For several hours it was predicted to come right up Tampa Bay, then it turned and ended up hitting near where the earlier predictions had it tracked. I feel sad for those in Charlotte county, but I think the devastation would have been greater had it hit here in Tampa Bay. So I am grateful that it missed us. Actually, we had the best weather here than we’ve had in weeks (except for a couple tornados on Saturday).
However, I had one hell of a past few days. I was at work for 28 hours and we were busy. I worked almost non-stop except for about a 4 hour nap break, in a chair. I don’t want to do that again soon.
I got a phone call from my daughter a little bit ago - they have no power, and lots of trees are down in the parking lot, but they’re able to get out. She went to work today, so there’s power about half a mile from her apartment. This is all about a mile from UCF in eastern Orlando.
I’m glad she rode the storm out at her friend’s parents’ place. Here’s hoping they get power back soon.
Anyone hear from AlbertRose or Heppie yet? Trouble, I’m sorry about your fence.
I’m driving to work today in SW Orlando. Tips for you guys…treat nonfunctioning traffic lights as 4-way stop signs. If you still don’t have power, don’t eat the food in your fridge or freezer now. There are places where you can get water and ice.
I haven’t had power at home since Friday night and it’s not looking good for the near future. I’m posting from work where we have air and power. My neighborhood really got sacked. Lots of trees down. A pine tree in our front yard snapped and came to rest on our garage roof but luckily didn’t damage it. It could be a lot worse.
Yikes, Tupag. At least no one is hurt, but it was so damn muggy on Saturday…I don’t know how you guys survived it without AC.
As you drive into the development to get to work, there was a tree partially blocking the roadway. I found out from co-workers, it was just one of about three or four.
ivylass, it hasn’t been easy. Vodka helps. The highlight was borrowing a stinkin’ little black and white battery TV yesterday so we can at least sit in the dark and watch TV. Got any idea where I can get some C-cell batteries?
We still don’t have power (since 9ish on Friday), and I have just about enough gas to make it to work. Don’t know if I’ll make it back… every gas station I’ve seen in the UCF area has covers on the pumps
OUC is estimating that all customers in Orange, Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties will have power restored by Saturday. I’m gonna go nuts if we’re without power for five more days…
On the bright side, I did at least find an air-conditioned place to stay.
Good luck everyone. Tupug, I feel your pain. I find gin and beer to be effective too
Last year up here (post-Isabel) this was a pretty big issue, who owns the tree.
In all the cases I heard about, if the tree is in your yard, and it was obviously in need of pruning or removal before it landed on the neighbors during the storm, you’re financially responsible for the damages.
If it was a normal, healthy tree in your yard, and it just fell over (or dropped big branches) because of the very wet ground and wind, your neighbor is financially responsible for the damages. Sorry, ivylass. IANA insurance agent or lawyer, and this is only the general gist of the cases from last year.
Also, you may want to check out your policies to see if your deductible has changed from a set dollar amount to a percentage of the amount of damage solely because the claim is submitted because of a hurricane. I think policies everywhere have been changed from that since last year, but that may have been only in Virginia and N Cakalakie.
This week has been fairly hectic. I was supposed to fly back into Orlando friday night, but that obviously didn’t pan out because of the hurricane. I had a flight from Providence, R.I. to Orlando with a stop in Philly. My airline was confident that the flight wouldn’t be cancelled because the storm was supposed to go north and hit Tampa. So right after we made the stop in Philly on Friday, they told us that the remaining flight to Orlando was cancelled. My girlfriend and I ended up taking a flight to West Palm instead. I was really disappointed because I wanted to be in Orlando during the storm really really bad (which has to do with me wanting to be a “storm chaser” as a kid).
We didn’t get into Orlando until Saturday night. I was happy to see that my house in east Orlando (near UCF) is okay, but there was no power in the whole area. A lot of the power lines on the the road to my house are slanted at a 45 degree angle over the road and it’s kind of scary driving there. I’ve seen a few houses around here with huge pine trees laying on the roof. The last two nights were okay without electric because it wasn’t too hot. I know tonight won’t be fun because it was 90 today and hot. The worse thing about no electric is the lack of traffic lights, which are kind of essential in a area where nobody knows how to drive (near a large university). There have been cops directing at the major intersections which helps a lot.
When I went to WalMart yesterday to get supplies (they have generators) all the gas stations around here were sold out or had lines backing up way into the street. Today they are all closed off and I don’t know how far you have to drive to get gas. I’m just glad I have 200 miles left in my tank! Now the power is back on at some places (like UCF where I am at now) but they’re saying at my house it will be on by Saturday. Let’s see what I can do without power for a whole week…
It’s just a mess around here. My mother who’s in Maitland and brother who’s in Winter Park (and his wife and 3 children) still don’t have power. Mom’s heading to my place tonight. We lost power on Friday night during the worst of it but only for about 4 hours. We got lucky. I haven’t been able to reach my other brother and his family. Cell phone service is spotty and there’s no answer on his home phone. I tried e-mailing him at work but have gotten no response. I can only hope that they’re safe and holed up somewhere.
Progress Energy promised my mom that her power would be restored by Saturday night. Saturday…8/21, just over a week after it went out. She said that you can see that the wooded area behind her Townhome has half a dozen trees hanging on the power lines.
It’s difficult to find gas but after waiting in line we managed to gas up both the vehicles so that should hold us for the week.
It was scary and surreal being right in the middle of it but our condo did not suffer any damage. We watched trees fall all around us but none hit our place or blew into the windows.
Glad to hear that all the other Florida dopers are alive and well. Sorry to hear about the damage that some of you suffered. I’m in Lake Mary and if I can help any of you out, my e-mail is in my profile.
Ivylad has gone over to his mom’s for a few days. The neighbor is going to get estimates on removing his tree from her pool. She’s not handling this too well, on top of losing Dad at the end of March.
I’m hoping Ivylad and the kids can help cheer her up.
My e-mail is in my profile too, if anyone needs help.
If you guys are without power, are you hearing the news elsewhere? School in Orange County has been cancelled until 8/24, and there are ice distribution centers set up in Orange and Seminole Counties.
We are still out of power, and I am distressed to hear that we may be without until Saturday… I miss my AC!!! And do you know how hard it is to cook without power?? Ack! My roommate says she doesn’t mind not having power, except for the whole food part. Anything we eat has to be out of a can and only now did we get a gas sove to heat things up (and very slowly at that)… I can’t wait until tings are back to normal!
I have a high school classmate who lives in Ocala. For a while it looked like she was in for it, but the center went about 30 miles or so east of there. Give it a couple of weeks and I’ll call to see how things are.
Day Four Without Power I am getting pretty good at boiling water on the grill for my drip coffeepot. That cold shower actually felt pretty good this morning cause it was really, really hot last night. Putting on less make-up cause you can’t see very well actually gets you out the door for work with time to spare.
Why is it Saturday is the magic day? Will the planets all align and cosmically restore the power? :dubious:
We drove through Deltona last night and cursed the people with power, does that make us bad people?
I washed my hair in the sink again. We waited 40 minutes for gasoline only to find that they mysteriously only had premium. What a load. I asked my son’s day care to bathe him for me today. And if I have to eat one more Pop Tart, I’m going to scream.
Got any idea where I can get some C-cell batteries?