Looks like Frances is on the way

[Foo]

Been reading all about my Florida friends and the hardships yall are enduring. I'm sure the eyes and hearts of all the country are with you, as they are with us here in Texas. I have been watching all the hurricane news, and hoping and praying for the best for you all. Sorry I'm just now writing to you, I don't guess you will know that others are with you in spirit unless we actually TELL you!

You probably don't realize that there is a lot of concern for you in places other than Florida, so I felt compelled to let you all know that we all want the best for you. Take care and hopefully this will soon be over!

Foo

 

[dutchfin]

WoW !! Hope everyone is safe and well. Just got the electric on last night. Just minor property damge here. Looks like I picked one heck of a year to stay down here year round !! LOL. My prayers are out to all, especially those on the east coast where Frances stalled for hours. I can't imagine how tough that must have been for them.

 

[Orlando Eric]

Well the power is back on and the water is still on a "boil order." Many trees down and 8 out of ten houses (est-a-guess) is missing patches of roof down to the sheathing. There is reported ZERO loss of life from this storm. Everyone is out with the chainsaws and brooms. Home depot looks like a middle eastern trading bizzare with people throwing money at them getting things to rebuild. I will be glad when Ivan turns and gets that possible hit zone out of my area.

The wife will never call me a paranoid exteremist again! Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

I was shocked to see so many "housing authorities" wnet around telling people not to board up. I had a similiar experience here. I was outside with the hammer drill making that horrible **buuuzzzzert" noise. A woman approached me and told me "You CAN NOT put that up yet we are not even at a watch yet. I told her that I will be required to go to work and do not know when I will be back. My nieghbor was also boarding up. She said that "YOU HAVE to stop." I told her.. "Call a cop." She replied "I will!" My nieghbor was outside and we had a laugh at that. I am a sworn Deputy and he is a PD Sgt. Even if I was in violation of some sort of home owner assoc code it would be a civil matter and there would be nothing she could do without a court order. The courts closed and she would be yelling into a hurricane to try and get anything done.

My advice is that if anyone gets told that they can not board up prior to a hurricane just keep drilling, there is nothing they can do to stop you. Deal with the possible debate over the holes in the building after the 100+ MPH winds die down and you are safe. I can not imagine anyone losing that one in court after the fact.

(I am not a lawyer, but I have dressed out a few in jail house uniforms and given them thier .85 cent chow tray.) The preceeding was only my opinion and I have no qualification to give legal advice or interupt state law.

Eric

 

[Orlando Eric]

Well the power is back on and the water is still on a "boil order." Many trees down and 8 out of ten houses (est-a-guess) is missing patches of roof down to the sheathing. There is reported ZERO loss of life from this storm. Everyone is out with the chainsaws and brooms. Home depot looks like a middle eastern trading bizzare with people throwing money at them getting things to rebuild. I will be glad when Ivan turns and gets that possible hit zone out of my area.

The wife will never call me a paranoid exteremist again! Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

I was shocked to see so many "housing authorities" wnet around telling people not to board up. I had a similiar experience here. I was outside with the hammer drill making that horrible **buuuzzzzert" noise. A woman approached me and told me "You CAN NOT put that up yet we are not even at a watch yet. I told her that I will be required to go to work and do not know when I will be back. My nieghbor was also boarding up. She said that "YOU HAVE to stop." I told her.. "Call a cop." She replied "I will!" My nieghbor was outside and we had a laugh at that. I am a sworn Deputy and he is a PD Sgt. Even if I was in violation of some sort of home owner assoc code it would be a civil matter and there would be nothing she could do without a court order. The courts closed and she would be yelling into a hurricane to try and get anything done.

My advice is that if anyone gets told that they can not board up prior to a hurricane just keep drilling, there is nothing they can do to stop you. Deal with the possible debate over the holes in the building after the 100+ MPH winds die down and you are safe. I can not imagine anyone losing that one in court after the fact.

(I am not a lawyer, but I have dressed out a few in jail house uniforms and given them thier .85 cent chow tray.) The preceeding was only my opinion and I have no qualification to give legal advice or interpet state law.

Eric

 

[H2Andy]

My advice is that if anyone gets told that they can not board up prior to a hurricane just keep drilling, there is nothing they can do to stop you.

you got that right.

of course, if a police officer tells you to do or not to do
anything, you better comply or be ready to get arrested.
but i doubt they can get a police officer to get involved in
a civil matter such as enforcing a home association's shutter
policy.

 

[KBeck]

Someone actually cared that much about your shutters (most likely, specifically about how they LOOKED) to do that? What nonsense--now is she running around screaming at everyone to GET THEM DOWN! even though there's another storm headed at us????
Hopefully, she'll be one of the weenies running away from Florida after all this, saying they'd prefer the cold of up north after all (I can't WAIT to see the emigration of all the New Yorkers back out of here!!) Every time I hear another one say it (and I've already got people threatening to quit and head back north...fine with me!) I jump up and down...I'm willing to bet this housing inflation boom is going to flatten back out!
(Sorry for the rant all, just a bit sick of hearing the whining...if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen kind of opinion here)....

Anyway, back to topic...thanks Marvel and Jenny and everyone for your thoughts; all is good up here overall, though looking a little ragged in general....trees everywhere, no one obeying the concept of the 4-way stop at intersections, etc. I went down to Ft. Lauderdale myself last night and got gas, some food and a hot meal. Much simpler than fighting it all up here.

 

[simbrooks]

My advice is that if anyone gets told that they can not board up prior to a hurricane just keep drilling, there is nothing they can do to stop you. Deal with the possible debate over the holes in the building after the 100+ MPH winds die down and you are safe. I can not imagine anyone losing that one in court after the fact.

Of course you have to remember that the hurricane may in fact drill the odd hole into your house, even without having got permission from the Home Owners Association - how rude of that giant climatic hole maker!

I think the Home Owners Assoc's should concentrate more on tidy gardens than a few holes drilled in a house and temporary boards stuck up for barely a few days, buts thats just my opinion.

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Al, it turns out we were very very lucky. My neighbor says the power was only out for about a half hour the night Frances went through. Hang in there, the news says the power should be back on soon.

Matt

Hi Matt,
The latest FPL announcement is... we'll have power by 18 Sep at 11:45 AM. I'm sure it's going to take time to get all the out lying areas. Lights started coming on in my neighborhood last night. It's a matter of time. I filled up my gas cans again tonight, so I have another two days worth of generator gas. I do need to send my wife out for beer, tomorrow. I'm finally running out of my hurricane supply. My recycling bin is overflowing... good thing tomorrow is my recycling pickup day.

Al