Hello all
Just got back from the FEMA staging area. Picked up some ice, water and some food since the stores are mostly all closed for now.
The whole group of islands where we live was completely under water for a few hours during the second storm surge. I have photos in my phone but no way to get them out until cell service is restored. This was the biggest storm surge I've ever seen here, or anyone else I've talked with for that matter. Downstairs we got 2-4 feet of water in the house, depending on the room. Out in the street and out back the water was several feet deeper. Photos show the whole neighborhood under water, all houses looking like real stilt houses.
For now we have no cell service and no land line until last night, then it went out again and came back for awhile today, then went out again. Not sure when we'll have power or network services again. Local DSL and cable modem services are gone even with generators. Of course everyone is still cleaning silt out of their generators since they were submerged for hours too in most cases.
Just about every car on this street is ruined, shorted out by salt water. During the storm surge, some cars started up, some sounded their alarms, some drove a few feet on their own. One even caught fire. No one can rent a car since all rental cars were flooded too. People are flying to Tampa to rent cars and drive back down.
Right now we don't know when we'll have power again, they have to get all the houses in each grid inspected before powering on, since the houses can short out and burn like three houses did on the neighboring island over the last two days.
But hopefully we'll be back to normal soon, and I can get back to catching up with things I missed while we were offline. Our hosting servers are all fine, they're not located down here, so aside from me personally being a little unavailable, it should be business as usual for everyone.
I'll be back when I can. Anyone who needs me for anything, just shoot me an email or leave a message on ICQ and I'll try to check both of those whenever I can logon for a few minutes. I have to conserve battery power for now, and connecting via an old AOL dialup account isn't much fun anyway.
Simon
P.S. The board
is faster without all the nice buttons, banners and avatars, but I'm looking forward to the full graphic experience again soon!
