Hurricane Damage

[Joe 1320]

You guys wouldn't believe the damage down here. During the storm, I watched a tree as big around as my torso, snap like a toothpick. I also watched a concrete utility pole snap, a bus get blown over on it's side not to mention all the basic stuff like roofs being blown off and debris everywhere. Pretty scary.

Yesterday there were two gas stations in the area that were rationing gas. Yep, only two..... the lines were literally a mile long with what amounted to be an all day wait. The were curfews from 7pm until 7 am, no traffic signals, no cell phone service, no ice available and stinking hot florida weather. Nothing like sweating in the florida sun with no electricity, no breeze and the bare essentials of food and water.

Some relief came from getting into the car, firing it up with the a/c on full and trying to pull in a distant radio station as nothing local was working. That didn't last too long as fuel was in short supply. For the first time in as long as I can remember, everyone was getting along, helping each other out, not griping and ing about how bad everything was, people were dealing with it and counting their blessings that they were still alive. Many folks I know no longer have a home. We may end up with a few people staying with us until they relocate, their home was one that blew away leaving only a foundation from what was described. I have to count my blessings at a time like this.

I'm not sure when I will be retuning to work..... Another one of our company locations just to the north of me is no longer there...... the roof was ripped off causing enough damage that there're out of commission indefinately. My location simply had no power as far as I know, but that just changed. Next is to get in there and survey the damage. I was saying I needed a vacation, just not like this.

Thanks for all the warm thoughts, you guys are great!

[Black97]

Besides the destructions you mentioned we had similar conditions during the blackout up here last year.

But I can't imagine though how bad the destruction is and how long it could take to have just the basics back (Water, gas, electricity).

Boy you sure were lucky.

[DJ Taso]

Good to hear you're ok, Joe.

By the way, did any of your property get damaged?

[Joe 1320]

I ventured out a bit this morning. It appears that because my neighborhood's power lines are underground, we are the only people in the county with power. Still horrific lines at the 2 gas stations rationing out fuel, no traffic lights or electricity anywhere except my neighborhood and the airport and racetrack right next door. I guess we were a priority. Still no cell phone service either. Maybe time to do some mods on the car while there's nothing else to do........

[Injuneer]

Sounds like you escaped with minimal damage to property and vehicle, and you and the family are safe. That's good news - say an extra prayer .

I've been through a tornado in TX and the Northridge earthquake in CA, and its not a pretty site. But the pictures of the devastation in FL make the damage that I saw pale in comparison.

Play is safe!!

Fred

[Joe 1320]

I got this from the Weather Channel:

Here is a synopsis on the history of Hurricane Charley. Charley rivals category-4 Hurricane Donna that hit western Florida from out of the Gulf in 1960. Deadly major Hurricane Charley ripped ashore north of Fort Myers, Florida, and into the Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda area at 4 p.m. on Friday. Winds of 100 to 127 mph were reported along with a 10-to-15-foot storm surge on Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Major to extreme structure/roof damage, destroyed mobile home parks, and numerous downed trees and power lines were part of a path of destruction from Port Charlotte to just north of Fort Myers and inland toward Orlando. At the Charlotte County airport in Port Charlotte, aircraft were destroyed and hangars flattened. In Arcadia, Florida, located in DeSoto County, a roof was torn away from a shelter holding more than a thousand people. Reports out of Wauchula, Florida, in Hardee County, state that there has been catastrophic damage county wide. Zolfo Springs, Florida, also in Hardee County suffered extensive tree damage, impassable roads, and destroyed mobile home parks. The whole power grid makeup of Sebring, Florida, was destroyed. In Lake Wales, Florida, a nursing home roof collapsed, but thankfully there were no deaths. Charley went on to track over Orlando, where winds were sustained at 77 mph and gusted to 105 mph. The Orlando International Airport suffered structural damage. Daytona Beach was next in line for Charley where winds there were sustained at 69 mph and gusted to 86 mph. This is after a tornado visited South Daytona earlier Friday evening. Damage surveys will continue for days and weeks to come. Latest reports attribute sixteen fatalities in Florida to Hurricane Charley.


So basically out entire power grid is out. We are one of a very few lucky people with underground utilities that are up and running. I can't tell you how lucky we are at the moment. God was very kind to our family.

[Injuneer]

An observation that may bore most people.....

Many years ago, when "Quality Management", at least the Crosby version was all the vogue, I attended a talk given by an executive of Florida Power & Light. He told how FP&L was extremely proud of their outage statistics, apparenty measured in "average minutes per year per customer". They were head and shoulders above other US utilities. The FP&L exec was invited to a quality conference in Japan, and went to the conference convinced that he was going to show the Japanese a thing or two about qualtiy.

As he described it, he returned home a "beaten man", after finding out that the typical Japanese utility company had outage rates only 1/8th that of FP&L. They did it, in spite of constant exposure to typhoons, by moving their utilites underground, and where they couldn't do that, they installed "spares" adjacent to the most likely outage candidates. Instead of perfecting the "art of repairs", the Japanese perfected the "art of prevention" - just the way they did it with their automobiles.... apparently FP&L (like most US utilities) still has not learned their lesson, at least 20 years later.

But the exec did give an inspiring speach......

[Black97]

An observation that may bore most people.....

Many years ago, when "Quality Management", at least the Crosby version was all the vogue, I attended a talk given by an executive of Florida Power & Light. He told how FP&L was extremely proud of their outage statistics, apparenty measured in "average minutes per year per customer". They were head and shoulders above other US utilities. The FP&L exec was invited to a quality conference in Japan, and went to the conference convinced that he was going to show the Japanese a thing or two about qualtiy.

As he described it, he returned home a "beaten man", after finding out that the typical Japanese utility company had outage rates only 1/8th that of FP&L. They did it, in spite of constant exposure to typhoons, by moving their utilites underground, and where they couldn't do that, they installed "spares" adjacent to the most likely outage candidates. Instead of perfecting the "art of repairs", the Japanese perfected the "art of prevention" - just the way they did it with their automobiles.... apparently FP&L (like most US utilities) still has not learned their lesson, at least 20 years later.

But the exec did give an inspiring speach......

You are indeed lucky, Joe.

In Switzerland where I grew up most of the local power lines are below ground. After the Blackout last year you could read in many European newspapers that they compared the US and Canadian power grid similar to a third world country one. Antiquated and neglected.

[Joe 1320]

My ex-wife was always the socialite and has contacts. One of which works for Progress Energy, the company directly responsible for the power grid here. The system is so antiquated, much of it cannot be repaired and some areas will be without power for at least two weeks. Much of the grid will need to be upgraded, the destroyed parts are just too far gone with few replacement parts available. Nice to know all that dough we spend on electricity down here was put to good use. At least I can still feel fortunate..... being right next to the airport got me the perc of being the first to get power.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Well one good thing is the way the Southern Company uses resource sharing to help in times of emergencies. Yesterday I saw a train (~2 dozen) of Georgia power trucks headed south on 85. Help is on the way.

I would advise everyone to get a backup generator. There are systems that will come on automatically and even run on natural gas. Mine will run about 12 hours on 5 gallons of gas. It's already saved my butt. I turn off the main breaker and plug mine in the dryer outlet. That way it is fused at 30 amps and it will supply power to everything in the house. Just don't turn on the air although mine would power it, it would just trip the 30 amp breaker. The only bad thing about a portable generator is keeping gas on hand. I wonder what it would take to convert mine to natural gas.

[fastTa]

An observation that may bore most people.....

Many years ago, when "Quality Management", at least the Crosby version was all the vogue, I attended a talk given by an executive of Florida Power & Light. He told how FP&L was extremely proud of their outage statistics, apparenty measured in "average minutes per year per customer". They were head and shoulders above other US utilities. The FP&L exec was invited to a quality conference in Japan, and went to the conference convinced that he was going to show the Japanese a thing or two about qualtiy.

As he described it, he returned home a "beaten man", after finding out that the typical Japanese utility company had outage rates only 1/8th that of FP&L. They did it, in spite of constant exposure to typhoons, by moving their utilites underground, and where they couldn't do that, they installed "spares" adjacent to the most likely outage candidates. Instead of perfecting the "art of repairs", the Japanese perfected the "art of prevention" - just the way they did it with their automobiles.... apparently FP&L (like most US utilities) still has not learned their lesson, at least 20 years later.

But the exec did give an inspiring speach......

Actually that is sorta interesting. I've always wondered why utility companies did not take the time to install utilities underground in areas that are being newly constructed. Especially areas like Southern Florida where the threat of hurricanes is alomost imminnent every year!

I suppose money is one factor, and I suppose ease of accesibility is another. I can imagine it would be difficult to always have to dig if their was damage to something utility related underground. But you would think they could just bury all of the main lines and then just have an above ground access point for all of the line fuses.

[wolfdogs]

you are sooooooo lucky broh
and im soooooooooooo glad......

God bless all those that lost so much.

ive ridden out several storms...some of that magnatude.. its very nasty and devasting.....

glad ur ok good buddy.

[Joe 1320]

you are sooooooo lucky broh
and im soooooooooooo glad......

God bless all those that lost so much.

ive ridden out several storms...some of that magnatude.. its very nasty and devasting.....

glad ur ok good buddy.

Thanks broh..... I rode out Andrew on the east coast, several other tropical storms one after another and been though heavy floods. I move to the center of the state to get away from that stuff and here we go again. For us, it could have been much worse. I am also exceptionally thankful for all the guys concerns here on the board and I'm relieved that the rest of you Florida guys are OK too.

Now if I could just get some gasoline so that I can drive the heck out of here. Gotta wait for the gas stations to get power......