A day in the life.............

[Pete]

of hurricane Charley. I know that many had it, and still have it much worse then my family had to endure. My family’s prayers go out to them. That being said, this is what it’s been like for me.

Pretty wild ride to say the least. Not sure what time I pulled the plug on the computer Friday, think it was around two o’clock. The national weather service prior to that point was still saying the storm would track off sore, and make landfall north of us. We were expecting a cat 3, 60 to 70 miles away. I looked at the local Doppler, and said to Cindy, its turned east, right at us. A minute later the local dude said he thought it was tracking east, but NWS said it was still tracking north. It had also just about skipped a cat 3, and went right up to a 4. At that point, most of the shelters were full, and the nearest one with room was about 4 miles away. The local news guy came back on and said it was tracking east and to ignore what the NWS was saying. At that point I knew we were screwed. He said it was going to cut across Sanibel, and track right up the Calusahatchi River, and the eye should hit the mid point bridge in 20 minutes, take cover. The bridge is about 1.5 miles south of me, and the river 7/8 mile to the east, we were ground zero. It was then I sent my wife and daughter to our walk-in closet. That’s our tornado shelter, but have never actually hunkered down in it. I moved the computer to a safer place, went to the bedroom and moved the mattress into position for protection.

We have a walk-in closet in our bedroom across from the vanity area. That area is the strongest part of the house. With room for all in the closet if need bee, my wife and daughter got into the closet, with myself and the dog in the vanity area. We had the TV in sight, and lost power at 2:30. My hat’s off to the news people, and the networks. They simulcast the TV coverage over the radio, which is much better being the people reporting are lookin at the radar which goes down to street level. By about three o’clock, it was pretty intense. They were reporting wind gusts over 100mph at the hospital up the street from me, and they had lost a portion of the roof. We had sustained winds around 90, and the noise was numbing. Like having your head in a tin trash can, with a high pressure hose hitting it from every direction.. The other noise, which sounded like a group of people running across the roof we couldn’t figure out. A little after three, the news said it stalled at the gulf side of Sanibel, and moments later it started to skirt the island heading north east a little. While it helped our out look a little, we weren’t out of the woods yet. I could see the fear in my daughter’s eyes, though she wouldn’t admit it. I knew that this storm was compact enough to bounce all over the place, so I kept everybody in place. By 3:30, the storm was worse, and the house would seem to shake (best way to describe it) a bit from time to time.

I was amazed to see the dog sleep through most of this, being she jumped onto my bed the night before when a feeder band came through. From 3:30 to 4:15 it didn’t let up, and the radio was cutting in and out. We caught part of a report that it was tracking across Captiva and Upper Captiva islands, and heading for Pine Island and Punta Gorda. Like a magnet, it stayed over water right into Charlotte Harbor. It came and went fast, and by 5 it was down to tropical storm force winds, and I deemed it safe at about 5:15 to come out of the closet.

During the time in the safe area, my wife peeked out the bathroom window to see our neighbors screen pool enclosure down, and in the pool. She also figured out what the running noise was, shingles being torn from the roof. I didn’t expect to find much of our new pool cage, and low and behold, it was perfect. At that point, other people were starting to come out to survey the damage. We lost about a third of the shingles off the north side of the roof, and had water running into our sealing fan in the living room. Lots of trees down everywhere. We got lucky, very very lucky. The area that took the brunt of the storm is 15 miles away at most, and IMO if the storm was larger overall, it would have in fact cut across Sanibel, and up the river. My heart goes out to the folks that took it on the chin. Upper Captiva in now two tiny islands, which shows the force of this storm. It was a nice night, with a steady breeze. Knowing that my family, extended family and friends were ok, I kicked back and attempted to drink all my cold beer.

Saturday morning came quick, as did the mild hangover. We had spoken to our insurance company, and a contractor right after the storm, but the contractor hadn’t shown up to tarp my roof by noon. The daily storms were starting to build, so we figured we would try the local Lowes. You couldn’t even get into the parking lot, so we went onto the Home depot. After standing in line for 45 minutes, I was able to get a tarp. Even with a breeze, being on the roof for about thirty minutes wasn’t fun with a heat index of over 100. Being I wasn’t able to get dry ice on Thursday, it was time to go get a bunch………ya right, pigs with wings would be easier to find. We didn’t have drinkable tap water, but had plenty of drinking water in bottles and jugs, but the ice was getting very low. I went to two different places where they said you could get ice, but had no luck. Room temp water from a 90 degree room may keep you healthy, but it doesn’t help cool ya down. So we settled in for the second night with no power, and very tropical weather.

VIOLA ! I got in the van about 7:30 Sunday morning and went to the Publix supermarket with the intent of getting some cold drinks for breakfast as a treat. I found people walking out with huge bags of ice. One bag per person, which is 6 regular bags. It was like Christmas at my house, and having 30 lbs of ice draped over your shoulders was almost better then sex. Most of the food in the frig got trashed already, but the deep freezer we have was still in good shape. Three bags of ice in the cooler, and three in the deep freezer. We got another treat late in the day Sunday, a news paper. I go right for the sports page to get the score from the Skins game. They had a pic from the game, but not a word or score. God has a sense of humor, but the special section wasn’t funny at all. It was our first look at the damage. We had to trash most of the food in the deep freezer today, but we have eaten pretty much regular meals from Friday night to the present. I stayed home today, but Cindy took Gabrielle to work with her being it was air conditioned. We got power back at 8:50pm Wednesday, and not a moment too soon. Not much ice left, and none to be found. I can work in the heat all day, but need it fairly cool to sleep, so I’m fairly well shot at this point.

The local population, and all the municipalities have done an outstanding job. You see some wild stuff while driving around the area. A row of power poles all leaning perfectly, a billboard twisted into modern art. A sapling bent 90 degrees as if it was meant to grow that way. The smell of BB-Q’s, and the steady drone of generators at night gave it the feel of a carnival without the lights. It was the anniversary of Woodstock, and the tunes were solid Sunday night.

I feel I did the right thing by staying in my house. I will do some things once it settles down here a bit. A battery operated TV is first on the list. A gen set to run frig, range, and a few fans. Reinforce the walk in closet. With a dog, you have very few places to go in the event of a storm, and buggin out can backfire as it has this time and in the past for many. I thank all the people from all over the country who are here helping. They learned so much from hurricane Andrew, and are weeks farther ahead then they were on day 3 after that storm.

God bless those who had it worse. Glad to be back to normal, and it time to do some catchin up.

[Brave]

Wow! Thanks for that account. Fascinating stuff.

Glad you and yours came through it as well as you did.

Don't you have a garage where you work on bikes? All well there too?

[jbooma]

WOW, sounds like you were very lucky :notworthy

so that new enclosure you built for your pool was fine, guess they did a good job after all

[PCS]

Yeah yeah. You just didn't want to make wings.

Welcome back.

[JMac]

WOW!! I can just imagine the fear you felt. Living here in Tornado Alley, we have spent many nights in our safe room.

I am glad you are all safe!

[Pete]

Originally posted by Brave

Wow! Thanks for that account. Fascinating stuff.

Glad you and yours came through it as well as you did.

Don't you have a garage where you work on bikes? All well there too?

Great memory Brave, I do bike work out of the house. I only have one that belongs to another person right now, and It was on my mind. Garages tend to do badly in storms, and the bike a TWN (Triumph Nurnbreg Works) is very rare in the states.. As luck has it, I had a new garage door installed a little over a year ago. It has the latest braces to meet the hurricane codes. It's about 65 lbs heavier then the old one, and has since burned out the opeaner.

Originally posted by jbooma

WOW, sounds like you were very lucky :notworthy

so that new enclosure you built for your pool was fine, guess they did a good job after all

Booma, I will recomend that company to anybody who asks. I actually think it was pure luck. People up the street had one built about a month before ours, and theirs wound up two blocks away. The BOOB that lives behind me had his roof replaced about 3 or 4 months ago. He never put his solar pannels back on the roof, and had them stacked in the yard directly behind my house uknown to me. I'm pretty sure that's what helped take down my neighbors pool cage. Screen will take more then you would think till you put a solid pannel on it. Two of them were in Bobs pool, and the rest up against my fence.

Originally posted by Park City Skins

Yeah yeah. You just didn't want to make wings.

Welcome back.

Actually, I did make the wings:laugh: The wife and daughter are still pizzed at me. Way tooooo hot again. Hey, the guy on the radio said to eat spicy foods to make you sweat, which cools you off. Didn't work well at all :doh:

Originally posted by 5Arrington6

WOW!! I can just imagine the fear you felt. Living here in Tornado Alley, we have spent many nights in our safe room.

I am glad you are all safe!

I heard today we had 13 tornados during the storm in my area. One was at the hospital up the street. I was never scared throughout the storm, but was very upset when I realized my daughter was as scared as she was. I heard a story today, a man, woman, and their 4 kids rode out the storm in their mobile home. They were in one of the mobile home parks that got flattened in Punta Gorda. They came through completely unharmed. He found plans on the net on how to build a safe room in your mobile home. I still haven't gotten to see any of the arial footage of the barrier islands, but driving to work today I see how bad it was in my area.

My sister my be out of a job, being her office was flattened for the most part. Her hubbys shop is gone, nothing left but the slab and some debris. It really shook her, to the point she wants to move. A friend has over 300k damages to the 5 buildings he owns and rents to buisnesses.

If you stand in the right place in Port Charlotte, you can see Arcadia, miles away. Looks like somebody took a giant lawn mower, set it at 15 feet, and cut a path from one town to the other. The film coverage doesn't even begin to give you a clue as to how trashed SW fl is right now. School may start back up next monday. They get 2 hurricane days a year, so the schedule is gonna be a mess. People cant stick with the rules that if a traffic light is out, you treat it as a 4 way stop. More people have died in the past 2 days then from a direct effect of the storm.

It's just so wacked...........Seeing 4 guys in camo with M-16's directing traffic was weird, and comforting at the same time.

[skinsfan44]

Pete, I am glad you and the family are okay.

After going though Hurricane Isabel last year up here in Maryland, that was nothing compared to what you are going though now.

[Pete]

Originally posted by skinsfan44

Pete, I am glad you and the family are okay.

After going though Hurricane Isabel last year up here in Maryland, that was nothing compared to what you are going though now.

Things are almost back to normal. Except for having to boil drinking water, we're moving in the right direction. The shelves at the stores are filling up again, and the kids will be back to school this monday.......we hope. I couldn't imagin being without power as long as you were for Isabel, I'd lose it with theheat we have this time of year.