SW Florida Thread -- Lee, Collier, Charlotte-EVACS/SHELTERS

[Tiny]

Hi Y'all,
I have finally gotten phone service!! YAHOO!!!!
I talked with my parents, they got home yesterday and their home in Everglades City is fine, Thank God. Now that I have a phone again I can call and check on everyone of my friends and family in Southern Collier.
Out here in Golden Gate Estates, I still have no power just a generator and I am thankful that we only have minimal damage.......
Until later,
Hopefully I'll get to go to down to Everglades soon, I'll keep Y'all posted.
Tiny

[HeatherAKC]

Hi Tracy!

All is OK here. Only minor damage at home, but the city is a wreck.

Glad you are OK.

Talk later!

PS>>>Got power back at 1am this morning. I'm having "power guilt" as most of my friends and relatives don't have power. Party at my house!

HeatherAKC wrote:
(sitting in the dark on a wireless/generator rig)

Anyone hear from tracyswfla yet? My time is limited here, so I didn't look through all the pages here...so if anyone has a quick respose, I'll be here for a few more minutes.

Just wondering about her....


Hi am ok... Some damage. How are you Heather? No power. Typing on a generator. BBL.

[Sanibel]

The same was true in Everglades City and Chockoloskee, where one of the few buildings left standing was the City Hall in the center of the small rural community. Trees and power lines could be seen dangling on top of homes and businesses across the area. Entire homes were flattened and many shops were blown out by the wind and rain.

I'm not trying to minimize what happened, but if you read the above it makes it sound like Everglades City was wiped off the map.

I don't think that description is accurate. I saw an overflight video on the local news from Chokoloskee Island 5 miles south of Everglades City and further into the surge and hurricane zone. It showed most of the buildings intact with moderate roof damage etc.

Just trying to put these reports in perspective...

[Tiny]

The same was true in Everglades City and Chockoloskee, where one of the few buildings left standing was the City Hall in the center of the small rural community. Trees and power lines could be seen dangling on top of homes and businesses across the area. Entire homes were flattened and many shops were blown out by the wind and rain.

I'm not trying to minimize what happened, but if you read the above it makes it sound like Everglades City was wiped off the map.

I don't think that description is accurate. I saw an overflight video on the local news from Chokoloskee Island 5 miles south of Everglades City and further into the surge and hurricane zone. It showed most of the buildings intact with moderate roof damage etc.

Just trying to put these reports in perspective...

Yeah, Everglades City will be fine, the City Hall took a beating and was already on it's last legs. It may not be able to be salvaged. This really upsets me. But that's life.
Chokoloskee had a lot of damage. Lots of mobile homes down there and a couple of RV parks were destroyed. But having said that, there were some homes that survived. From what I can understand, the Church of God is still standing and that is good news.
Plantation Island (where I grew up) also took beating. Believe it or not though, my fishing shack is still standing unscathed!! My Hubby went down yesterday to check on it and he said even our crab traps are right where we left them! He said the island is covered in dried "muck" and the water is a strange color.
My Dad, who is also a blue crabber said that right now there is a big amount of dead fish floating around local waterways. So the areas commercial and recreational fishing industries could suffer for a long time to come as well as the tourism industry there.
That's all for now, I'll keep y'all posted......

[Sanibel]

A person on another website I frequent said her brother had just built his retirement house in Chokoloskee. They were watching from Georgia when the camera passed by his new house showing it totally wrecked...

[Tiny]

A person on another website I frequent said her brother had just built his retirement house in Chokoloskee. They were watching from Georgia when the camera passed by his new house showing it totally wrecked...

Man that really stinks! Sorry to hear it.

[Sanibel]

The local news went to Cape Romano to show the damage to the rookery trees and bushes. They were damaged with gray tops, but should recover in a year or two. They said that area was normally full of wading birds in the trees like Ibises, Egrets, Pelicans, Herons, Ospreys etc. So many that the branches were full and covered with white guano.


There was a stilt house on high 20 foot stilts that was completely gone. They showed a before and after picture. In the before picture there was a Florida beach-side stilt house sitting right on the beach. The after photo showed nothing but a set of snapped stilts about 5 feet off the ground.

Interesting was a domed house that someone had built in the 1970's. It wasn't one big dome, but was instead a connected set of dome sections, each with a dome roof. The house had shifted onto the beach over the years. It was leaning and partially in the water due to beach erosion - but the house was perfectly intact. If you saw the comparison between the two houses - you have sold me absolutely on dome designs in hurricane zones...