Melissa
Inactive Member
Hey everyone, just checking in to let you know we are all fine. I was concerned about Nancy remembering that she lives in Apopka FL. The ironic thing is that they evacuated over 600,000 people from Hillsborough and pinellas county and most of them went inland to central FL only to put themselves directly in Charlie's path. I don't know if this AOL link will work but it is of an amateur video that some fool took trying to drive around in the storm in Punta Gorda.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/video.adp?id=20040815093809990001
I'm happy to report that Len's Mom and dad are safe in Ft. Myers. They did the same thing that most people did down there and not evacuate in time. For 24hrs before the storm they were telling us all about the mandatory evauactions in Tampa which caused southern FL residents to rest on their laurels a little. By the time it jumped from a category 2 to a 4 they had lost power and were cut off from any information. I have learned that these hurricanes can be very temperamental.
We talked to them on their cell just before they got hit but the news was reporting 80mph winds and it was to late for them to go anywhere by that point.
They do live on the water with only an 8ft sea wall but they were very lucky to only lose the trees in their yard and their screen porch. I guess their investment of hurricane shutters paid off on Friday.
They just got there phone service back today but are expected to be without power for another week, So today the neighboorhood spent the day having a cook out on peoples grills cooking all of the food in everyone's freezers that will be going bad. We wanted to go down just to bring them all ice but they said that was too much. I asked them to come and stay with us but they said no, I think they feel so fortunate just to have water, phone service, and a place to call home that they figure that they can live without a/c and hot showers for a while. But it's going to get in the 90's this week so they might just change their mind.
As for us we boarded up (because our stupid neighbors across the street never bothered to remove any of their lawn ornaments from their yard)
And we took the kids, Emily and our new kitten to my sister-in-laws house. It was kind of funny how much stuff we took. Before we left I told Len to back up his files on the pc so he just put the whole cpu in our suitcase. We camped ou in a house with 10 adults, 12 cats, 3 dogs and a rabbit!
Our house would have never made it in those winds, our roof is weak as it is and unlike many people down here we do not have a concrete block home.
My brother lives on the water and they packed enough for a month figuring that if they did end up getting 14' swells in their living room then they wouldn't have been in the house again for a while. But Tampa lucked out again and I am sure all of those insurance companies are happy about that considering our population here.
I wanted to thank dogger and AlexMaddy for thinking about us this weekend. Emily and I appreciate your concern and I so happy to hear that everyone else is ok.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/video.adp?id=20040815093809990001
I'm happy to report that Len's Mom and dad are safe in Ft. Myers. They did the same thing that most people did down there and not evacuate in time. For 24hrs before the storm they were telling us all about the mandatory evauactions in Tampa which caused southern FL residents to rest on their laurels a little. By the time it jumped from a category 2 to a 4 they had lost power and were cut off from any information. I have learned that these hurricanes can be very temperamental.
We talked to them on their cell just before they got hit but the news was reporting 80mph winds and it was to late for them to go anywhere by that point. They do live on the water with only an 8ft sea wall but they were very lucky to only lose the trees in their yard and their screen porch. I guess their investment of hurricane shutters paid off on Friday.
They just got there phone service back today but are expected to be without power for another week, So today the neighboorhood spent the day having a cook out on peoples grills cooking all of the food in everyone's freezers that will be going bad. We wanted to go down just to bring them all ice but they said that was too much. I asked them to come and stay with us but they said no, I think they feel so fortunate just to have water, phone service, and a place to call home that they figure that they can live without a/c and hot showers for a while. But it's going to get in the 90's this week so they might just change their mind.
As for us we boarded up (because our stupid neighbors across the street never bothered to remove any of their lawn ornaments from their yard)
And we took the kids, Emily and our new kitten to my sister-in-laws house. It was kind of funny how much stuff we took. Before we left I told Len to back up his files on the pc so he just put the whole cpu in our suitcase. We camped ou in a house with 10 adults, 12 cats, 3 dogs and a rabbit!
Our house would have never made it in those winds, our roof is weak as it is and unlike many people down here we do not have a concrete block home.
My brother lives on the water and they packed enough for a month figuring that if they did end up getting 14' swells in their living room then they wouldn't have been in the house again for a while. But Tampa lucked out again and I am sure all of those insurance companies are happy about that considering our population here.
I wanted to thank dogger and AlexMaddy for thinking about us this weekend. Emily and I appreciate your concern and I so happy to hear that everyone else is ok.
