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OK we made it, but given the choice -- get out of the way

retsio

Well-Known Member
Feb 18, 2003
1,505
420
1
Naples, FL
Since my 5th heart surgery was the week before Hurricane Irma hit SW Florida, my wife decided we would stay and be close to the hospital and doctors. Actually there was no place to go, the east coast at Ft Lauderdale is bad, Tampa, Orlando offered no respite, only Tallahassee or out of state. However it has taken many 2 days of sloooow travel to reach Atlanta.

We are in a very secure house with shutters......but, the wind speed at Naples airport was 130, over our house 102. The electric and cable went out at 1:00 on Sunday and the eye went over us in Naples just after 4:00. The place is a mess with trees and debris everywhere. One of the cell towers is down and the cell capabilities are down by 73% -- calls or texts are spotty. The electric came back on late last night and it is better to sleep in air conditioned comfort rather than on outside temp of 82 with high humidity. Flooding has occurred in some areas, but not much -- the big thing is it will take months to clean up and years to grow big Banyan trees which are a staple of and line much of SW Florida roads and residential communities.

Naples does not have any hotels open this morning, Costco, Sam's have gas, but stations do not, Publix food stores, Home Depot, Lowes and one restaurant are working on back up generators -- that is it. No stop lights and some people just cruise right on through but the police, emergency workers and service people brought in from corporate offices have been fantastic, calm and very supportive of common sense.

With something this big and windy, the Islands and Keys are also a mess -- plan to vacation somewhere else.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts, this is really not a bucket list item to have. Only because of medical circumstances. Stay safe and 'get out of the way'.
 
Retsio, Thank God you are safe. We have heard that our condo in Naples is OK (minor damage) but the electricity and water are out. As you noted trees down everywhere. Our golf course is closed and the estimate is two weeks to get it back (the horror). But all and all not as bad as I expected. One question how is Marco Island? I have 2 friends who own places and Marco and wanted to get an idea of how bad Marco was hit. I fear the worst.
 
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MM -- there are pictures on Facebook of Marco that show high water at Barfield and Inlet, trees down and dirt and sand everywhere. One condo on the beach had windows blown out -- LCEC (a scam) says they are on top of all of this and the island is secure. They let owners on the island yesterday, we have a number of friends who own and their cleaning people are on the island with a lot of work to clean the water damage (high in spots). Good luck to your friends.

I should add -- no stop lights working all over Naples.
 
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Since my 5th heart surgery was the week before Hurricane Irma hit SW Florida, my wife decided we would stay and be close to the hospital and doctors. Actually there was no place to go, the east coast at Ft Lauderdale is bad, Tampa, Orlando offered no respite, only Tallahassee or out of state. However it has taken many 2 days of sloooow travel to reach Atlanta.

We are in a very secure house with shutters......but, the wind speed at Naples airport was 130, over our house 102. The electric and cable went out at 1:00 on Sunday and the eye went over us in Naples just after 4:00. The place is a mess with trees and debris everywhere. One of the cell towers is down and the cell capabilities are down by 73% -- calls or texts are spotty. The electric came back on late last night and it is better to sleep in air conditioned comfort rather than on outside temp of 82 with high humidity. Flooding has occurred in some areas, but not much -- the big thing is it will take months to clean up and years to grow big Banyan trees which are a staple of and line much of SW Florida roads and residential communities.

Naples does not have any hotels open this morning, Costco, Sam's have gas, but stations do not, Publix food stores, Home Depot, Lowes and one restaurant are working on back up generators -- that is it. No stop lights and some people just cruise right on through but the police, emergency workers and service people brought in from corporate offices have been fantastic, calm and very supportive of common sense.

With something this big and windy, the Islands and Keys are also a mess -- plan to vacation somewhere else.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts, this is really not a bucket list item to have. Only because of medical circumstances. Stay safe and 'get out of the way'.
Glad to hear you are safe, we left Naples before the storm hit and you are correct about the sloooow traffic to Atlanta, took two days. We are still in Atlanta, been here a week and are thinking about heading south, back to Naples, tomorrow. Be well!!
 
MM -- there are pictures on Facebook of Marco that show high water at Barfield and Inlet, trees down and dirt and sand everywhere. One condo on the beach had windows blown out -- LCEC (a scam) says they are on top of all of this and the island is secure. They let owners on the island yesterday, we have a number of friends who own and their cleaning people are on the island with a lot of work to clean the water damage (high in spots). Good luck to your friends.

I should add -- no stop lights working all over Naples.

Retsio, Thanks for the update. Good luck with the cleanup. I am not coming down until Jan.
 
Best wishes to everyone. I'll start my journey to Clearwater Beach mid Oct so hopefully everything will be back to "normal" by then.
 
Glad you're safe Retsio.

GFS run 10-ish days out on Invest 96L. The GFS had Irma in the Southern Bahamas 10 days out. Steering currents. Just sayin'...

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Since my 5th heart surgery was the week before Hurricane Irma hit SW Florida, my wife decided we would stay and be close to the hospital and doctors. Actually there was no place to go, the east coast at Ft Lauderdale is bad, Tampa, Orlando offered no respite, only Tallahassee or out of state. However it has taken many 2 days of sloooow travel to reach Atlanta.

We are in a very secure house with shutters......but, the wind speed at Naples airport was 130, over our house 102. The electric and cable went out at 1:00 on Sunday and the eye went over us in Naples just after 4:00. The place is a mess with trees and debris everywhere. One of the cell towers is down and the cell capabilities are down by 73% -- calls or texts are spotty. The electric came back on late last night and it is better to sleep in air conditioned comfort rather than on outside temp of 82 with high humidity. Flooding has occurred in some areas, but not much -- the big thing is it will take months to clean up and years to grow big Banyan trees which are a staple of and line much of SW Florida roads and residential communities.

Naples does not have any hotels open this morning, Costco, Sam's have gas, but stations do not, Publix food stores, Home Depot, Lowes and one restaurant are working on back up generators -- that is it. No stop lights and some people just cruise right on through but the police, emergency workers and service people brought in from corporate offices have been fantastic, calm and very supportive of common sense.

With something this big and windy, the Islands and Keys are also a mess -- plan to vacation somewhere else.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts, this is really not a bucket list item to have. Only because of medical circumstances. Stay safe and 'get out of the way'.
I'm pleased that you and wife made it through the storm and now have the comfort of AC. God bless.
 
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