Godspeed Florida

I have an office in West Palm, and I closed them today (mainly because schools are closed but my folks say, no issue really). However, I have two important vendors in Naples and one in Bradenton, and have checked in with them as it looks bad in both spots.

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Have a big camphor tree in our front yard, and we are getting gusts that seem very strong. Watching it pitch around. If you ask which direction the wind is coming from right now, the answer is…yes…all directions.

RR

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Got family with a home on Sanibel

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well, holy smokes man. prayers for them.

RR

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They root for Clemson…
Go UTES!

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Just saw on the news that the bridge between Sanibel Island and the mainland is gone.

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The videos from Ft Meyers were horrific. Entire houses completely underwater.

Hope they’re ok. :disappointed:

Edit: just saw this.

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It’s like God took his finger and dragged it across the State of Florida.

Hopefully most made it inland and out of the path of the eye. That said, getting 1.5 million people moved out of harms way is a logistical nightmare. Hope all will be safe.

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No words.

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It’s hard to even relate to that sort of destruction. It feels somehow wrong to give a post like that a star, but thanks for posting.

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Yeah, it’s hard to picture these scenes as real, yet they are. I’m kind of reminded of Dresden, Berlin, and other German cities that were fire and carpet bombed in WWII. Perhaps even Hiroshima and Nagasaki just on the sheer scale of it.

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Have a cousin down in Florida who has reported they are safe and sound. Really a rough one down there.

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How do you even begin cleaning up something like this? I can’t wrap my brain around it.

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I’m certainly not a civil engineer, but I wonder if the whole span has to be built?
I imagine they can pontoon-bridge the washed out sections in short time, but what kind of changes occurred around each of those pilons supporting the arch bridge?
How do you determine how many cars and trucks can go over that thing now?
Time will tell. Probably robots and divers will be checking that out ASAP.
Right now, they got to find and save people. They have asked everyone to leave the island at this time

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My thoughts as well.
Having driven and biked over the bridge a number of times, its certaly a very large structure built to support milions of vehicles every year. Tons of tourists, commercial rigs and supplies. A real jewel of the south.
I think after survival from Charlie in 2003 - which was more of a wind event, the predominant wisdom assumed Sanibel had a history of doing well. No idea what was factored for such an extreme water event when the causeway was built, but the force was truly colossal.
I think the eye hit just North and then stalled, so a massive eyewall (the dreaded NE corner of the storm) just kept spinning and driving water as it funneled into the barrior islands and the Fort Meyers beachfront for a number of hours Truly the worst possible scenario and could have been anywhere, but happened to be there.
Any civil engineers among us to render real expertise?
Obviously, now the priority is to find the missing and restore basic power to the islands/area.
What a tragic storm.

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Well, that wasn’t fun, but we got our power back on this morning. Slight tree damage, but nothing to complain about. SW Florida…well…damn.

RR

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So glad to hear. This will take a long time and we will all contribute to help.
For those whom might be cynical about the gubament!!,
Only the federal government can help on the massive scale needed to restore civility in a situation like this

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For my area, while there is damage, and some are still without power, it was nothing like Charlie back in 2004. That storm obliterated the power grid. Took ten days to get it back on…in Florida…in August…now that sucked.

This Ian though took its sweet time coming on shore, and one of my favorite areas of Florida is basically destroyed. So, yeah contribute if you can. They are going to need it down there.

RR

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We had power go out for a couple of hours due to Ian. It showed me just how UNPREPARED we are. I thought we were ok, but couldn’t find our camping gear. Thankfully the power it up.

There is a fair amount of debris scattered across Ea. NC right now. I’m grateful that things aren’t worse. I can only imagine what it’s like it places that are worse than us. We’re fortunate in that things are relatively minor.

So as RR said, contribute if you can to help those who’s lives have been turned upside down and inside out.

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In an amazing coincidence, some of my in laws just moved to Marvin, NC. Just in time for the storm.

RR

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