Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Rob, glad to hear your inlaws are okay....the decision to leave the trailer more than likely saved her life.

Hundreds of people are still missing from the areas hardest hit. There is fear that one trailer park may have as many as 60 fatlities but no official announcement as of yet.
The video I saw today taken from a helicopter of the trailer park is beyond description. Nothing but devestation and debris. Nothing whatsoever standing. Just rubble after rubble. There is just not much that can stand up to SUSTAINED 145 mph winds. We had all of our animals in our master bedroom closet with a mattress against the door, and Deb and I were ready to go into the Master Bath with another matress to cover us. Then Charlie decided to follow Charlotte Harbor and we were spared. I believe our home would have withstood it but am certain we would have lost the roof. And of course, the boat. Even as well as I had it tied down, it wouldn't have taken those kinds of winds. No one ever expected it to be a Category 4 storm 12 hours out. By the time it was upgraded to that, it was too late to leave. Many people just got caught, not because of their stubborness or whatever, but because they did not realize just what they were up against. When the storm slowed so much after brushing Key West, that extra time allowed it to grow so much stronger. No one could have predicted that. I've already heard of one lawyer who wants to try to have a class action lawsuit against the Nation Hurricane Advisory Board. My wife's comment to that was "to hang him upside down above an alligator pit". Hurricanes are extremely unpredictable, a fact that the meteorologists kept HAMMERING HOME. It was over Arcadia before our local station stated that we were pretty much out of the woods. They kept stating over and over, this one was so blasted hard to track. It just goes to prove once again, that despite man's accomplishments, we are nothing against "Mother Nature". All we can do at this point is hope and pray.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I think they should quit making predictions. It gives some that could be caught in the storm with a false sense of security. They should just say there is a storm out there and everyone should be ready, then keep us updated with the track.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Well,let me tell ya ..........Daytona took a beating.Most of daytona ormond New Smyrna and Port Orange have no power.Everything is closed.ISB west of Clyde Morris is the only place that has power and places to eat and such.
I was at a friends house last night and literally stood out n the storm.AWESOME!
Very quiet and then all hell broke loose.Maybe for an hour it was unreal.90plus in Daytona area.I drove home about 11pm and it took me an hour to drive 7 miles.Luckily and oddly my house has power.Very small area that actually has power.
The only thing that suffered for me was the poor Bayliner... :( she suffered a shattered windshield.The cover ripped off and the windshield went somewhere...I dunno...it's just not there but some glass is.
\Terry

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I agree.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Just got in from cleaning up since sunrise. Don't really know what kind of damage is like locally. Phone still works, cell phone works sometimes and Nex-tel (no-Tel) hasn't worked since last night Cable is out and I can't find antenna's for the TV :rolleyes: We live 5-10 miles South of Orlando Int Airport (East Lake Toho). Power went out about 1 hr before the start of the storm. Power still out, we had a tornado come down our street about 6 years ago and it took about a week to get the power turned back on then. So I don't have high hopes of having power any time soon. :( We camped out in the master bedroom and some of the things that hit the boarded up windows were scary. I tried to play it cool because i didn't want to freak out my 7 yr old twin girls. All the girls wanted to do was go to sleep but I made them stay up in case we had to move to a different part of the house. They were pissed that I made them wear shoes in case there was glass on the floor if we had to move. All in all we came out OK, lost shingles, screens on the patio, and a couple of 100 feet of privacy fence. Broke the 4x4's right at the ground level. Kind of strange most broke in the west direction, but had some brake towards the south, east and north. Oak trees took a hard hit still standing but lots of broken limbs, lots still stuck up in the trees. And not very many leaves left on the trees. Seems like there are more leaves on the bottom of the pool than the trees. All in all we did OK. Thanks to the generator we have lights, ceiling fans and running water so can't complain. The girls wanted to sleep in the Suburban tonight with the AC on :) My heart goes out to all the other people that lost everything :(

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

We are OK, I wish could say the same for alot of other Floridians!
Dean

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I just talked to terry on his cell he's ok the plant is ok but still without power, They just restored power here in naples,

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Finally got in touch with ChrisK yesterday. He is without power and they had to cut trees out of the street to get to where they had cell phone service. Other than some tree damage, his area is OK.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Where is our favorite "perp thumper" Rolly?..... is he up north?...

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Happened to be up here in Pittsburgh for this one. Talked to ChrisK on Friday night and called Hugetime on Saturday. Glad to see Jason is ok. Now I just wonder if my other boat that is for sale just north of Orlando is ok. Havent heard from the dealer so I am assuming so.

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

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Thanks, I am up and running 100% now.. all there is left is the removal of the tree material in the front of our homes... others still have a long way to go before they are back... I am definatly one of the lucky ones.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

some pics

... or not.. they dont seem to want to post.. I guess I will try again some other time.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

We got hit kinda hard , but we are really lucky . No real house damage , no injuries. They said yeserday we may not have electricity for a month. We are fine though. Just got power back at our office so checking in here.....if anyone needs anything or knows someone that does give a call and we'll do what we can . 407 468 2279

Dangerkitty and Miss Kitten are fine also

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Chris, good to see you back!

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I have been cranking since the storm... We just removed a huge tree from a 3 story apartment today, and have more jobs comming in... I think this was the catalyst that i needed to get the hell out of Cingular. After my vacation runs out in about a week and a half, I think I am going to put in my 2 weeks notice and tell them FOOK OFF!

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Nasty & ChrisK,et al..

Glad to hear you are all OK, or the best that can be expected under the circumstances.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

The bearpaw family is back on line everyone around me has damage lost some barrel tiles and screen from the cage, eight trees gone,the damage up burnt store road is depressing. It was like a 3hr tornado turned cat4 after crossing Pine Is. Then nailed us.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

yacht sales at burnt store marina

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

I'll take an Earthquake any day.........no problem!!!! At least your stuff stays where you had it, and doesn't go over and land next door or down the street! Crazy!

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Mark, I have a brand new generator I bought Friday if you need to borrow it. Let me know. 386 822 4226 Joe

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Thanks Joe , we have one tapped on the house already as does GW.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

All that can be heard in our neighborhood is chainsaws, generators, and
wood chippers. Got our ac & refridge running on the generator, NO
POWER YET!! We had 105 mph winds, everything is OK! Our wooded lots are no more......Thanks for calling Ms Patriac.....God bless. :cool:

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

It's great to see that everyone is OK and making the most of their situation. And it's really great to see OSO'ers lending a hand to one another. Way to go people!

Chris, maybe this is just the impetus you need to get out of the Cingular web...

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Mark or glenn.. if you need to get out of the heat, you are more than welcome to stay at the house here.. I have an extra bed that you are more than welcome to (ok so its Jason's AKA rollwithit's, but im sure he would not care 8-) )

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Thanks Chris, I was at Glenn and Charlies last night when thier power was restored , when we got home our was too....time to go racing now.

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Chris: That was nice!

Wish the yard waste man would get here :argue:

Re: Everyone in Florida Ok ?
 

Terry and his family are fine. They lost some of their pool cage. They were very lucky! The real damage hit the Southern exposed homes on the river as well as the Pine Island areas. I have a home that faced South and is on the river, you can only imagine the damage. My family and I are safe and that's what matters. I learned how to pitch a tent again. No hotels available. What an experience. If anyone needs my help checking on families and homes here in S.W. West Fl. just let me know. I live in Cape Coral. 239-549-1200 or my cell 239-887-1697 Best Wishes to all! Joy