Kent Cori
09-07-2004, 11:16 AM
On Saturday, about 7 minutes after I posted a thread on a walnut headboard and nightstand that I had made for my daughter, Hurricane Frances descended on Gainesville with all her fury. Up until then, we had been spared the brunt of the storm. We had experienced wind gusts of up to 35 mph and a little rain but not much more. Then the winds really began to pick up and the heavens opened. We lost power and landline telephone service at our house at about 3:45 on Sunday and still do not have it back yet (and we live in the city :( ). We were well prepared but it still has been a trying weekend. I came into the office this morning, which looks like a ghost town but does have electricity, to get a couple of critical work activities out of the way, charge my cell phone battery and take a hot shower.
In the past 42 hours, we have had wind gusts up to 60+ mph, sustained winds of over 30 mph for about 10 hours and 15 inches of rain . And we are only on the northern edge of the hurricane/tropical storm! :eek: Those in south central Florida really took a beating, many of whom were still reeling from Charlie only two weeks before. Our West Palm Beach office is still there but isn’t expected to have power for at least a week.
We were pretty lucky. I live on a heavily wooded lot and we only lost about dozen major limbs (most 4-6 inches in diameter) and fortunately none hit the house. During a brief respite yesterday, I sawed and dragged five pickup truck loads of limbs out to the curb. The weather soon deteriorated again and I’m guessing I now have another 2-3 loads of additional limbs to go.
Some of my neighbors weren’t as lucky. My next door neighbor lost 8 trees 12-18 inches in diameter each. Most simply were uprooted by the strong winds owing to the saturated soil. Some others fell just like dominos when an uprooted tree crashed into it. My other neighbor three doors down thought they had dodged a bullet when their neighbor's 70-foot tall live oak tree crashed down across both front yards blocking the front entrance to both homes. However, it managed to miss both by about 10 feet. Unfortunately, a few minutes later a slightly smaller live oak from the same neighbor’s yard crashed through the roof in their living room. Two other neighbors had similar experiences. Fortunately, no one was injured in any of these events although there were two deaths in our county.
So, all in all, I consider my family to have been extremely lucky. A little inconvenience and a day or so of clean up is a lot better deal than many people to the south of us are experiencing. I sincerely hope that all my SMC colleagues in the area faired as well or better than we did. The sun has just popped out for the first time in four days and hopefully we can now get the cleanup and repairs underway in full force. :)
In the past 42 hours, we have had wind gusts up to 60+ mph, sustained winds of over 30 mph for about 10 hours and 15 inches of rain . And we are only on the northern edge of the hurricane/tropical storm! :eek: Those in south central Florida really took a beating, many of whom were still reeling from Charlie only two weeks before. Our West Palm Beach office is still there but isn’t expected to have power for at least a week.
We were pretty lucky. I live on a heavily wooded lot and we only lost about dozen major limbs (most 4-6 inches in diameter) and fortunately none hit the house. During a brief respite yesterday, I sawed and dragged five pickup truck loads of limbs out to the curb. The weather soon deteriorated again and I’m guessing I now have another 2-3 loads of additional limbs to go.
Some of my neighbors weren’t as lucky. My next door neighbor lost 8 trees 12-18 inches in diameter each. Most simply were uprooted by the strong winds owing to the saturated soil. Some others fell just like dominos when an uprooted tree crashed into it. My other neighbor three doors down thought they had dodged a bullet when their neighbor's 70-foot tall live oak tree crashed down across both front yards blocking the front entrance to both homes. However, it managed to miss both by about 10 feet. Unfortunately, a few minutes later a slightly smaller live oak from the same neighbor’s yard crashed through the roof in their living room. Two other neighbors had similar experiences. Fortunately, no one was injured in any of these events although there were two deaths in our county.
So, all in all, I consider my family to have been extremely lucky. A little inconvenience and a day or so of clean up is a lot better deal than many people to the south of us are experiencing. I sincerely hope that all my SMC colleagues in the area faired as well or better than we did. The sun has just popped out for the first time in four days and hopefully we can now get the cleanup and repairs underway in full force. :)