larry
On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 17:45:54 -0400, Marwan Saidi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I live in Oviedo, about 3 miles north of UCF. What was left of the eye came
> right through here. I took my family to my mother's house (also in Oviedo)
> because she has brick construction and my house is wood frame. Things were
> pretty docile until about 9:15 pm on Friday, then all Hell broke loose. We
> (the wife and 3 kids) were camping out in mom's living room (mom is on
> vacation in San Fran) because the only windows in that room face north.
> After the power was flickering on and off for an hour or so, it went
> completely out at 9:15, followed immediately by the sound of something VERY
> heavy on the roof of the room we were in. We bailed from that room to a
> bathroom hallway with no windows, where we stayed until the bad part was
> over (about 30 minutes). My kids were very scared, my 4 year old saying
> "Daddy, I don't like Charley!". Finally, when things calmed a bit, we went
> out to survey.
>
> The first thing I noticed was that my mother's pool enclosure was gone.
> Completely collapsed, metal beams in the pool. Surreal. We checked out back
> by the living room and found a distressing sight: roofing materials and
> insulation covered the back yard. As there was no power and still a lot of
> wind, we did not stay outside too long to really investigate. After waiting
> a couple of hours to ensure that the worst was past, we slipped into an
> uneasy sleep.
>
> Saturday morning came and we went back out to see what was up. I have lived
> in the Orlando area for 32 years and been through several close calls with
> tropical storms, and one direct hit (David in 1979 or 80). Nothing I have
> ever seen compared to what we found Saturday morning. My mom's entire 2 acre
> yard was covered in large tree branches and other assorted debris. The
> street on which she lives was literally covered in leaves and branches. The
> noise on the roof? A 10' by 16' section of her roof had completely ripped
> off and was laying on the roof. The top of her chimney was laying in the
> side yard, after traveling the length of the house. Not good. I was now VERY
> worried about what we would find at my house. We loaded everyone up and
> headed over to my home. Along the way were images of destruction the likes
> of which I had only seen on TV before. No power, anywhere. Traffic lights
> not only out, but broken from the lines and crashed down onto the streets.
> VERY large trees completely uprooted and laying across major roads. Power
> lines everywhere down and in the streets. One subdivisions brick wall
> completely flattened for about 300 feet.
>
> When we finally got to our street, the first thing we saw was a giant oak
> which had collapsed onto my neighbor's house and car. Approaching my home, I
> saw that our basketball hoop had fallen onto my car, but the damage was
> minor. The front yard looked ok, one tree had fallen from another property
> into my yard. Inside the house, aside from no power, things looked ok. The
> back yard was a different story. A large pine had fallen from the neighbor's
> yard into mine, and was supported by one branch so that the tree itself was
> about 8' in the air, over my back fence. One tree by my house had just
> exploded, with large branches caught up in the tops of the two trees next to
> it. A 20' section of my fence was blown over, and there were many large
> branches in my yard. One tree in my back yard had blown partially over,
> leaning on my home. Amazingly, the roof of my house, which is the original,
> 18 year old roof, lost exactly one half of one shingle. All in all I was
> quite fortunate.
>
> We got our power back on Saturday evening and life is somewhat back to
> normal. I spent most of the day Saturday trying to patch the roof at mom's
> and checking on her animals (she has 7 horses, 4 dogs, and many other
> critters) all of which were ok. Sunday found me cutting up and removing
> many, many pieces of tree. All in all, we were lucky. My mother still has no
> power, all schools are closed until at least Wednesday, and the best
> estimates for power restoration are one week to 10 days from today.
>
> So, that's the story from around these parts, luckily no serious injuries or
> deaths have been reported in the central Florida area, thank God. My
> thoughts are with those less fortunate, specifically in Charlotte, Polk, and
> Osceola counties, where the damage was more severe.
>
> P.s. Here is an album of the damage at my house, my mom's house, and the
> surrounding areas:
>
> http://photobucket.com/albums/v137/Jesterette/Hurricane/?action=""> > =treevan.jpg
>
> Marwan Saidi
> Webmaster - PFH
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
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