Ivan! Jeanne! & Karl & Dennis The Menace & Katrina

so--everybody ok?

I suspect Panzade and O'Bill may not be. The Ft Pierce- St Lucie area took a direct hit.

Yikes. Weird thread to have lost the weekend posts on. I know that we heard from Misti/Rae and Miss Letty. Don't think we heard from the lads.

Safe and sound... but busy. Hope everyone else made it.

Paaaaaaaaanzaaaaaaaade, where are you?

What a yukky feeling wondering if someone is o.k.

Bill, nice to see your smiling face :-)

Glad to see you...

Thanks guys. Don't panic yet... Panz probably doesn't have power back on yet. Last I heard, half the county didn't. Our emergency generator failed... which, strangely enough, is the only reason we do have power. One of our older residents helped the captain of a fire truck get a visual of what it was going to be like to hump up 25 flights of stairs to retrieve the corpses of a couple dozen seniors who were stuck up there with no power (A/C) or water... who in turn conveyed the importance, of getting the tower powered, to Florida Power & Light. These guys were Johnny on the spot once they got the word. Unbelievable the hours these guys have been putting in. Hats off the entire effort.

This Hurricane was worse than the last by a damn sight, wind wise. However, Francis had already broken most of the weak stuff and their paths were uncannily close, so I don't think clean up will take as long for the areas that didn't take a direct hit.

Wow am I tired. With no elevators working, I've been the gopher legs for the ancients I call neighbors. 25 floors of stairs is a pain in the ass (quite literally in more ways than one :wink: ). Then, to top it off. Once we got power back on, we discovered that the A/C cooling towers are mangled, and only one of two is working at about 50% capacity. Also, only one of two elevators works... and the door doesn't work on that one. Guess who the new door motor is. Them doors are pretty heavy, you know. A couple more weeks like this ; I'll be ready to run the Iron Man (well, not).

Joining everyone in hoping Panz is safe... but like I said, it's too soon to panic. Is everyone else accounted for?

Oooooooooh the buff young doorman

:wink:


Good thing you've been working on improving the condition of your lungs.


I haven't seen Panzade, fedral or harper.
Here's hoping it's just a delay in getting power back.

Glad you're ok, wild Bill. I pictured you trapped somewhere under your friend's boat.

I'm certain that Panz is fine and Onyx as well. Amazing to me that we kept power, telephone, and standard cable through it all. Now if I only had transportation.

O'Bill, glad to know you'er Ok. Here's sending good thoughts for the others.

Yes, I hope everyone's okay.

(What's the status of Lisa? Going to check...)

Lisa's looking non-threatening, thank goodness.

Welcome back, OBill. You're a good guy for being there for your ancient neighbors. Your descriptions make it easier to understand what life is like after the devestation of a hurricane. Just glad it wasn't any worse. It's good to see you here.

Welcome back, indeed, Mr Bill. Thanks for the recap.
As for the Packers, they did not do well without you. -rjb-

Rae and myself stayed put for this son of a biscuit named Jeanne ... there is widespread damage in our area, about 5 mins. down the road. Melbourne and Melbourne beach is like a war zone. There are two bridges completely broken off ... there are houses hanging over ready to fall into the ocean.

Rae and I stopped by the beach to see the wild waves ... it was strange, the sand hitting your face hurt like needles, and the sand was piled up all through the parking lot just like snow drifts. You could not see the steps down to the beach, you just had to hang on to the handrails. The surf was unbelievably wild and angry, it was almost difficult to listen to.

Curfews are still in effect on the barrier islands and the mainland.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Another crazy busy day. One of my neighbors passed away over night, not from the hurricane mind you... he was just due. So, I resumed being the elevator door motor at 6 a.m. so the fellow who'd volunteered for the morning shift could be the widow's chauffer.

At around 3:00 I switched gears to being the elevator repairman's extra hands and gopher in hopes of finishing by 5:30 so we'd have the elevator for the Air Conditioning expert to get to the cooling towers on the roof. This guy rocked! He had swiped a control card from another building and then a Power Supply from our dead tower and, success! From then until about an hour ago another fellow and I who had talked the A/C guy who had come to assess the damage into using us in lieu of his crew. Turns out cooling towers are pretty simple to work on. It was mostly just scooping out the roofing stones and debris from the bowl and cleaning the filters and we now have real Air Conditioning!

You got that right! I'd probably be one of the casualties otherwise. I don't recall the last time, if ever, I sweated so much. And now it just makes me tired... and a good tired at that!

Nah, the full-moon-high-tide (extra high, btw) yesterday morning along with two Sea Tow boats, Jimmy and I were sufficient to pull it off the sandbar where it landed just a few hundred yards from here. Scratched up one side a little and blew out one of the windows down below, but that's it for damage. He was incredibly lucky to get off so cheap.

I'm glad you came out unscathed. Our weatherman kept saying it was going to turn right into you. No sooner did I type that I think Panzade and I slipped it that my power got knocked out. That's when it got ugly. Btw, you can learn from my mistake on this one: You really do need to allow air from one side of a dwelling to pass through to the other in intense storms. One of my balconey heavy floor to ceiling doors got sucked off it's track even though I have locking shutters around the outside of my balconey. I put it back on immediately and when I left it open a few inches it stopped looking like it was going to happen again. This is thick heavy storm glass and it was bowing like you wouldn't believe... so next time you're in a high wind storm, be sure you let your house "breath". Same thing happened to dozens of my neighbors who didn't know better, but to none that did. I know Onyx is okay after she went a day and a half without power... still waiting to hear from Panz.

We were pretty lucky, really. Damage, but not devastation. The building I almost moved into instead of this one, the "Tiara", is now condemned. 43 stories tall and it's missing huge chunks of exterior walls in pieces that stretch many floors. Luckily, since it had suffered pretty serious damage from Francis, I'm pretty sure it was empty for Jeanne. Even that, though, seems so minor compared to the poor people of Haiti. I can hardly imagine eating a 12 foot storm surge in a town only a few feet above sea level. That's devastation. Actually, we were very, very lucky.

Packers didn't fair any better with me at the game in Wisconsin the week before. Sucks I missed this one. I'm told Offense was outstanding and we were missing both McKenzie and Carroll at corner as well as Grady on Defense so don't go thinking everyone will score like that on us! Putting up 31 points will beat most opponents we face. I'm not too worried just yet.

More than a third of the county is still without power… so still way to soon to panic. Plus it seems A2K has been down quite a bit. Hope Cravens doing okay.

Pretty pictures Misty! Glad you guys came through okay!

Thanks OB, likewise.

I heard many years ago about allowing your house to breathe ... it makes sense!

So now when people look at me like I crawled out from under a rock after making that statement, I'll tell them I have it from the horses mouth, OB:)

Wow, you've done good, O'Bill. Great timing. I'm sure a lot of people are very grateful for all that you've done.

Yup. I've gone from being that damn kid to the most popular guy in the Condo. Wonder how long that'll last.