Charley Update (sorry, very long)

[Christine Itterly]

Well, here's the update from Central Florida, Kissimmee to be exact.

My Weekend:

Friday, 1:30pm I finally left the office for home after confirming that the eye of the storm was indeed going to pass over Kissimmee.

Arrive home and shift into high gear hurricane preparations.  I had all ready started all of this earlier because I just had a feeling.  So during the week prior, I caught up on all of my laundry, dishes, cleaning etc.  Now it was get all supplies into the closet, fill water jugs, fill bathtub and secure the outside.  (And keep kids 6 & 9) entertained whilst doing this.

Friday evening.... Sit and wait, sit and wait..... Winds picks up, rain picks up.... Watch wind and rain outside our back door.  

About 7:30 - 7:45pmlights start to flicker off and on, off and on, with the duration in between getting longer and longer. Sometime between 7:45 and 8:00pm power goes off, not to be restored until yesterday evening (Monday approx. 4:00pm).

8:00pmish we move to bedroom location, which houses our "hurricane closet".  Kids proceed to sit in closet and play cards while mom and dad pace bedroom while listening the the back sliding door groan.  If you have not heard this before, there is no way to describe it.  Approx. 8:15, wind really picks up, we can hear roof trying to depart and mom and dad move to closet and close door.  For what seams like hours, but was only actually about 45 minutes kids talk and play cards while mom and dad listen to wind damage being done out side and exchange worried glances in each others direction.  I AM SCARED, VERY SCARED.  9:00pmish wind dies down a little bit and mom and dad decide to investigate a little bit.  We look out our back window to see our fence, wood porch swing and shed in neighbors yard.  We proceed to hustle out back door to retrieve lawn mower, weed eater, edger, and misc.  other outdoor lawn equipment.  Partly to save it and partly to keep it from becoming projectiles.  Throw stuff through (open) sliding door and proceed back to bedroom where we remain for a little while longer.  Wind dies down more and we proceed to go to back yard with flashlights and survay damage.  We are lucky. .... we lost our tree and the aformentioned fence/swing/shed.  We then proceed to drive to my parents house (less than a mile away) to see if tthey are ok.  They are not so lucky.  They have lost their pool enclosure, lots of shingles a tree and have water coming in their roof.  We stay there awhile and then proceed home to try and get some sleep.

4:30am Saturday morning.  I am awake.  I can not go back to sleep. Sit in dark and listen to radio while waiting for daylight.  Luckily, right before the storm hit, I made a pot of coffee and put it in the thermos.  It is black, but it is coffee.

I sit at the back door and wait for the sun to come up.  What normally seems to take no time on a regular morning takes forever this particular morning.  I wait, I pace.

Sun comes up and we asses damage.  Not much more than we had all ready seen the night before.  Some shingles down, but not many.  We are the lucky ones.

Proceed to check on family members, friends.  Most within 1 -2 miles of us.  Here is the run down.

We all have no power, no phone, water thankfully is running.  As of 12:00 noon today, I am the only one with power.

My Parents, as mentioned before - Pool enclosure, fence, tree, lots of shingles but all in all ok.

Sister in Law/Mother in Law (same house),  Big tree in front yard, now on garage roof.  Shingles gone, fence pieces missing.

Sister in Law 2 - 2 trees in front yard down, wishing well father in law made, gone, tree from neighbors back yard in her back yard missing house by a hair, literally, fence destroyed, shingles gone.

Still have not heard from brother in law who is (2) towns over.

Saturday, proceed to fix fence so we can let dog out.  She is in distress by now having to do her business.  We take her on leash, but she is not comfortable doing this, who knew?  After this we go to dads and clean up, patch up clear as much as possible.  No phone service, not even cell service anywhere.  proceed to sister in laws houses to help pre-clean up there.  It is hot and miserable.  We are still the lucky ones.

Sunday.  we try to sleep. It is hot and we need supplies. We search and search they are hard to come by.  But we eventually find ice.  This is good.

Monday.  Spend 6 hours clearing tree out of sister in laws backyard.  Hubby and I are the only ones who know how to use a chainsaw.  So... we take turns cutting until we can cut no more.  Today I can feel every muscle in my body.  Some I never knew I had.  I am bruised and battered and I am still the lucky one.  Our power returns and we all proceed to my house to cool down and get a meal.  Spagetti for 12 is easiest.  

As of noon today (Tuesday)  I am still the only one with power.  My dad does have his house phone back so communicating is easier, but I think he would rather have power.  I know the power companies are doing all they can and he does too, it is just frustrating.  I am back to work now and have for the first time started to absorb what has happened.  I have spent the past days on auto pilot and am just now thinking.  It is a scary thing.

This is not all of the story, just what I can manage to remember and write down at this moment.  

If people read this and it helps, great. If no one reads this, it has, I think been very theraputic for me.

I hope to hear from others and see how they made out.  I think it has helped to finally talk about it a little bit.

[sobriquetnic]

Hi Camki

I read your post with interest and firstly can I say how glad I am that you and your family are safe and well.  It sounds like a nightmare and I'm just glad that you were all around for each other for support.

I hope things get back to some normality for you all soon and take good care of yourselves.

All the best,
Nicola.

[countrigal]

Camki,
Having been through a hurricane myself, I can understand.  Glad to hear that you all made it out ok though.  Possessions can be replaced/repaired, so as stressing as those are at least you have one another.  Hopefully you'll hear from Brother-in-law soon.  Perhaps his phone service is out too, and that is the reason you haven't heard.  Please do let us know.  And if there is anything I can send you, please let me know.  I'm not that far away (next state over) and am willing to help.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[Cozwaz]

Camki - glad to hear you survived the hurricane.

I have been watching the news reports especially about Punta Gorda as my parents used to have a house there and that was where my school holidays used to be spent when I was in my teens, so have many fond memories of the area and its so sad to hear how much damage has been caused by mother nature!

Take care and I hope life gets back to normal as soon as possible.

Coz

[gingertea]

camki,

Glad to hear that you are OK.  I'm proud of your assertion that you are the "lucky" one; so many other people were not so lucky.  I've just watched a news story about people who, in addition to personal property damage, have also lost their jobs because of the devastation.

I'll keep up my prayers for everyone there, and especially that you hear good things from your brother-in-law soon.

Gingertea

[andream]

Oh Cami,
I'm so glad you are okay and that the damage was not as bad as it could have been.  Just so you know I have family in Tampa, where charley was first expected to hit.  I drove the deskdemon staff insane listening to updates on Weather.com.  (I was part of a Red Cross team who went to Homestead after hurricane Andrew and I take it very seriously).  My Dad is in Tampa, my Kids, are in college in Charleston.  Which of course was where Charley was scheduled to move to after having a few hours over water to intensify.

Dad went to stay with his sister in....Orlando. Thank goodness I thought, at least he was safe.   I sat horrified as I watched charley swing south for landfall and barrel right up into your neck of the woods the Kississmee Orlando area.  Two days went by before I heard he was okay and another set of sleepless nights as I tracked and watched Charley's track up the east coast towards my children.  (the staff here was amazed at how much I knew about weather.  and it's interesting to note that only people who were raised in Florida (as I was) know that the east side of a hurricane is the safer side and that the size and clairty of a hurricanes eye wall are very important things to know).

I can only tell you Cami that I had an overwhelming urge to be there.  People here kept asking ... well what would you DO? I knew that I'd be fortifying the house, double checking the hurricane kit with it's canned food, determing whether or not we needed to evalucate....something ANYTHING rather than staring at the map waiting to see what would happen.

I am glad you are okay and I am glad you found the ability to write to us helpful too.  On the other side of pond this week a beautiful village in Cornwall was lost pretty much to a flash flood.  It seems there is no end to the trauma that nature can bring us at times.  Makes me feel kind of small in the scheme of things ya know?

Former Floridian, hurricane tracker and now Deskdemon's weather expert....

Andrea in London

[Christine Itterly]

Thanks everyone!

We are slowly getting back to normal.  My parents finally got their power back late last night.  Having them stay with us was ok, but I was sure glad to see them go to.  The inside of my house now looks like Charley hit it as well.  I know they will be back to help clean up, but just looking at it is scary.  We finally had news from my B-I-L.  He is fine, just couldn't get through on the phone lines.  

My roof started leaking last night.  I went in the attic and dropped a bucket, so we shouldn't get much damage.  It doesn't look like it will be too bad, just where the shingles got ripped off and on the inside is where (2) roof boards meet, so all should be ok.

We won't have enough damage to meet our hurricane deductable, so it will be very tight for a while, but my mortgage company did agree to give me a 60 day extension on this months payment, so that should help.  I will be calling the truck company and phone company later today to see if they can do anything to help as well.  Here's hoping.

All in all, I am thankful.  I too saw what Andrew had done and considering, we have come through just fine.

Thanks again everyone!

[semaxwell1]

Good to hear that everyone is safe and unhurt, camki499. I'd be more worried about looters. I saw on the news that certain areas are having problems with rampade looting. And then there's the price gouging that's been going on. I know if I saw looters on my runned down property, I'd shoot them on the spot!




semaxwell1