a trade I can't make or take again. Take care, stay safe, and keep dry.
