I was just at another forum and Powersteamguy had posted an answer to some ones question. It is good to see you back up and running. Hope all is well. Alan
Well I finally got my power back at 1:00 AM Wednesday morning eastern time. Wilma, a Category 3 hurricane never lost strength due to the low that pushed her east towards Florida. Wilma was a very fast moving Category three hurricane and we lost power at 9:00 AM on Monday morning. The eye of the hurricane passed over Jupiter for the third time in the past 14 months. We had Hurricane Frances and Jeanne pass over Jupiter last year. The eye of the hurricane is really an eerie feeling as everything becomes peaceful for a short period of time . This time it was an hour. Then the back half of the storm hit with full vengeance. The back half of hurricane Wilma was truly devastating. The winds howled through at 122 miles per hour for about 3 hours. We had no storm damage after the front half of Wilma passed through. I opened up one storm shutter when the eye of the storm passed over the JJJ&E. It was peaceful and quiet and we only lost two screen mesh panels of our pool enclosure. After the second half of Wilma pounded the house, I had some minor damage to the pool enclosure. I lost two aluminum supports and nine screen panels which will be replaced in two weeks. I thought the damage would be much worse. Here is a photo of the pool and enclosure that I took last year after Hurricane Jeanne, the morning after. That's how it looked this morning, a beautifully sunny day. We had damage to two of the lower vertical supports. The back half of Wilma pounded the back of my home from across the lake. Ther is no protection from the winds from across the lake. We lost 2 Orange trees and one guava tree. The JJJ&E survived with no problems. We lost phone power after the eye of the storm passed through as the phone company was working on a generator and that power became exhausted. We have plenty of food as my wife and I are well orchestrated to handle these vents as they happen. We had water containers that we had frozen and placed in the freezer. We also had a cooler filled with ice and filled the cooler with food such as hard boiled eggs, cheeses, vegetables etc. We also had stuff in the freezer with the one gallon ice containers that we had frozen. We only lost some ice cream which turns to soup after 8-10 hours. The roll down storm shutters were a blessing. I'm glad I put those on the house when I built this house in 1994. The solar panels on my roof (seven that face south) that heat my pool in the winter survived without a problem. Fortunately a cool front came in after the hurricane and temperatures dipped to the mid 50's at night and the mid 70's today. Last year we had temps in the 90's after both hurricanes. It would have been difficult if the temps were in the low 90's with high humidity. Yesterday after the storm I cleaned up all the broken tree limbs, rolled up the storm shutters and today I tended to cleaning up the pool. I did manage to build two lasercut building kits as we had battery operated lanterns and fans. As of this afternoon almost 5 million people have no electrcity. We received power back so quickly because we're hook up to a power grid that's connected to a firestation three miles from my house. There is no gas to be had because stations can't pump the gas due to loss of power. The few stations that were open ha lines two miles long as folks needed gas for their cars and generators. Most folks won't have their power restored until November 20 acording to FPL(Florida Power & Light). Thereare no super markets open that I know of. Fema was supposed to have sites for water and ice but that didn't happen as of this morning, the usual bureaucratic nightmare like in New Orleans. Life should get back to normal in the next week or so for some folks and others will have to wait three weeks plus to resolve the problems of a normal life. Ther was major damage to municipal building and especially older homes and trailer homes which couldn't withstand a hurricane of this magnitude. My wife and I feel quite fortunate that our home was able to survive the three major hurricanes in the past 14 months with minor damage. Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them. Stay cool and run steam....
Jay: I've been down here in Florida for the past 12 years. We had no hurricanes for the first 10 years. It's a small price to pay if you want to leave in paradise. Look at my view each morning when I wake up (above picture). Stay cool and run steam....
Bob, Glad to hear you made it through yet another one. Perhaps you have had your allotment of "eyes" for awhile. Was thinking about you and your wife. Saw that things were a little worse than expected.
Thanks Chad: I appreciate your concerns. Yes, this one was more of a concern as it didn't slow down at all. The media always shows the worst of such an event. Most folks won't get their lives in order for 3-4 months to say the least. We were very lucky. Stay cool and run steam...
PSG Bob - I'm glad you got through ok. I hope that the dang hurricane season is over for you all. Take care. p.s Aren't those laser cut kits fun? Have you tried any of the Laser Art by Branchline kits yet?
Thanks Boxies. I haven't tried any of the Branchline Kits. I've been working with the N Scale Architect Kits and some Bar Mills Kits. All lasercut kits are very nice to work with and finish. Stay cool and run steam....
