Back from Hurricane Charley *PICS*

[MKaprocki 3]

After 10 days without power, and 12 days without cable/internet, I'm finally back. The storm went directly over me. We got up to about 80 mph sustained winds here, with gusts to almost 100 mph. I spent the entire time outside in front of my house. The wind was unbelievable. With the rain blowing, it was quite hard to see at times. There were 1 or 2 times when the wind gusted that I about ran inside, but I stuck it out. How many people can say they went through a hurricane outside? :D The next day, I drove around the neighborhood to check the damage. There were trees down on every road. You had to drive under trees hanging from power lines. I can't believe how much damage there was to pine trees, but that's because they don't flex like palm trees. I even saw a telephone pole snapped in half by the wind.My house received around $10,000 in damage. We're still waiting on all the estimates, but it's not gonna be cheap. If this had been a regular storm, our deductable would have been $500, but since it's a hurricane we have to pay $2,500. :-mad [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree_House1.JPG|Tree in my front yard 1] - On it's way down, it took out the drop line into the house.[link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree_House2.JPG|Tree in my front house 2] [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Pool_Screen.JPG|Screen around the pool], or what's left of it. [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree1.JPG|Tree 1][link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree2.JPG|Tree 2][link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree3.JPG|Tree 3][link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Tree4.JPG|Tree 4] [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Road1.JPG|Road 1] [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Road2.JPG|Road 2] [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Road3.JPG|Road 3] As if 10 days without power wasn't bad enough, some idiot drove over the water line on the houses they're building next door. Now we had to boil our water. [link:www.leadingedgesim.com/mkaprocki/Hurricane Charley/Water.JPG]PicI've heard that the FBO I fly from lost between 50% - 75% of their aircraft, so I may not be flying any time soon :-(

[Dark Moment 0]

Sorry to hear of your problems, Matt. It's certainly been tough getting IMs from you on a cellphone!:D>>>>Not many would want to, Matt, LOL. You're a nut. But at least I can share your lunacy ... when I lived in Hong Kong, we had a very esoteric windsurfing club (you had to be mentally deranged to be a member) where we would go windsurfing in typhoons when everyone else had been ordered to stay indoors. I fell off a lot. In fact, it was more like flying than sailing.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

In Japan during typhoons (circa 1964 - 1964), we would surf row boats (wooden, heavy and steerage only by oars - one boy to a boat). Crazy. How I survived to become the mature adult that my momma is somewhat proud of, is beyond me (and her)... :-lolMatt, next time, stay indoors. You will live longer. :)

[wsieffert 0]

Hi Matt,Air Orlando to a big hit on aircraft damage. Out of 28 aircraft, they have 8 left, many totalled, some repairable.I am crying in my beer over the Citabria, albeit, it is repairable. Needs new wing, engine works, and some fabric repair.A lot of the damage was done when an outside aircraft slammed into the hangars and also the hangars were not up to the storm's fury.I'll keep you posted on the Citabria's return!W. Sieffert

[MKaprocki 3]

Wow, I can't believe they only have 8 left. ;( The day after the storm, I saw (on our portable TV) 3511R upside down on top of another plane. It's a sickening feeling seeing a plane you've flown destroyed. Do you have a list of which ones survived? How'd the Cirrus do?Edit: Looks like they updated their website with the list. Only 3 172s left. ;(

[lcseale53 0]

Matt,Not sure where you live but we fared pretty well here in Lakeland. Some damage and trees down but we probably had no more than 60-70 mph winds, gusting a little higher. I have a Cessna 206 and a 120 at the Lakeland airport in a pretty substantial hangar, and all was fine there as well - although a friend had quite a bit of damage to his Mooney at the Bartow airport (hangar door blew in and pushed the airplane back into a corner post - also dropped the engine in the mounts - damage assessment underway).I was on a volunteer clean-up crew this past weekend down in the Wauchula/Bowling Green area, and the damage is unbelievable. Houses, business establishments, schools, either heavily damaged, flattened, or just gone altogether. I have co-workers from that area still without power, and whose lives will never be the same. I'm glad your damage was confined to stuff only - this thing could have been much, much worse.Leon

[tf51d 284]

Well I just closed on my house in Poinciana Polk County Florida in July. It was christened by a direct hit from Hurricane Charley! Sustained Winds 110-115 Mph. I spent it in the dark in my 2nd Bathroom, as it was the only room in the house without a window. I periodically looked outside and saw other people's roofs being torn apart. I was lucky I only lost a few shingles above my garage. Other houses on my block lost all of their shingles and stripped right down to the plywood. Just a couple of blocks from me a tornado touched down and took off a couple of roofs and caused ceiling to collapse, unfortunately the 2 houses that this happened to, the first house was the daughter, and the second house was her mother's. There were many trees and power lines down. Power has just been restored this week. As bad as we had it, it wasn't as bad as what happened on the west coast's Charlotte County and Paunta Gouda (Don't know if I spelled that right.) who had winds in excess of 145MPH and had to deal with the storm surge. In Florida most houses are built with Concrete Block construction, with the exception of the roofs which are normally make from wood. There are a whole lot (Too much!) of mobile homes in Florida, it was these that suffered the worst damage. In many cases they were completely desimated.

[n4gix 4,947]

>I was on a volunteer clean-up crew this past weekend down in>the Wauchula/Bowling Green area, and the damage is>unbelievable.I was born in Wachula, and have relatives on my late mother's side who citrus farm just west of Bowling Green. I should probably give 'em a call to see how they made out...

[lcseale53 0]

Bill,I hope everything was okay with your folks there. We staged our cleanup efforts in Bowling Green and the damage there was pretty extensive.The media didn't show much of the farming community damage as the mass destruction in the city limits was more eye-catching, but an aerial view of these outlying areas was equally, if not more, disturbing. Damage in these areas likely affected livelyhood as well as homesites.Anyway, I hope all was well.Regards,LeonBTW thanks for all you do in support of this hobby and the community that lives it.