Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Rolly lives!........... :D

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I gotta tell you , that totally sucked!! we just got our power back tonight. There is alot of wind damage in our area, signs down, roofs missing shingles and sheet metal, trees all over, etc.... I cant imagine what the west coast looks like.

Brett
New Smyrna Beach

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

This is the first time I've been online since Friday morning.
About 1pm Fri. We found that Charlie had changed course and was expected to pass right over us. Up until that time we had made little outdoor preparations. While I ran out to Home Depot to get lag bolts, for the storm shutters I built the last time we had a hurricane pass through, the wife and son in-law pulled the shutters out of storage. We had them up in record time. I tied the boat cover down as best as I could. Unfortunately it was destroyed. No great loss, it was one I bought at a local boating supply.
The winds started about 5pm. Around 7 pm power went out. By 8 it was howling outside, by 9 it was screaming.
My daughter and her family stayed with us and we were watching the fury from our east facing front screen porch.
I have been through many hurricanes living at the Jersey shore, but I have never seen anything like this. The wind just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger. It didn't stop for a second. It lasted around 45 min to and hour.
Our house is of concrete block construction and it was vibrating. Things were shaking.
Pressure changes within the house caused the attic access panel to fly up into the attic. We have a cat door in the door between the kitchen and garage. It too was fiercely flapping back and forth. The garage door was bowing inward about 2-3 inches and water was spraying through the door seams, I was getting wet 6 feet away.
As soon as the wind let up we saw one of our neighbors outside with search lights. We ran out to see what was wrong and found that their whole second floor roof had blown away, right down to the rafters.
I did a quick check of our house and found we had no roof damage at all. We did have one tree in the back lose it's top half. We were very very lucky.
Many of the people on my street lost portions of their roofs, while others lost half their house. Many trees up-rooted or snapped.
We were without power till 2pm yesterday. Our neighbor cannot turn their power on because the electrical system was damaged when the roof came off. Many in the Orlando/Kissimmee area are still without power this morning.

Out thoughts and prayers go out to those in all the hard hit areas.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

"Iggy" at least you and your family are safe. As of last night, damage predictions are going to put this storm second only to Andrew, estimates now at !5 Billion and counting.

As a 9 year old child I went through "Donna" and can vividly remember the tops of palm trees bouncing off the ground.

Parts of Florida may be without power for up to two weeks. Some schools are closed for up to two weeks. Deb is heading to Port Charlotte area to volunteer in any way she can to help. It truely is like a third world country "war zone". I'm sure most of you have seen video footage at this point. And that's only telling half the story. Seeing it in person is almost surreal. In a very very bad way.....

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

This stuff is hard enough to just read......let alone go through........so sorry to hear about all of this.............sheesh!!..........doug :( :( :(

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I'm back. Thank you for your concerns. When it comes to a hurricane our better luck turned into misfortune for others. It's very bad in Lee county but nothing like Punta Gorda. It was supposed to hit us head on then we lost power so we had no idea where it was going. We had some damage but we have a newer home and it held up very well. My neighbor's roof flew off in a 20'x30' complete section, flew over the house across the street and slid into my son's car.
The plant had very little damage and did not lose power. Our neighborhood should have power restored today.
Terry Sobo

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Terry,

Glad to hear you and family are ok

cant be loosing a super sales icon like the great Mr. Sobo to a big wind
or is that a great wind like Mr. Sobo to a super hurricane??? I get it confused :)

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

OK im baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.... I can say with out a doubt I do NOT want to go through that again!.. I just got power back today. I have some pics to post later, but to say the Orlando area is trashed is an understatment. Down one way in the neighborhood there where large tree branches across the road, and the other way out there was a huge tree blocking the road. We had to cut up and move the branches out, and litterally cut a hole through the large tree so we could drive out that way. Neighborhood after neighborhood we go through there are HUGE trees laying across the roads. I have seen houses cut in half from the trees hitting them. I took the rest of this week off from my "real" job to work my other one.. I have been doing tree work for over a year now, and also started a construction company a little before that. I can now take advantage of both of these areas and make a little... If I get enough jobs going, I am just going to quit the "real" job and start cranking the others...

The whole area looks like a war zone, getting gas is a joke in most areas.. there are police in almost all the stations. There are still so many traffic lights out that you really have to pay attention to where you are driving to not get hit.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I guess that means no "Scratch and Dent" sale????

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Hey ChrisK,
If you need anything just give me a call.
Bobby