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The Storm of the Century!

In the 24 plus years that we've lived in Florida, we've never had a hurricane even come close... we scoffed at hurricane warnings -- preparing our homes, but not really expecting much excitement.

That's all changed now.

When I flew home from the DC area on Thursday, the storm was expected to be about 60 miles off-shore. When I woke up on Friday morning, the path was projected to be about 65 miles off-shore. So, it was moving further away... not closer... at least, that's what the experts were saying.

Most of the family had gathered at Mom & Dad's house to wait out the storm. Donna's family had to go to the hospital (where Larry worked) the previous night in order to make sure they had a shelter (the hospital required they be there by 11:00pm Thursday). The house had been prepped for the storm... storm shutters on many windows (though not all)... the boat tied up on the lift... patio furniture thrown into the pool... and all loose items (better known as "projectiles" during a hurricane) gathered and secured.

My biggest worry was the storm surge. The wind and rain weren't going to be too bad (since the storm was so far off), but because it was going to hit land to our north, the storm surge had been upgraded from 4-6 ft. to 7-10 ft. Since Mom & Dad's house was only 11 ft above sea level, and since we were expecting a lot of rain on top of everything else, I convinced enough people that we needed to get some sandbags. The local firestation had already run out of sand and bags, and it was against the law to steal (or borrow) anything from a construction site (even though there was a pile of sand 5 houses down from us). So, we decided to head to my construction site and see if I had any sand left. I didn't, but I did have dirt. So, instead of sandbags, we created dirtbags... we just filled plastic grocery bags with dirt and then placed them on top of plastic tablecloths in front of the sliding glass doors... it wasn't going to stop a flood, but it might slow it down... and it gave us something to do while we waited. Oh, and by this point, the storm was now going to come a bit closer... 35 miles off-shore.

Chuck and Tommy dug the dirt while Janet and I held the bags. (I was there, but all of the pictures with me showed me leaning over with my backside to the camera... I really didn't want that shot all over the Internet... and you should be glad as well.)

Diane and Dave were responsible for getting the dirtbags into the truck. (Angel was in the other truck taking these pictures.)

I'm not sure if this would have helped, but I felt better just doing something.

While we were out getting the dirtbags, we heard on the radio that the storm had made its turn to the east much sooner than expected... it was now heading straight for us. And by the way, it was no longer a category 2 hurricane... within a one hour period of time, it had been upgraded to a category 4 hurricane. And the storm surge was now projected to be a whopping 14-18 ft surge. We were going to have a tense few hours. We decided it would be best for Mom & Dad to head to the shelter at the hospital with Donna's family... we had 3 dogs with us, and the shelters would not have allowed them in, so the rest of us stayed at the house.

We then entered the next stage of preparation. I disconnected all of the computers in my office and spread them out... most of them went on my bed, but a few ended up on the kitchen table and the living room couch. We also taped up some blankets in front of the sliding glass doors... not to protect them, but hopefully to catch the glass if they broke (no storm shutters for them). We then just sat and waited for the storm to blow through.

Tommy and Kimberly trying to keep Hank and Baby Girl calm... they did not like this whole storm thing!

It was a pretty calm hurricane party... at least until the window broke...

Trying to document as much of the storm as I could (though I forgot to charge my batteries the night before, so I did a pretty lousy job of it), I went out the front door to get some video. Either the pressure of opening the front door was too much for the back window to handle, or the timing was really coincidental. In either case, the window in the back room (my office) decided it was time to go. Tommy, Dave and Chuck worked on getting the window blocked... first they tried some cardboard... that didn't last long... they ended up using one of my whiteboards, a FedEx box, several towels tucked in the sides, and 3 long strips of 1x3, 1x4 wood to brace the whiteboard. The wind was so strong that it took about an hour to get it in place, and it often took all 3 of the men to keep the whiteboard from being blown out.

My office isn't usually this messy... well, not usually. Fortunately, I had moved all of the equipment out of the room, so the only damage was the window itself. And, of course, my whiteboard (I even had some of my Sci-Quest design on it!).

After the worst part of the storm was over, we went outside to assess the damage. We were very fortunate that the only damage to Mom & Dad's house was the back window. We got a bit of a shocker, however, when we looked at the neighbor's yard and saw 4 of the 6 huge trees that have been there for more than 20 years completely knocked over... roots and all... even the fence that was built around them got pulled up.

These trees have been here for decades... there are 2 more the same size on the other side of their house that were also blown over.

The damage to the rest of the family's homes wasn't too bad. Chuck's apartment in Ft. Myers, my house (under construction), and Janet's place in N. Ft. Myers had no damage. Diane lost a lot of trees (and tree branches) and a few shingles from the roof... it took us all Saturday afternoon to move the fallen trees to the curb, and all Sunday morning to chop up her two huge queen palms. While we had the chainsaws out, we also cut up Diane's next-door neighbor's 2 huge trees that had also blown over. Diane's trampoline (or, I should say, Angel's trampoline) also sustained some damage, but mostly to the cage... it looks like the trampoline is still usable (jumpable).

This picture is a still frame capture from my camcorder, so the quality is not that great... but the point comes across. These were 2 very large palms.

Donna's house had the worst damage... most of the shingles on one side of her roof were blown off along with some of the tar paper. With the roof exposed, water seeped into the walls and spread throughout the house, causing all sorts of water damage, including causing parts of her ceiling to collapse. The house is essentially uninhabitable, and her family is having to move to a rental home while her home is repaired. The real kicker about her story is that just a few months ago, after having returned from a week-long cruise, they came home to discover that their plumbing had failed and the entire first floor was flooded. They've just, in the past month, completed the repairs from that flood, and now they're going to have to go through it all over again... for both the first and second floors!

Here's some of the exposed roof sheeting... at first glance, it doesn't look that bad... until you go inside and see how the water just seeped through the walls.

Here's what the water did to the first-floor ceiling... it was pretty shocking! The carpets throughout the house were soaked and you can see the water soaking the drywall everywhere. Pretty much the only room that escaped damage was the living room.

Other than the damage to Donna's house, we were very fortunate. The biggest inconvenience was the lack of electricity and phone service. The land-lines and cell phones actually worked during and immediately after the storm, but the land-lines didn't work for the next day and a half, and the cell phones still aren't working very well.

The electricity is returning to neighborhoods slowly... the first night (Friday), no one had electricity... and after having up to 164 mph wind gusts during the day, you'd think we'd get at least a 2 mph breeze that evening... we had nothing... and it was miserable... I got up in the middle of the night and sat in the back of my dad's pickup truck to try and cool off... it was a little better, but not much... and the bugs started biting.

The second night (Saturday), Chuck was the first one back with electricity... so we all went over to his place for dinner, and most of us spent the night... the cool air was delightful! The next day (Sunday), Mom and Dad got their electricity back (hooray!) and I finally got a full night's sleep for the first time in 3 days! Of course, I had spent the day chopping up trees with a chainsaw, so I was exhausted. Donna also got electricity back on Sunday, but because of the water damage, they actually chose to turn off their power. Diane got her electricity back today (Monday), but then a storm came through and knocked it back out again... she's spending a third night at Chuck's place. Janet still doesn't have electricity... they're pretty far out in the country, so they figure they're at the end of the list.

All-in-all, we feel very fortunate to have survived this storm as well as we did. No one was hurt, and nothing was lost that can't be replaced. Others in the area weren't so lucky... many people on Pine Island, Ft. Myers Beach, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, and up in Charlotte County did not fare as well, and our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

Eventually, the damage will be repaired, the fallen trees will be removed and replaced with new ones, and our lives will return to normal. Hurricane Charley will be a measuring stick against which other storms are measured ("This is the worst storm we've had since Charley, back in '04"), and each time there's a big storm blowing through, we'll tell our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren about how we held out against the storm.

In the future, however, we'll no longer scoff at hurricane warnings... because we know how bad it was... and how much worse it could have been.

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