- Matt Small
----- Original Message -----
From: Marwan Saidi
To: CF-Community
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 5:45 PM
Subject: Charley Sucks
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]
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings] [Donations and Support]
