Tropical Cyclone Irma

[Sal1950]

The worst is over,
Roaring winds and things hitting the house kept me up most of the night.
Where I'm at west of Orlando there appears lots of tree damage but little else I have seen so far.
Now I'm just nervous to get home and see how my place survived.
Some phone calls to the park also saying minimal damage but I'll see later today when I get there.

Still no word from Ray?

 

[DonH56]

Fingers crossed, Sal, that your home is still there...

Hopefully power and/or internet service is out for Ray, or he has better things to do, and not rebuilding his house!

 

[RayDunzl]

 

[RayDunzl]

 

[amirm]

Good to see you back Ray. Are you without power or are you good?

 

[NorthSky]

Ray, are you running on batteries?

The main thing is that lives were saved, in the state of Florida.

 

[Burning Sounds]

Great to see Sal and Ray are safe and that the worst appears to be over.

 

[RayDunzl]

Power went down about 8pm (?), back on about 11am. Not too bad.

Had some candles and led flashlights and my Dad's 40+ year old Radio Shack Realistic Patrolman - 6

It was entertaining enough. As good as watching TV while taking a nap. I thought it took 4 D-cells, which of which I have none. But it takes 4 C-cells, of which, oddly enough, I had 5 new ones from the Dollar store. Sunbeams.

We sat on the lanai and watched distant transformers blow up. Nice green/blue flashes in the sky.

Fell asleep while what may have been the worst of it passed by.

Walking around outside in the dark, didn't see any shingles on the ground.

Small trees/plants blew over. Plumeria and banana and mango not happy. No unusual standing water.

Neighbor across the street has a whole-house generator. He's retired from Railroad. Had to listen to that all night, too.

Will go to the other house later, and see if it survived. It has a big oak tree that could cause a lot of grief.

This house did well. Quiet, barely knew the wind was blowing like mad outside for hours, no leaks, no creaks and groans audible at all.

 

[Wayne]

Great to see Sal and Ray are safe and that the worst appears to be over.

I couldn't say it better!

 

[Sal1950]

Thanks guys!
Went to the park for the day, my place is fine except of some very minor siding damage which I already fixed.
Spent the rest of time helping others with what I could.
Power, internet, etc is still down, so I came back here for the night.
Lots of roofing damage and alike around the community, only a few older places have sustained very serious damage.

Power went down about 8pm (?), back on about 11am. Not too bad.

wOOt, glad to see you back Ray and hear all is well there!

 

[DonH56]

Glad y'all are OK!

Heard from some friends who have relatives (older parents who retired down there) in the islands (forgot which one). Severe damage in the area but their house survived with just shingles and minor damage. BUT, they got notice from neighbors and the police that while they were away thieves bashed in the front door and looted the place. Geez...

 

[NorthSky]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news..._experimentrandom_3_na&utm_term=.b87ba888364a

 

[FrantzM]

Glad to know you're Ok people!

Man! That was a serious scare.. Could have been much worse.
Keep safe!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Yes glad to hear all the guys in the path of Irma are fine.

 

[tomelex]

Good to see you all back on line so fast and things are pretty good for you.

 

[Old Listener]

Sal and Ray, I'm glad to hear that you both came through the storm.

I appreciate reading your personal accounts of your experiences. Please continue to provide updates as you get things back to normal.

 

[NorthSky]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/americas/hurricane-irma-caribbean-damage-sliders/index.html

"Hurricane Irma devastated several Caribbean islands when it tore through the area as a Category 5 storm, killing at least 36 people, knocking down trees and leveling buildings."
___

Check the satellite pictures to see what these people have lost.
And the death toll is way from over; people have disappeared and some of them we'll never know.
It will take years to rebuild. Check the second link, under the word "devastated", to see the extent.

 

[RayDunzl]

Electric Restoration Progress:

37,000 restored in 15.5 hours...

So, only 123.5 hours to go... 5.2 days... Sometime next Sunday if they continue at the same rate.

I wonder who will be the last to be restored?

(two weeks for some, they warn)

 

[RayDunzl]

Irma sucked water out of the west coast bays and estuaries:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/manatees-rescued-irma-drains-florida-bay/story?id=49761259

 

[RayDunzl]

Georgia:

It doesn't end...