Approaching Legendary Status
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I went up to the Orlando to help out my folks after the hurricane (hence, most of this info applies to that area). The eye of the hurricane passed directly over their area. Most of the shingles on their roof are gone, fence destroyed, trees down everywhere, other misc damage to the house. All in all, however, not as bad as it could have been.
No power in most of south and east Orange County and northern Osceola County. Bits of the power grid are being restored (ie, a few major intersections, a few grocery stores, a few gas stations started getting power on Sunday afternoon). We're hoping that, with luck, power could be back on at my parents' house in about a week. In some cases, I saw massive, multi-line mainlines laying on top of some people's houses after the big poles were knocked down.
Biggest near term problem is that the ongoing power outages are beginning to cause some of the sanitary sewers to back up. In flat areas, lift stations raise the sewage up every so often so that it keeps flowing to the treatment plant. Trouble is, with no power the lift pumps don't work and the sewage has no where to go. I saw a few sanitary sewers already beginning to overflow - Yuck - this is a major health hazard.
Many cell phones don't work because the power for the cell phone towers is off. The backup systems are sporadic. Many have battery backups that died out Friday evening; others have generators that have run out of fuel by Saturday mid-day; others simply did not work. I saw an estimate that about 180 towers in Orlando are out of service. Interestingly, the Nextel Direct Connect service (Push To Talk/walkie talkie) bgean working sporadically mid-day Sunday.
Thouands upon thousands of homes need roofs re-shingled.
Over of the Gulf Coast, my employer's Port Charlotte office has been destroyed. We're renting a motor home to use as a temporary office in that area.
No power in most of south and east Orange County and northern Osceola County. Bits of the power grid are being restored (ie, a few major intersections, a few grocery stores, a few gas stations started getting power on Sunday afternoon). We're hoping that, with luck, power could be back on at my parents' house in about a week. In some cases, I saw massive, multi-line mainlines laying on top of some people's houses after the big poles were knocked down.
Biggest near term problem is that the ongoing power outages are beginning to cause some of the sanitary sewers to back up. In flat areas, lift stations raise the sewage up every so often so that it keeps flowing to the treatment plant. Trouble is, with no power the lift pumps don't work and the sewage has no where to go. I saw a few sanitary sewers already beginning to overflow - Yuck - this is a major health hazard.
Many cell phones don't work because the power for the cell phone towers is off. The backup systems are sporadic. Many have battery backups that died out Friday evening; others have generators that have run out of fuel by Saturday mid-day; others simply did not work. I saw an estimate that about 180 towers in Orlando are out of service. Interestingly, the Nextel Direct Connect service (Push To Talk/walkie talkie) bgean working sporadically mid-day Sunday.
Thouands upon thousands of homes need roofs re-shingled.
Over of the Gulf Coast, my employer's Port Charlotte office has been destroyed. We're renting a motor home to use as a temporary office in that area.
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