Letter
Kathleen Witkowski

I'm sending two letters from my nieces who live in Port St. Lucie, FL. As you may recall they experienced four major hurricanes last year -- two of which hit their area directly. They experienced another hurricane this year and although they mostly experienced rain and wind, there was more destruction. I've been to Florida and saw the devastating impact on the environment-- trees torn up and gone, the erosion of beaches, and storm-damaged or demolished buildings and homes. The folks living there have become resigned and some, depressed. I imagine you'd have to in order to make it through each day. Obviously, the people with financial and community resources are surviving in a better way than those who have lost everything.

The following are letters from my nieces. I think they are interesting in that they offer a perspective from children who come from an intact family and have experienced no other trauma except the hurricanes. The letters also demonstrate the need to just tell the story. Because, thankfully, there are many children like them who may not need or won't receive trauma intervention, it could be interesting and beneficial to have a link to the TLC website where children can e-mail their reactions and responses to natural disasters. I realize it's easy for me to say and would put more work on you all. But after re-reading what my nieces wrote, I realized they wrote because they just needed to express something about their experiences. It may be very helpful to provide a forum especially for teens to write about their experiences that would be safe and beneficial for others.

Kathleen Witkowski
Sault St. Marie, Michigan

Letter from Taylor Witkowski, 12 years, Port St. Lucie, Florida writing to her Aunt (Kathleen Witkowski) in Michigan, on September 28, 2004:

Dear Aunt Kath,

Hi! I hope you are enjoying your hurricane-free state. Do you ever get hurricanes? If not, it is SCARY. We could hear things hitting the house and at one point we thought our big Monkey Puzzle tree fell on the roof! That was in Jeanne. Also, at one point we had to go into Mom and Dad's room and I could hear the roof creak like it was going to fall off. Anywho (sic), we are safe. The electricity is still off and it is hot. Last night I slept on the floor in my room because the breeze wouldn't float up to my bed. I did sleep though. Last night a motor home blew up. Mom woke me up and I thought the flames and smoke was a meteor shower! I think the firemen put it out good though. The schools are as messed up even more so who knows when we will go back.I hope you are well and I'll talk to you soon.

Love, Taylor

This letter is from Elisabeth Witkowski, 11year old, Port St. Lucie, Florida, on November 8, 2005:

Dear Aunt Kath,

Hi, how are you? Well right now I'm going to tell you about Wilma. She was a powerful 2 [hurricane category].When the winds got stronger you could not see the house across the street. Also, the winds would blow from front to the back. When the wind came from the back it tore a tree down and our fence. Also our wheel swing was full of water but during Wilma it blew up and hit our neighbor's roof, bounced off and went on the other side of the house. The other neighbors lost their fence and a few trees. We almost lost our mailbox again but it hung in there. We lost power on Monday at 7:00 in the morning and got it back at 10:00 the next day, but two neighbors got theirs on until Sunday (boo-hoo). We got a cold front after the storm--- brrrr!!!! But it was nice because we didn't die of the heat like last year.

Love, Lis

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