Straight_Man
6 Sep 2004, 3:47am
Let's see, I'm gonna vent a bit here, but I am VERY grateful I have a house to live in and that I was online all through Frances. not so For Charlotte, but for Charlotte I was in Naples FL (and after that for a while in Michigan cleaning malware off my Brother Steve's computer and taking a Charlotte County break after days of hauling tree limbs and roof tiles and lanai screen cage pieces and shreds of pool heater roof parts and pipes to curb, and helping neighbors also), but that is another story) along with my Business computer for part of the time but not online at all. To keep this somewhat techie, will mention that all parts stock and computers both survived intact and I am in the house in Punta Gorda now, Home Depot and Grocery stores and Wal-Mart are open again as of three days before Frances Hit, local lumber yard is open, almost no gas station has gas but my gas tank is full due to a trip almost to Fort Mudge the day before to fill the tank. Charlotte County 911 service is down again, so Punta Gorda Police Department is handling dispatch while Charlotte County Emergency Operations puts thier part of 911 dispatch back together.
I THINK the car survived Frances, it's still parked where I left it right up tight to the Garage door out front. Nothing blew into it, the car alarm did not go off as would have happened if something heavy had hit it.
At this time, I am one of two Computer Businesses in Charlotte County that I know exist still, with stock on hand. I had an application for a School district position open, but the position budget is probably vaporized due to Charley. Will find out Tuesday about that, one way or the other. Our school district is double-sessioning remaining schools aftr they reopen after a combined Frances and Labor Day break. Essentially, kids that went to Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda are now going to school from noonish to 6:30 PM at Port Charlotte High School, while the normal Port Charlotte High School students get to attend from 6:30 AM until 11:45. One school, two sets of staff and students. This is happening for half the students in the district, roughly, as HALF teh schools were made habitable enough to teach students in as of Aug 26th. Two schools worth of kids over this have schools that might open Sept. 7 (that was firm before Frances).
OTOH, for Charlotte County, something happened that I can only ascribe to a higher power (I think of that power as God), and this is NOT a vent, rather it is a thanksgiving-- it's gratefullness that the official Death Toll for Charlotte County is under 20 at this time-- for a county with over 200,000 citizens in it. Damage of physical property is huge, but since we got no flood surge from Charlotte and many homes followed a very strict hurricane resistant building code, MANY folks survived this very high cat 4 hurricane (Charlotte) in their homes(Charlotte County Red Cross certified shelters for a CAT 3 or above do not exist, they are all in the flood plain of a CAT 3 or 4 that carries a storm surge with it, in fact for a CAT 4 they would be completely under water had Charlotte County gotten its predicted sorm surge). Because some city planners hads set up an underground reservoir and had maintained the water system in the city well, we had water in two days after Charlotte clear across town from the main pump house, and that water did not have to be boiled as of Aug 28th, when the water system got state recertified.
Because folks from all over the US responded, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Army, National Guard, folks from the Florida East Coast police and fire departments, Comcast Techs and subcontractors from ALL over, Sprint techs from all over Sprint's multistate ops region, citizens across the US donating AND getting shipped down here by the hundreds of TRAILER and TANKER LOADs things like water and ICE (Ice is nice when temps are above 90 Fahrenheit routinely this time of year, it's bright sunny out, stores have no refrigeration, and are not even open for a week to ten days due to roads covered with tree limbs, power lines and debries) and food and mobile kitchens (Red Cross, Church folks of several kinds, Salvation Army) helped keep many folks alive. An Army MASH unit was Punta Gorda's ER for two weeks (the local hospital now has ONE floor open of three), and military helicopters were doing med-evacs up to 100 miles away for some folks and surveying damage. My thanks to anyone who hangs out here or who even lurks here for any help you gave. The town of Arcadia mostly is mashed, as far as houses go, some businesses are back open, and in our town when the mail lady delivers DRINKABLE WATER at need by the gallon with the mail you know folks really massively care (post office here lost large part of its roof, mail got through anyhow, and carriers with damaged homes delivered mail and water donated by folks in many states, WalMart gave away pottable water, Publix also did. Something like this kind of a major disaster makes me look at caring folks from all over, many anonymous, and just want to say "THANKS, BIG TIME!"
John, AKA Straight_Man, from Punta Gorda, Florida, USA.
I THINK the car survived Frances, it's still parked where I left it right up tight to the Garage door out front. Nothing blew into it, the car alarm did not go off as would have happened if something heavy had hit it.
At this time, I am one of two Computer Businesses in Charlotte County that I know exist still, with stock on hand. I had an application for a School district position open, but the position budget is probably vaporized due to Charley. Will find out Tuesday about that, one way or the other. Our school district is double-sessioning remaining schools aftr they reopen after a combined Frances and Labor Day break. Essentially, kids that went to Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda are now going to school from noonish to 6:30 PM at Port Charlotte High School, while the normal Port Charlotte High School students get to attend from 6:30 AM until 11:45. One school, two sets of staff and students. This is happening for half the students in the district, roughly, as HALF teh schools were made habitable enough to teach students in as of Aug 26th. Two schools worth of kids over this have schools that might open Sept. 7 (that was firm before Frances).
OTOH, for Charlotte County, something happened that I can only ascribe to a higher power (I think of that power as God), and this is NOT a vent, rather it is a thanksgiving-- it's gratefullness that the official Death Toll for Charlotte County is under 20 at this time-- for a county with over 200,000 citizens in it. Damage of physical property is huge, but since we got no flood surge from Charlotte and many homes followed a very strict hurricane resistant building code, MANY folks survived this very high cat 4 hurricane (Charlotte) in their homes(Charlotte County Red Cross certified shelters for a CAT 3 or above do not exist, they are all in the flood plain of a CAT 3 or 4 that carries a storm surge with it, in fact for a CAT 4 they would be completely under water had Charlotte County gotten its predicted sorm surge). Because some city planners hads set up an underground reservoir and had maintained the water system in the city well, we had water in two days after Charlotte clear across town from the main pump house, and that water did not have to be boiled as of Aug 28th, when the water system got state recertified.
Because folks from all over the US responded, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Army, National Guard, folks from the Florida East Coast police and fire departments, Comcast Techs and subcontractors from ALL over, Sprint techs from all over Sprint's multistate ops region, citizens across the US donating AND getting shipped down here by the hundreds of TRAILER and TANKER LOADs things like water and ICE (Ice is nice when temps are above 90 Fahrenheit routinely this time of year, it's bright sunny out, stores have no refrigeration, and are not even open for a week to ten days due to roads covered with tree limbs, power lines and debries) and food and mobile kitchens (Red Cross, Church folks of several kinds, Salvation Army) helped keep many folks alive. An Army MASH unit was Punta Gorda's ER for two weeks (the local hospital now has ONE floor open of three), and military helicopters were doing med-evacs up to 100 miles away for some folks and surveying damage. My thanks to anyone who hangs out here or who even lurks here for any help you gave. The town of Arcadia mostly is mashed, as far as houses go, some businesses are back open, and in our town when the mail lady delivers DRINKABLE WATER at need by the gallon with the mail you know folks really massively care (post office here lost large part of its roof, mail got through anyhow, and carriers with damaged homes delivered mail and water donated by folks in many states, WalMart gave away pottable water, Publix also did. Something like this kind of a major disaster makes me look at caring folks from all over, many anonymous, and just want to say "THANKS, BIG TIME!"
John, AKA Straight_Man, from Punta Gorda, Florida, USA.