Rebuilding Life After the Storm

What happens when life throws you the ultimate curveball, forcing you to rely on community, faith, and sheer ingenuity to survive? Join me as I recount my firsthand experience of enduring back-to-back hurricanes in Florida and the chaos that followed. From the gut-wrenching sight of my home damaged and streets blocked by fallen trees, to the creative solutions we devised to keep food on the table and my oxygen-dependent mother safe, this episode is a heartfelt exposition of resilience in the face of nature's fury. As we navigate the struggle of five days without power, we'll explore the surprising ways a charcoal grill became our lifeline and how the smallest acts of kindness from our community brought hope and strength.

The journey doesn't end with survival but continues through the emotional labyrinth of post-hurricane recovery. Faced with insurance headaches and the scramble to restore normalcy.  Yet, within these challenging times, there's a promise of renewal—a fresh start in 2025, where I remain committed to connecting with you through updates and social media engagement. Despite the setbacks, upcoming content promises to inspire, fueled by the unwavering support that has reminded me of the power of community and hope.

Transcript

Life Changes After Hurricanes

Speaker 1 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Gag Is Pod. I am your girl, charli Shante. Thank you for joining me on another week. This one gonna be a little different today. Been a long time since we've been here, right, and, as you see, I got a different background right, so we're gonna jump into all of that. I miss y'all, I deeply miss y'all, and it feels so good to be back behind this microphone, back in front of this camera, talking to you guys.

Speaker 1 1:11

Um, I will say um life been lifin' and it's an unexpected life change of events which has kept me from you guys for the past few weeks, and I don't like it. So please I apologize, please charge it to my head and not my heart. It was never my intention to be um away from you guys this long. Um, I never. Oh, my gosh, let me just take a breath and breathe, cause when I tell you, my level of overwhelmed is ridiculous and's crazy right now. So come on in, get your drink, get your whatever, and if you're not already, please make sure you are subscribing. You're liking the post, you're following us on Instagram, you're following us on YouTube and all of that type of things. See, I got to hold the microphone today because I only got my setup. So y'all get this close setup. But it's not about the background and the message, it's about the message and the messenger. So I will go and say that I feel like my world has been turned upside down.

Speaker 1 2:44

Um, over the past few, um, past few weeks, um, it's been a whirlwind. Y'all know I live in Florida and since the end of September, we got hit with a hurricane and then 10 days later, we got hit with another hurricane. First hurricane came through and we were good, there was no damage or anything like that but then we got hit with that second hurricane, and that second hurricane is what did us in and what has kept me off the mic for a few weeks. Unfortunately, my home sustained damage, and so I've been trying to work through that. You know, making sure we're all good. You know we didn't have any power for five days and you know I just tried to make sure we were all good. And you know I'm finally we. I'm we Tampa Bay. We're trying to find our, we're trying to get back to normal, or what we consider normal, because right now there are tons of people, thousands of people, who no longer have a home are tons of people, thousands of people, who no longer have a home. There are thousands of people who don't, who can't live in their home because their home is damaged and they're waiting on repairs, and we've all been affected in some form or fashion.

Speaker 1 4:15

I'll divulge a little bit about what I have going on, but not too much. I'm still dealing with insurance, um, and it's still. It's still very traumatizing, so I haven't gotten to the point where I can fully talk about it without crying. Um, so, yeah, so that's kind of you know been what's going on and it upset me because I missed my anniversary episode. And so now you know you're going to get an anniversary episode because I still haven't announced the winner of the giveaway. Um, they still don't even know because so much has been going on. Um, so you're going to get your anniversary episode. It's just going to not be at anniversary time. It's going to be, uh, it'll be before the end of the year, but it just won't be um, because anniversary time had already passed. But, um, you're still going to get that episode and I do still have some good content coming for you guys.

Speaker 1 5:07

It's just in the, because I I record in bulk and it just so happens, on my bulk record days, we were in the midst of some storms so, um, I missed those and I'm like, okay, so now that lets me know that I got all. I got a bulk of more episodes. I gotta have those in the pocket episodes because I gotta give y'all some. I can't leave y'all hanging. But I still see that y'all been listening, y'all been downloading and you know y'all still been like where's the next episode? And it's here.

Speaker 1 5:35

I'm gonna give you just a little summary. You know what's been going. You know it's not a full real episode. We'll get back to that but I just wanted to put you guys something out and let you guys know hey, I'm still here, like life just been life. And you know I'm maintaining. You know the gag is, I'm still moving forward. You know, hanging my head held high. Um, I have a great support system. Um, and I I've I've been finding out that I got some people who don't play about me, especially that big man upstairs. Him don't play about me. Um, and people on this side of the earth don't play about me either. Um, and grateful and grateful, speechless, blessed. I'm definitely going to man. I'm putting together a vlog from all of this. So I'm not sure when I'm going to put that out, cause, like I said, there's still dealing with insurance and so there's stuff that they got to see and you know, take care of and do, and stuff like that. So I don't want to put it out there prematurely and things like that.

Speaker 1 6:54

So y'all know I'm a good storyteller, right, so let me tell y'all how it went. So we're sitting here, so it was Hurricane Milton, so we had Helene and you know Helene gave us the wind and the rain. It was like, okay, cool, you know what I'm saying. During Helene, I would look, I would gone off them, espresso martinis, um, just gone. So I was like, ooh, this hurricane melts. So I like I give me something a little stronger. You know, give me something a little stronger, help me sleep.

Speaker 1 7:25

You know, cause if y'all seen there's hurricane stories, you know, like in Florida, like the rest of the world and the rest of the country, be like, oh, my God, y'all need to prepare for the hurricane and we be out here, like we are, we at the liquor store, like what are you talking about? Like we are preparing, like what you mean? Like we at the liquor store, we preparing, and so the kids had hurricane wasn't hit on a Wednesday night. The kids had been out of school since Monday. And I was just like, all right, cool. And they and they're like, well, the kids gonna go back to school on Thursday. And I'm like ain't no way, these kids finna go back to school on a Thursday, cause it's supposed to hit Wednesday night and the Thursday morning. So you telling me, y'all finna, get up and run these buses, and no, so during the day we just in here, shutters is up, and you know what I'm saying. So when the shutters is up, everything is dark in here. So to do do anything you have to turn on the light. So we turn on light front door.

Speaker 1 8:17

And then you know, that day, you know, I got up and I cooked and I said because, watching the weather, and I'm like man, this is, this is crazy. You know like, oh, hurricane milton finna come through here. You know, do a little one, two, like it was a five, and then it dropped down to a three, and then it was like a borderline three, borderline four, and so where they said it was a five and then it dropped down to a three, and then it was like a borderline three, borderline four, and so, where they said it was gonna make landfall, the eye was going to come directly over my house and I was like, oh, I'm like that what the strongest of the winds is like. And then it stretched like 50 miles out. So I was like, okay, like we finna see what's up.

Speaker 1 8:55

So during the day, you know, you know, I got adult child. So I was like, you know, I had like stuff was still open Wednesday morning so I was like, oh, let me go to the liquor store. I had got all the non-perishable foods and different stuff like that. So I was like, let me go to the liquor store, you know. So I go to the liquor store and I get some Don don julio. So we was off that, that don julio acting a foolio. Um, you know, waiting for the storm to come in.

Speaker 1 9:19

And I'm sitting upstairs I'm just watching tv and you know we can look out the doorbell camera, you know we can look out the front door and I was just like, okay, I see you, milton, and the craziest thing, me and man chisel marco Polo went outside and you can see so a hurricane is just like a spinning circle. Right, you could look up in the sky and you could see this cloud spinning in a circle. When I tell y'all, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life and I tried to get it on video but there was just no justice being done. It was just the weirdest thing. And I was like, oh, I like that crazy.

Speaker 1 10:05

So you know, I'm trying to take my dogs out. I'm like yo, y'all use the bathroom because I ain't gonna be out here like this. Y'all, not finna, have y'all get out here. So I'm out there with my raincoat and my rain boots on, looking like a Toys R Us kid. I'm just like, okay.

Speaker 1 10:18

So you know, the wind's starting to pick up a little bit more and they're like anywhere in the eye. The winds can range from 100 up to almost 130 and I was like, oh, this is gonna be something. So it's getting closer to making landfall and I'm actually getting nervous because I'm like, damn, I'm like this wind blowing and I'm like I've never heard the wind blow this hard. I was like, okay, so I'm sitting there and I'm watching and I'm here. So I was like I'm like Jay. I was like, come on, let's go look at the front door, just being silly when I tell y'all I ain't never seen no wind like that before in my life and I was like, okay, crazy, and I'm going to skip a few parts because a few parts pertain to the damage and so I'm not going to get into the specifics of it.

Speaker 1 11:09

So they had already told us to be prepared to be without power because this storm was going to do a little one too. So, you know, we had already ate that day and stuff like that, and so our power went out, probably about the storm hadn't even hit, hit yet and our power had went out. So, storms coming in, like I said it had barely hit, like it hadn't even really really hit. Yeah, it was a little bit like after eight o'clock when I tell y'all this is something that I never, oh my gosh. Like when I told you I was tell you I was losing my mind because, like, as the storm started hitting, it was kind of like, okay, the power went out, but then it came back on. So I was like, oh, okay, it's like we're, it's going to be one of those like the power is out, we're going to maintain our power, because every storm before this we have maintained power. So a little bit after that you know what I'm saying Like the power goes off again. I was like, oh my God, and like it stayed out. Then, like time go by, time go by and I'm like, okay, so we got to be prepared to not have power. Like we, we really not, finna, have no power.

Surviving After Hurricane Devastation

Speaker 1 12:25

But while all of this is going on, like you know, things are happening and, like I said, for the fact of things are still dealing with insurance Like I'm just really watching my house like break down in, like real time and it was just the worst thing ever. And I remember coming in my closet, where we were, where we at now, in my closet, and just laying on the floor and just bawling my eyes out, because I'm like everything that I worked so hard for is literally like crumpling, like crumbling in front of me. It was just so bad. And then I opened up the windows. The storm was probably over with probably about the rain part, probably over with about one, two o'clock, and so we lifted up the windows upstairs and just laid on the couch and then, if you've ever been in a hurricane, then after a hurricane, the breeze is just amazing, it's just beautiful, like almost chills and I was like, okay, I'm going to try to go to sleep, you know, get a little bit of sleep because the power is out and you know we'll assess this in the morning.

Speaker 1 13:37

So I only got a couple hours of sleep and, um, I woke up probably about five and I went outside and when I went outside to like, look at the damages, like I was not even ready. I do remember, you know, like I'm just like what is going on and then I see my fence is gone and, you know, it's just completely dark and I have videos of everything. So I'm going to put a compilation together of, like, the videos that I took over the course of the first week after the storm and I'm going to put those together and y'all can check those out on this YouTube page. Well, on this YouTube page, well, on the YouTube page, um, and it was just really something like I've never. I've never felt like that because, like in that moment, I just felt helpless.

Speaker 1 14:29

Like I'm outside, um, looking at the damages, uh, to my house. You know I'm looking around and then looking at the damages to my house. You know I'm looking around and then, you know, I'm just like this is crazy. This is just crazy, like I'm because I've never seen anything and I was like, cause I was walking a dog, and I was like, all right, I was like, soon as daybreak, you know, I'm going to go get in the car and kind of go see you know, like how bad it is, cause we've where I live, the area that I live in, we've been pretty unscathed, um, for the most part.

Speaker 1 15:03

But light came, cause I was like, let me go get some coffee, see if anything is open to where I can get some coffee, cause you do have some gas stations that do stay open, you know, just for the public safety and everything. I went to go look for coffee, but then, like I'm driving out of my neighborhood and then like I'm like, okay, I look to my right. I'm like, okay, I can't go that way because like there's two trees that have been knocked over and they're blocking the exits, the entrance and the exit, so you couldn't go out on either side. And I was like, okay, so I turned around to go the other way. There's this big tree that I had already said when it stormed. I was like that tree not going to make it, so it was blocking the road. So I was like, okay, I'll go around. You know there's a little work around, so I went to work around and I tried to go that way. I couldn't go that way because there was power lines down in the road. So I was like, ok, I just got to go back home and then we're just going to, we're going to have to figure this out. I just come back to the house and then, you know, I'm still in fight or flight mode because I'm like is this really happening? So we don't have power, but you know we have power, you know charge up on my device and everything so we're able to watch the news.

Navigating Post-Hurricane Recovery

Speaker 1 16:19

And then just the level of sheer devastation, like what I've seen within my community with my own eyes. I'm just like, oh my God, like just the way that the trees are down and like like fences, like roof, half of roofs, like ripped off, and like I live in a fairly new neighborhood, like the houses are less than 10 years old and um, it would. It was just something that I've never seen in my life, I've only seen on tv, and I'm always like dang, like I feel so bad for those people and it's like, now I'm those people, you know, like, like, and it's just unreal and we ended up not having power for about five days and so in those five days I was able to make some runs to the dump to throw away stuff and we cooked. So I would light the grill up twice a day, in the morning, at night, so that we would have water in the morning to wash our face and stuff like that. And then I would cook and different stuff like that, because one thing about your girl she's going to survive. And then I would boil water and I would turn the grill on at night, like start the grill up at night because it was charcoal and I knew I could keep them hot for a long time, for at least a few hours. So I would cook and then I would put two big pots on the stove on the grill and let those heat up with water, and then that's how, and then everybody would just get water. And then that's how we did our best to kind of stay clean over the course of a couple of days. It was just, it was just something. And then you know it was bad because you know, like my mom's on oxygen, so I'm trying to make sure she's good, can't get any hotels, and it was just all bad, and I was. You know you've seen the people lined up for gas and like all of that is true. And so a couple of days had passed and you know, we ended up getting Sonic and then, while we were at Sonic, sonic, there were two straight troopers escorting a fuel tanker with gas.

Speaker 1 18:31

And when you see, like you, like I said, you see stuff and you see it on tv, but then when you see it with your own two eyes in real time, you can just not fathom. And that just crushed my soul because I'm like the city is is in crisis and we just don't know what to do. Because a couple of weeks before that we got hit with Helene and so we're just like OK, and then, as the time of me recording is, guess what? We're facing another storm and a lot of people still don't even, are not even fixed, haven't even gotten their stuff fixed from Helene Milton, and then we might be facing another storm and it's just like a double whammy on top of double whammy on top of double whammy and it's just some thing. It's when I tell you it's something.

Speaker 1 19:27

And like the first couple days, you know, I tried to pray and and I tell people all the time. I'm like I couldn't even pray because I was so angry like how could you let my house get messed up? You know what I'm saying. Like how could you allow me to lose so much? And I'm like I couldn't go to God Cause I was angry. Like he know my heart. But I was angry and I was like I can't go to him angry like that. Go to the big man and be angry and question him. So it took me a couple of days, but he knew my heart but it still. It took me a couple of days to kind of get it together.

Speaker 1 20:05

And then, you know, I've just been keeping my head up. And then you know, like when I got power like I got power on a Sunday and I went to work on Monday because I just knew, like I knew things at home were as stable as they were going to be. So you know, I went to work and I was like, oh my God, I don't understand how you at work, but I've always been in this fight or flight and I've always just pressed on Like I've never I don't know how to let sadness just kind of like sit there. But then again I was like I'm still on adrenaline. And so a week went by and then I started realizing, ok, you feel sorry for everybody else, but who's feeling sorry for you, you know? And it's kind of like dang, and everybody's like, oh my God, what can I do to help? And I'm like I don't even know what I can do to help myself right now, like thank you for the help, but I have no clue what. I have no clue what I need. I need sleep, but I feel like I just got to keep going. I just never, and I still, as I'm recording this, I still have not, I don't think I really processed it, but then dealing with insurance and this is, if this ain't the most I can't wait for front of this camera, miss being behind this microphone. I just miss it and I just miss making the content.

Speaker 1 22:00

And now you know we coming up on the end of the year, we it's only a few months left, a couple months left to the end of the year, and you know it's supposed to be a happy time, but it's like I'm going into the holidays and I'm not even. I can't even put up my tree because I don't know when they're going to come in and start the work and when they come in and start the work, we have to vacate. So it's kind of pointless putting up a tree unless I, you know, because they're going to be working removing walls and stuff like that. So even if I put the tree up, tree's still going to get dusty and stuff like that, and I don't want all of that. So you know that's what we're dealing with.

Speaker 1 22:37

Like I didn't even get to film my anniversary episode and which that just crushed me to my core. And you know we got Thanksgiving, christmas, new Year's, my birthday Like those are four pivotal episodes that I need to do, right along with all the other stuff. Like I had a Black Friday one that I needed to do and you know I'm going to try to pull it together and still get that one done, but I'm not even sure, realistically, that I'm not going to be able to get that done. But I do know that. You know, sorry I haven't been here, but just know we're going to round out the year good and 2025 is going to be even better. 2025 is going to be even better.

Speaker 1 23:26

I got to set up me a new space because my space is I can't use that space anymore right now. So I got to set up a new space and get a new space together, you know, so that y'all don't have to see my, see me with the clothes wall. You know what I'm saying, but you know it's all good. Um, I think I'm going to wait yeah, I'm going to wait to announce the winner, um, of the giveaway. I think I'm gonna wait a little bit for that. I'm going to go ahead and notify the person, cause I know people like, is it me or did I not win? I'm gonna go ahead and notify the person and then get it going from there. But I just wanted to come in front of y'all and tell y'all you know I'm still here. I ain't going nowhere. I didn't. You know, I ain't flopping, you know, sometimes, you know, god just got to sit you down before you know, before he make things shake for you. So I'm just sitting down and being patient on being obedient, um, and just letting him guide me, um, and putting my head, getting my head back in the game.

Speaker 1 24:41

So that is the little short update that I have for you guys, and remember, if you are not already, please make sure you are subscribing to the gag is pod on Instagram. You are more than welcome to follow my personal page as well. Smart fit underscore OK. On Instagram as well. Please make sure you are following us over there at YouTube as well. The gag is pod channel. There's uploads over YouTube as well. The Gag Is Pod channel. There's uploads over there as well. And then, last but not least, wherever you are listening to this stream, please make sure that you are liking, you are subscribing and you are commenting, so that we can go up in the ratings and the rankings and then it can be posted on people's suggested page. As always. I am your girl, charlie Shante. This is the Gag Is Pod. Bye, guys.