Florida Residents, how are things going?

[Hopetobee]

I can't find anything in the news, am hoping the electric and water is back on for everyone. Is everyone out of the shelters, or is it going to take more time? For people who lost their homes, are there any apartments, etc, where they can go?

I'm still worried about you all, and send prayers and good luck for the whole cleanup and straightening out of your lives.

 

[laurie31]

The Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area hit by Ivan is going to take a long time to repair. I read that they are hoping they can be ready for the 2005 summer. Lots of places still have no power or water. Many restaurants have repaired their damage, but without water or power, obviously cannot open.

We have a good friend who lives in Gulf Shores, and his home was flooded. I never really thought much about the details of what happens when water gets in your house, other that your things are destroyed, but we got an email from Mike this week about their clean-up work. They were above the 100 year flood plain so they have no flood insurance. They had 14 inches of water in their house. Not only water, but the sewers backed up as well. Plus their freezer and refrigerator floated around and turned over. They love to fish, and the freezer was full of shrimp and founder. Also, he had stockplied some gasoline, knowing that there would be shortages. It also floated around and spilled. So...everything in their house was soaked in raw sewage, rotting fish, and gas. I don't even want to imagine how it smelled

They had to rip out all their sheetrock and they lost almost all of their furniture and such. Everything that was on the floor. He sent a picture of himself in his kitchen - reduced to exterior walls and a concrete slab floor, although the wall cabinets are still there. He was cleaning the floors with a shovel. Ugh! He said they are hoping to be back in their house by Christmas! I can't imagine being displaced for that long. His church was not damaged and is being used as a shelter. They have pics of the damage on their site www.lagoonbc.com. On the right under "Rebuild" click "watch the video."

I'm sure the Pensecola area is at least as bad. It wil be a long time before things are "back to normal."

Thanks for asking. The people in the affected areas still need our prayers (and donations!)

Laurie

 

[ThAnswr]

Originally posted by Hopetobee
I can't find anything in the news, am hoping the electric and water is back on for everyone. Is everyone out of the shelters, or is it going to take more time? For people who lost their homes, are there any apartments, etc, where they can go?

I'm still worried about you all, and send prayers and good luck for the whole cleanup and straightening out of your lives.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

We're doing all right here. There's still a lot of debris left over from Charley and many of the roofs still have tarps. Lots of people are not taking down their plywood from their windows, so it looks like entire neighborhoods are boarded up.

Everyone in this area, as far as I know, have water and power. However, repairs to the damaged homes is still very, very, slow. It's hard to get contractors and they have their own lists to take care of the worst first.

We've still not settled with the insurance company, but I don't think we're going to have any problems. As a matter of fact, we're having new carpeting put in this Thursday in the bedrooms and, whenever it's delivered, we're having tile put in the living room, dining room, hallways, kitchens, and bath areas. Twelve days without electricty, and thus air conditioning, made tile look very attracative.

As far as the availibility of apartments, it's hard to tell because we have such a large group of snowbirds who come down here. I do doubt if many of them are going to be here this season.

We had 8 schools in this area that sustained a lot of damage from Charley and 6 of those schools are going to have to be rebuilt. But, my daughter's school, which was one of those 8, just reopened as did one of the middle schools.

People are coping well here and, slowly, life is picking up again.

Anyway, that's the report from Charley Ground Zero, and once again, thanks for asking and for your prayers.

 

[Disney845]

HI! Checking in from Indian River County. We were hit almost head on by both Frances and Jeanne. The electricity is back on for most people in our area now. Some traffic signals still out. IT IS A 4-WAY STOP PEOPLE!!!!! I lost power for a total of almost 2 weeks including both storms, but know people who have lost for almost 4 weeks total. So much mess everywhere. Many many homes with roof damage (it is like blue-tarpville). A lot of retail businesses are up and running, but some sustained damage and are either still closed or semi-open. The beach area is crazy. One of the hardest hit in our area that we have seen is a complex called The Gables. It was a beautiful white with green trim complex that was virtually eaten by the storms. It is directly on the beach. One would wonder why they built it to such sub-par standards. Most of the complexes near it only sustained minor damage, but the whole structure of the Gables looks destroyed. Most access to the beach is closed because the stairs and boardwalks suffered a lot of damage. The storms also erroded a lot of the dunes and in some places ate away at the concrete parking lots and even roads in some places. It is interesting to see pieces of parking lot on the sand because it broke off. A big problem now is mold that is growing in homes and businesses with water damage. My place of employment had some pretty bad water damage, but they have had a disaster cleaning crew in there for almost 2 weeks now tearing up flooring and ceiling. Hope everyone else is doing ok.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

any news on Panama City?

 

[stevenpensacola]

There are a lot of folks in Pensacola who are "homeless" and will be for some time. FEMA has set up a temporary "travel trailer" city in a closed shopping center parking lot to house those who have nowhere else to stay. It's almost impossible to find a hotel room due to the misplaced folks and all of the utility workers needing places to stay.

One side of the Interstate 10 bridge over Pensacola Bay has been repaired. There is two way traffic across the bridge, but it's only one lane each way.

Everything here is just brown. The trees have been stripped of leaves, and the piles of organic debris lining the roads has all turned brown.

There are a lot of folks from Fort Walton Beach to Pensacola to Gulf Shores who became unemployed overnight due to the devastation to the beaches.

Other than brown, the predominant color you see is blue. Blue is the color of the tarps used to cover damaged roofs.

We're expecting quite a bit of rainfall and gusty wind this weekend. This will be the first rain since Ivan made landfall. This is sure to cause additional damage to many homes as many roofs may not be adequately patched.

Other than that, we're all in good spirits! We're just all tired.

Would love to go and walk on the beach, but none of the beaches are open to the public yet.
www.pensacolanewsjournal.com has an outstanding photo gallery of the storm and its aftermath, including the clean-up process.

 

[Poohbear123]

visited St. Augustine last weekend, and on the way up we saw Power Companies from other States on the way down to the Stuart/Sebastian area, the hardest hit I believe. Mind you, this was one week after Jeanne. When we arrived in St. Augustine, no damage except for the Beach! Most of the sand had been washed away, and there was a 4 foot drop! These storms did battle on our beaches, and St. Augustine had just spent about 10 Million to improve the beaches.

 

[Hopetobee]

I'm bumping this up because I think people should know that "life"hasn't resumed as normal for lots of folks in the path of the hurricanes and their storms.

Sending prayers to you all that NO MORE bad weather comes your way.