Charlie Report-
(for those of you who are local, just skip this- you already know what follows & for those on more than one of my mailing lists, sorry for the repetition)
Thanks for all the calls and e-mails.
Orlando got SLAMMED !!!! We were not only in the direct path, but we got hit with NorthEast Quadrant of the "eye". The worst possible part of the center storm wall.
Thank God the storm was so fast moving. So we were subjected to 45 to 75 mph winds for about 2 � hours. Some gusts to 90 mph. in our area. Highest gusts were in excess of 100 mph. We were incredibly lucky.
Our house seemed to be the demarcation line in our neighborhood. We lost power ONLY. Just went on yesterday. But the houses just east of ours have major damage.
HUGE WATER OAKS down. Some through roofs into a kitchen or master bedroom. One neighbor had a beautiful fully restored Porsche Carrera that was in his garage. The garage and the car are crushed.
(Aaron/Maria -was really concerned about you. Spoke to Ernie from Mote yesterday and he gave me an update. I cannot believe you got through in such good shape. I still have not heard anything from Ginger Allen)
For the last four days we sweated profusely. My routine was to get up, negotiate streets, find ice and other needed items. Fortunately I had taken all of the normal preparations including filling both cars with gas. I finally purchased a fan that I connected to a trolling motor battery via a converter and we could sleep with a little cooling.
All in all, not that bad for us. Very harrowing for some and for others, it was an awful disaster.
But, I was really surprised in talking with friends and family living outside of Central Florida, that folks are not aware how bad it is throughout all of Central Florida. We, of course, had no national news and I would fully understand if the national news focused on Punta Gorda and Charlotte. BUT, There are still 300,000 people around Orlando without power and almost 700,000 from west of Punta Gorda to the East Coast. It will be the week-end before some areas get power.
From coast to coast we had a class 4, then 3, hurricane go right across the middle of the state. The damage and debris are astounding. There is not a single street ANYWHERE that does not have piles of trees and or limbs strewn or piled up everywhere. Dangling power lines, electric and phone poles fell like toothpicks. When all is tallied this storm will fall just a few dollars short of the damage caused by Andrew.
Every three hours there is a live Emergency Operation broadcast for updates: where
things stand re: power; where you can get ice; where the boil water alerts are still in effect; where you can get water; which stations have both gas AND power. Several local radio stations do nothing but broadcast updates and take phone calls from folks who have located sources and locations for necessities. The local TV stations have continuous scrolling bars across the bottom of the screen with important info. Schools are cancelled until Monday.
It is still full blown recovery mode. Thousands of utility crews from out of state are ubiquitous-Texas, La., N & S Carolina, Oklahoma. Ice has been trucked in from as far away as Wisconsin and Michigan.
Lots of incredible stories of courage and compassion. Will share some of them later.
We are safe- Jerry
