Marc....relieved to know you're OK! It was quite an experience wasn't it.

I hope Claudia M will check in too - she lives in Venice - hopefully she's just away or hasn't read the message board. We have been pretty busy the last few days.

Marc,

So glad to hear from you and that things were no worse. From what I read, you're very lucky the power was out for such a short time!

Glad to hear that most of you fared okay. Let's hope our other East Coast friends come through as well.

I haven't been on the board much in the past couple of days, and am glad to hear all of our Florida friends got through this without major damage. Sounds like Marc and Arlene fared the worst. Living in a coastal area, these things are scary when you know you are in the track of the storm. Reports I have been hearing on CNN from central Florida remind me how lucky I am not to live in a mobile home. So many lost everything.

Olivia,
Be prepared, Charley is on his way to see you.
We are being pounded. The eye passed over an hour ago and now more wind and rain...4 in. so far. Tide is high and threatening to run over bulkhead. :eek:
Stay safe

To Olivia, Suzie, Arlene/Marc and everyone else going through or about to go through these horrible storms - You are in our thoughts and prayers that you make it through safely!

Alan just received a company e mail from Allstate requesting claims adjuster volunteers for CAT duty. As our cruise is about a month and a half away, he will be unable to volunteer now, but may do so upon our return. The adjusters will be there for quite some time helping claimants get their lives back in order.

The whole thing is scary. And the hardships suffered by those hospitalized, in nursing homes, animal shelters and those that are old and/or disabled, that had to face the elements alone. Just terrible. Now they must deal with lack of utilities and perhaps, being homeless.

Ray
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Funny how we take the simple things for granted...John's parents retired ONE month ago, moved out of S. FL (get away from those dreaded hurricanes!) to Central FL (Lake Placid). For you Floridian's, about 75 miles east of Sarasota, 75 miles south of Orlando. Right in the path!! Their house is fine, they are fine. One huge Oak fell partially on the garage and OUR boat :( . John is on his way up to help now. No electricity, no phones (or cells),no water!! No gas stations are open, nothing. Thankfully they have a generator, so they can run a couple of things at once. But, it requires gas. What a mess, FPL tells them it will be another 4-5 days before they get to them. Anyone who's been to Disney knows that the heat in Central FL is almost unbearable, no coastal breezes. They were very fortunate and we are very thankful. All you see on TV here, is the devastation in Punta Gorda, etc. We were here for Andrew and it brings back very sad memories.
For Sheri, friends were over on the Sanibel/Captiva islands yesterday, the entire island is out. No water, electricity. Don't think I would plan on going there next weekend.
I am relieved that everyone we know is safe and sound, the rest will be back to normal in time.

Aren't things in life so contrary, sometimes ? getting away from S.Florida to escape hurricanes !! Here in Ft.Lauderdale I played golf on Fri. and on Sat. with no rain and lots of sun.
We were cetainly very lucky on the East coast, especially seeing what Andrew did. Charley was compared to Andrew in the damage that was done. We are all helping the folks in C. Florida in whatever way we can.

Suzie, I think Charley toned it down a bit so as not to wake me passing by.

Such a relief for you and John to hear that John's parents are OK. Utilities will be restored and what has been damaged can be repaired. They have come through this unscathed, and that's the most important thing of all! Our best wishes to John's parents (and you and John, of course!).

Kimmi:

Is there widespread destruction on Captiva, Pine, and Sanibel Islands? Were new channels cut through the islands? For some reason, all of the news that we have been able to see (limited with no cable) does not mention these islands at all. You would think that they took more damage than Punta Gorda.

Like Marc, I'm waiting to hear more specific information on Sanibel Island. I did catch one aeriel view of Captiva Island showing where water separated the island. It looked like it was in part of the stretch of island that had very little land on either side of the road prior to Charley. I saw this coverage sometime yesterday. They reported that no cars, boats or airplanes were being permitted on either of the islands at that time. Did they lift the restriction on cars to Sanibel yesterday? My sister and brother-in-law owned a condo on Sanibel for about 20 years and just sold it this past spring. The photo of my husband and I in the "Hall of Fame" was taken outside their condo on Sanibel. They have rented it from the new owners next end of January - beginning of February and we have our (non-refundable) plane tickets to join them there. We may have to look for alternate plans. Paul felt bad when he sold it for below the listed price, but now he is feeling bad for the guy he sold it to. They never had a major storm during their years of ownership although they had a few scares.

Like everyone else has stated, I am so glad that all of our LCT friends have made it through Charley relatively well.

Marc,

One of the news stories was, that the islands did indeed take a big hit. They said that, on Sanibel 100% of the structures had some damage. As last I heard, they were still not allowing residents back there to their homes.

We, here on the east central coast of Fl. have come to respect the power of these storms, and believe me this one came way too close for comfort.

My heart goes out to those poor people in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. They will be digging out for some time.

So glad to know that our LCT friends are safe.

Betty

I don't know what happened to my earlier post, but as I was saying.....

Sorry, it showed up finally!

Betty

We have been away for a few days and I did not have access to a computer.It sounds like all of the LCT group came through OK. We get earthquakes in California but they are over so fast and you can't prepare for them ahead of time.We still haven't repaired all of the damage that we got in a mudslide and flood through our house in February.
I hope that no one is in the path of another huuricane for a long time.

Very happy to hear that all of those on this board who live in FL have (so far)reported in with fairly minor damage. The newscasts we get here in the central US make it seem that there IS NO FL, anymore. Glad to hear that's not so.

I can recall a couple of weeks ago when the same thing happened regarding Dallas flooding. Our news reports made it sound like the whole metroplex had become a lake.

In both cases, happy to hear it wasn't so.

Thanks,
Richard :) :) :)

It is amazing the power a hurricane and other natural disasters can have and the destruction they can cause. I am so glad that no one was hurt, damage to property although still no fun to deal with can be repaired and replaced.

Here in Venice we were extremely lucky! Sadly, our neighbors to the south were not..........

Port Charlotte is about 25 miles south of me and the pictures of the destruction are unbelievable. I keep thinking that could be us instead.

I went to a friends house here in Venice-with my dogkids- as I really didn't want to be alone during the rough weather. We thought we would be ok until the storm became a Cat 4 and then we were very nervous. We had our "safe room" all ready if needed. Glad to report that we didn't have to use it as it was an interior bathroom with no windows and there would have been 3 adults, 2 small dogs, and one 70 pound Yellow Lab in there for perhaps an extended period of time!

We never lost power which was somewhat surprising, but I did hear the island of Venice was without power for several hours.

I'm a native Floridian, have lived through a couple hurricanes, but am always amazed at the power of Mother Nature.........

Claudia

Good to hear from you, Claudia, and that you escaped any damage and power failure!

Marc, our friend could not get on Sanibel, if that is any indicator of the damage. He had a condo there. His home is on Pine Island, off Cape Coral, no more than 10 min. by boat to Sanibel/Captiva. His house is on stilts and had minor damage...facia, siding, etc. The home under construction beside him is completely nonexistent. I have pics, will upload them when John gets home. The marina across from his home is completely GONE. Boats scattered everywhere, nothing left standing. Cannot believe how lucky he was, natural disasters are so indiscreminate...as of yesterday, Pine Island will be without power close to two weeks. I'm sure Sanibel is similar. Can't comment on the channel between Sanibel/Captiva. From the limited reporting we see, all you see is water where you thought land used to be :(

We have, however, been given national news reports that Captiva Island has been effectively cut into two parts by the hurricane. With news these days, accuracy is always suspect. I just hope it is not true.

Thanks,
Richard

Thanks for the updates.

All of the barrier islands are continuously reformed by storms. A new cut will be made while another may be filled by sand. There is no way to stop it. Many of the channels now have sea walls to make the cut permanent. That may work but it won't keep mother nature from creating a new channel if she wants.

I believe the new channel-courtesy of Charley- occurred on North Captiva.

Re Sanibel - heard on TV last night that it may be a week before residents are allowed back on Sanibel............

Claudia

Claudia....so glad to hear from you! The stories and photos from the devistated areas are so tragic.

It's good to know all of our LCTers are OK.

Yes, Kim, it looks like I have to cancel yet another vacation.... I am using the plane ticket from my cancelled Las Vegas trip to go to Florida this weekend...well, maybe I will still go and just stay someplace else...we are flying into Mt Myers...any ideas of other places to stay?

...not that my dilemma has an ounce of importance in light of what all you Floridians are going through! :(

Looking at what's happened, I think you would be best to just stay out of the way. Ft. Myers is pretty close to Punta Gorda, and I'm betting that with the relief effort, they need to concentrate on that. Just my two cents.

I have good friends in Venice, and I really doubt that I would be in the way if we flew into Ft Myers and drove up to Venice. I certainly wouldn't want to hamper relief efforts!

I agree with you Sheri - we have friends in the Venice area and they are having guests this weekend too!!! Joanna

Sheri,

Just found this: http://www.news-press.com/news/weather/hurricane/index.html

Thanks Kathy! I have been surfing this stuff all weekend. Looks like they might have more bad weather headed their way again!!!! :(

Thanks, Margo! I was thinking about all the Sarasota/Venice/Tampa/Orlando LCTers-and all points in between of course-when it looked like we might take the direct hit.........Glad its over for us anyway and hoping no more hurricanes this year.........My heart goes out to the thousands of people who were severely impacted by Charley.

Sherri - Ft. Myers airport is open so you should have no problem flying in. Everything in Venice is back to normal so you should be fine. I hear though that hotels/motels are full......

I've been away for a few days without net access so I was worried about our LCT members ... so glad to hear that everybody came through OK with no major injuries/problems! The devastation that I saw on network TV in Japan was staggering ... (shudder)

Masaki

One of my closest friends father sold his home in Punta Gorda about a week prior to all of this. The house was completely destroyed.....amazing....

R