Hurricane Update?

[R W Burgess 273]

Hi all, I just checked with my buddy Earl Beauchamp in Sebring, Florida. I should say I tried to. The land line phone system was out of order. I then tried his cell, no go. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Looks like it'll be a while before power is back up down that way. Anybody else heard from anyone down that way. Wayne

[Guest]

Will any of those of us on this forum who hear from any of our Florida forum folks, please let the rest of us know how things are down there.

Some of our more active posters are in Florida and lots of us are concerned about them.

hvs

[Randy Berger 0]

All, cousins in Delray beach area have survived with one broken window and a soaked carpet. Hope everyone else fares as well.

Randy Berger

[nearchoclatetown 282]

There's one in central Floriduh. Got your ears on, good buddy?

[R W Burgess 273]

<span style="font-weight: bold">"News from our President in Sebring, Florida!"</span>

Wayne:

We never lost electric in Sebring this time except for very short snaps. We watched TV until 1:30 AM and since the eye was coming through the six mile distance between our house and Avon Park, we slept in the walk-in closet last night, not too comfortable and our daughter in an inside hallway next to the second bath.

The wind is still blowing here, but the good news is that since we were so close to the eye, and on the south side of it, we probably made out better than anybody in the state of Florida except maybe down in the Naples/Ft. Myers area.

Polk County, the next county north of here took an awful beating, but nobody took a worse beating than Ft. Pierce, Stuart, Vero Beach and Melbourne amd North Palm Beach.

Now it's moved over and is giving Janet Ricketts a dose of this. I'm not sure it isn't time to move back to Virginia <smile>. Actually, this is the first time since 1960 that the Sebring/Wauchula/Lake Placid/Avon Park area have seen something like this just once, to say nothing of twice in three weeks. If Sebring is the safest place in Florida for hurricane's, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else <smile>

The back end wind is still howling here, but I don't think they are too strong, and we're still getting pelted with rain. I'd say the Tampa area still has a long way to go before they can get a good night's sleep too.

We were planning to leave here on Wednesday, but we may not get out, and may not make it to Dublin at all. Everything depends on if our daughter's trailer 9 miles south of here survived.

Earl & Judy

<span style="font-weight: bold">"I'm sure Earl didn't mind me sharing this with his many friends in the AACA!"</span>

[Dynaflash8 987]

I'm back!!! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Wayne, check on our mutual friend J.& R. Dinsmore over in the Tampa area. I can't come up with the phone number here for some reason.

Earl Beauchamp

[R W Burgess 273]

Yes folks, brother Earl just called to say he's "off the air"! He made out fine on the leading edge of the storm, but the trailing edge knocked out the power. Earl's local power company will not be working on the lines until tomorrow morning at 5:00am. He hasn't heard from Janet Rickets or anyone else in his area. Thinking about you guys! Wayne

[PWN 1]

In Gainesville we had sustained 40-45 mph winds with gusts to 68 starting very early Saturday morning. Trees, brances down everywhere. Monday morning the winds down to 30 with gusts to maybe 55-60. Near constant rain.

In my neighborhood there is a heavy tree canopy and a few roads are closed. Lots of 70 ft. longleaf pine with very few down. The southern red cedars and weedy oaks were affected the most. Some with diameters upwards of 45 inches.

Rain about 6 inches? Raing gauges under report, as much of the rain is horizontal.

Gainesville is in north central Fl. and is in the NE quadrant one of worst areas of the storm. One of the worst areas of a hurrincane. We are about 80 miles from either coast.We have been under a tornado watch or waring since early Saturday.

All said an done, knock on wood, it could have been much worse in out area. Knock on wood.

There are still gut wrenching wind gusts as I speak. Ugh.

The areas of Fl near the landfall and in the path of the storm faired much worse than us. I would say because of the size of the storm and the slow movement - there may be more damage than Charly.

Good luck to all others in the path of Frances!!!

Peter

[Dynaflash8 987]

Less damage in Sebring from Frances than from Charley. As for us, we fared very well with just some limbs down, 4 hours without electric last night. Daughter's trailer was undamaged too. So, hope to get ourselves together so as to be in Dublin after two days drive rather than all in one. We expect to be "on time". Hope other Florida friends made out okay too.

[Art Griffin 0]

To may great surprise, we got power and telephone service back late

Monday night in the north part of Melbourne. I didn't expect

that until sometime today (Tuesday). We consider ourselves

very lucky, but there's no gasoline or food, etc.

Well, Hurricane Frances finally headed up into Georgia

as a tropical depression after a devastating trip

through the Bahamas, across the middle of Florida, and

through the Florida Panhandle. It was such a

slow-moving storm that the long pounding did quite a

bit of damage, particularly on the north side of the

eye track. Folks in the Stuart, Ft. Pierce, and Vero

Beach areas took the brunt of the initial impact.

But, the damage ranged from the Palm Beach area to the

Ormond Beach area and beyond, as well as inland across

the state.

We survived, with a little damage, but not like the

folks along the beach. We are five miles from the

beach, and that distance was a life-saver. Aerial

pictures this evening from the beach showed missing

roofs, missing balconies, missing church steeple, and

hole in the side of the Kennedy Space Center VAB, to

mention just a few. Peak recorded wind in Brevard

County was 124 mph --- a little breezy! I doubt if

our winds went beyond 90 mph here. But we did get 13

inches of rain; however, some folks north of here were

really flooded with two feet of rain. It will take a

long time to repair all of the damage, particularly

the severe damage near the beach -- lots of structural

damage there.

Here at our old house, we lost a pine tree Thursday

night as feeder bands become to come across our area,

although the eye was still in the central Bahamas.

Winds began to blow stonger and stronger Friday and

into Saturday. The eye did not enter Florida until

Saturday night shortly after midnight. During that

night, the aluminum cover over my auto parts was

ripped apart in spite of steel cables anchored in the

ground at every post. Our wooden fence was flattened

with every post broken off at the ground. About 50

shingles were blown off the roof. The large pine tree

on the east side of the house held firm and didn't

fall on the house! Thank the Lord! But we did lose

the large shefflera (sp) tree in the front yard and

lots of smaller trees toward the rear of the lot. The

shefflera tree just missed Arlene's Mustang.

So, we really did quite well. Here on the mainland we

were not required to evacuate, so we stayed home. The

beach communities and Merritt Island were evacuated,

however, and for good reason!

I guess you know that over 5 million homes and

businesses lost power and telephone. And it's going

to take a while to get the power systems and telephone

systems fixed.

The main thing is that we are safe. And we're glad

the hurricane has gone!

[R W Burgess 273]

Good to hear from everyone. Art, if your fence was snapped off at the ground, that sounds like an awful strong wind. Glad you made out with minimal damage. Wayne

[48LCCOUPE 0]

I was smart, left for TN before the cane hit and let the wife worry about it. Got a little scary but all is well. By the way got a good job in eastern TN and will be moving up there in the coming weeks. Have to get rid of the gator and learn to speak hillbilly, always somethin.

Thanks for your thoughts and wishes.

Dave

[nearchoclatetown 282]

Does that mean you have to eat peas with a knife??

[Guest]

He just needs to get the Jeff Foxworthy training manual.

I received a call from a friend in Palm Beach, Florida at 9AM Cheyenne time this morning. She said that there is no electricity yet on Palm Beach proper, the island itself, and that she was calling from West Palm Beach on the mainland. They expect her place of employment on the island to be back in operation on Monday. The power lines in Palm Beach are above ground, so things are a mess. So far I have been unable to make contact with someone I need to talk to who works at the Breakers Hotel.

hvs

[24T42 7]

Has anyone heard from the Ricketts yet?

Here in NC today (the 8th) we are starting to feel the effects of Frances. Our mountains have received massive amounts of rain which is causing record flooding. Here in the Piedmont, we are experiencing small wicked tornados. And Ivan could be headed our way. I will feel much better when hurricame season is over in November.

[Tom M 51]

My stepfather lives in Sarasota. Talked to him on phone last night. He has been out of power since Sunday Night. Strange thing across the street they have power. Go figure.