Hurricane "Ian" may be heading for us here in Florida

[simple girl]

For what it's worth, I doubt they think you are imposing!

They continue to reassure us they aren't and still want to hang out with us (hmmm...what choice do they have? lol), so not sick of us yet I guess!

 

[simple girl]

Well if it helps, in my experience, the power restoration teams tend to under promise and over deliver...That makes them look like heroes, which of course they are anyway. I've seen that happen in the Houston area many times. Of course YMMV.

That's what I'm hoping!!! Thank you!

 

[MichaelB]

Well if it helps, in my experience, the power restoration teams tend to under promise and over deliver...That makes them look like heroes, which of course they are anyway. I've seen that happen in the Houston area many times. Of course YMMV.

Or not promise anything at all. A specific date for power availability is a very positive sign IMO.

 

[MichaelB]

Hello, everyone. I haven't been around for awhile, but thought I would check in and see how some of my SWFL friends made out.

I'm not down there, but I've gotten phone calls and pictures from friends. Sounds like Bonita Springs, Naples, and Fort Myers are pretty much gone, at least the parts anywhere near the water. Matlacha and Pine Island (where Khan used to live) are as destroyed as a nuclear weapon would have done. Devastating.

My house in Bonita Springs seems to have survived again. It's a bunker. We're a mile from the Gulf and about a quarter mile from the Imperial River. Water came up into the front yard, but not quite to the door. My friends a few blocks away right on the Imperial had 4' of water in their house. You can't even get to Fort Myers Beach from Bonita anymore. They closed the bridge due to structural damage. Plus all the boats and trees in the road from the surge.

We just got electricity and internet back about an hour ago. That's amazing work by FPL. I expected at least a week. Tomorrow I'll be able to access my cameras and see at least how the yards look.

Hopefully everyone from the board that lives down there is ok. This was a monster.

Very happy to hear from you, Harley, and hope nothing of value was lost.

 

[JoeWras]

The have made great progress in NC on power restoration.

Knowing linemen, they'll be ready to caravan to FL as soon as they are done.

I have a lineman friend. They have a culture, one seen as a calling to help the safety of the country or world. They are driven.

Unfortunately, by his mid 40s the job took a physical toll and he had to retire to something else.

 

[Car-Guy]

Or not promise anything at all. A specific date for power availability is a very positive sign IMO.

That's true too (from what I've seen)... Initially it seems they triage the impacted area(s) and then talk in general terms of days, weeks and even months. Then as they better understand what they have to do and better align their crews/equipment they can start "scheduling" restorations and communicate realistic dates by area... At least that is what I've seen happen from a layman's POV. (More than once)

I'm sure it's a logistics nightmare for the power companies who always seem to do a great job. Seems these guys (and gals) are always called on to do a dangerous job in a hurry in the most adverse conditions and many of them far from home.

Honestly, I hope they are properly compensated.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Yeah ShokWave. You are thinking about it. I think the problem comes from people who are under stress and are not thinking big picture.

Another problem is the CO detectors. They need to be battery or battery back up. No power, no detector - that's a problem!

Yup, I put new batteries in mine every time i think I REALLY need them.

 

[street]

What devastation! My heart truly goes out to those who suffer from these natural occurrences.

Yes, my hat goes off to the line powers that work these storms. I have seen it and heard it in every natural disaster when power was out. In blaming them and for not having the power restored right away. It was always the power company's fault.

What those workers have to go through to get it done in these types of storms is unreal.

Thanks to ALL people working to make these bad times get back to normal.

 

[NW-Bound]

NW-Bound's solar system is independent of the grid from what I recall.

Yes. My solar+battery is intended to be the primary source of power. The grid is the backup.

Yes, they can isolate themselves from the grid with an automatic transfer switch, that's not a tough problem (just a bit of extra hardware).

The real problem of running solar w/o a grid connection is that you need a battery bank to provide a steady source for your home. You can't have the voltage fluctuating all over whenever a cloud or plane goes over, or when a heavy load kicks on/off. In addition, you need a more complex inverter system to handle the power flowing all these different ways (grid>home; solar>grid; solar>battery; battery>home; maybe battery>grid).

Even if you don't want/need days of storage with the battery, and cut your draw way down overnight, it still has to be big enough to smooth the load to your daytime demand. And by the time you've done all that, you probably do want days of storage, in case that outage comes along with a few cloudy days. You'd be kicking yourself for 'cheaping out' on that part of it.

That's why most people just skip the extra expense and go grid-tie.

-ERD50

I don't have days of storage. I barely have enough battery to run the ACs through the night. And only when it's not super hot. Batteries are expensive. And big batteries require big solar arrays to feed them. Big everything means mucho money, and land for the panels.

I can do solar>battery>home, grid>battery>home, and grid>home.

Solar and battery never feed the grid in my system. Doing that requires permission from the utility.

 

[socca]

Or not promise anything at all. A specific date for power availability is a very positive sign IMO.

I logged into my FPL account twice a day hoping for a restoration estimate. I never received one - restoration just happened. So, the folks without a restoration estimate can still have hope ...

 

[aaronc879]

I can do solar>battery>home, grid>battery>home, and grid>home.

Solar and battery never feed the grid in my system. Doing that requires permission from the utility.

I know in some places you can sell excess energy to the utility during low usage and use that as a credit for when you have heavy usage. Is that not an option where you live or do you just choose not to go that route?

 

[NW-Bound]

I know in some places you can sell excess energy to the utility during low usage and use that as a credit for when you have heavy usage. Is that not an option where you live or do you just choose not to go that route?

My DIY system is independent from the grid because it is not sanctioned to be tied to the grid.

And I don't want to sell surplus power to the grid. I store it in my battery.

In the middle of the day when I have surplus power, the utility also has excess solar power. It's dirt cheap. Talk about selling water in a hurricane.

So, I save the power in my battery for use at night when there's no solar.

 

[SecondAttempt]

The have made great progress in NC on power restoration.

Knowing linemen, they'll be ready to caravan to FL as soon as they are done.

I have a lineman friend. They have a culture, one seen as a calling to help the safety of the country or world. They are driven.

Unfortunately, by his mid 40s the job took a physical toll and he had to retire to something else.

Linemen are unsung heros. Before the storm hit I saw footage of a caravan of FPL trucks that stretched as far as you could see just staged to go in. And to think every single truck had one or two men or women doing their part while their own houses and families were on their own.

 

[ivinsfan]

Linemen are unsung heros. Before the storm hit I saw footage of a caravan of FPL trucks that stretched as far as you could see just staged to go in. And to think every single truck had one or two men or women doing their part while their own houses and families were on their own.

I think those trucks were from all over country not just FPL which helps explain the rapid response.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Linemen are unsung heros. Before the storm hit I saw footage of a caravan of FPL trucks that stretched as far as you could see just staged to go in. And to think every single truck had one or two men or women doing their part while their own houses and families were on their own.

When we evacuated from Irma a few years ago, we saw numerous power company caravans heading south into Florida as we were driving north to get away. Can't say enough for all of the folks that come from afar to aid the recovery. We bought snacks and gave them away to all of the power crews we saw as we drove home.

I was in Bradenton yesterday visiting family. On the drive home around 8 pm, I saw a caravan from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office heading south with generators, fuel and other supplies.

 

[48Fire]

If you were to live anywhere in south or central Florida good luck getting out unless you leave a few days early. There are only 2 main roads out and they will be parking lots. Nothing quite like riding out a hurricane in your car. Even in north Florida it can be difficult. I-95 and I-10 will still be crowded from those in the south heading north. I recall my parents getting stuck on I-10 for many hours and just made it out of the area.
The initial flooding is only the beginning and living inland does not insure safety. Lack of power, water, food, medical help, sanitation, etc. I have lived in Florida for the past 60 years but would never live anywhere that wasn't in north Florida for a little better access to evacuate. I can always visit anywhere south.

Cheers!

My wife reminded me of the commercials running in 1983, "Life on a peninsula can really cramp your style."

 

[harley]

Or not promise anything at all. A specific date for power availability is a very positive sign IMO.

Not sure if the Floridians on the site have seen this FPL notification, so I thought I would pass it on. I got it earlier today. Looks promising.

We feared a storm as powerful as Hurricane Ian would mean rebuilding parts of our system, not simply repairing and restoring. That is typically measured in weeks, not days. While there are pockets of our service area with extensive damage – particularly Southwest Florida – we can tell you that this restoration will be measured in days, not weeks. For customers who can safely receive power, here’s what we’re able to provide:
• Brevard and Okeechobee counties are essentially restored.
• Northern Manatee, Flagler, Seminole and Volusia counties will be 95 percent restored by end of day Tuesday, Oct. 4.
• Southern Manatee and southern Collier counties will be 95 percent restored by end of day Wednesday, Oct. 5.
• Southeast parts of Manatee county, Charlotte, northern Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Lee and Sarasota counties will be 95 percent restored by end of day Sunday, Oct. 9, though we expect most customers will be restored by end of day Friday, Oct. 7.
The timeframe provided is based on a worse-case scenario, and it’s possible your power will be back on sooner.

The storm missed us in SWFL, but it appears to have tracked us down to the Eastern Shore of MD. We're in day 2 of driving winds (20 mph+) and pouring rain. Obviously nothing like what FL and the Carolinas went through, but still a significant storm. I guess I better go turn off my irrigation system.

 

[Scuba]

When Katrina hit my Aunt and Uncle had to drain their 401k and accept donations as they stayed up in Minnesota for a year. The casino's they both worked at were tossed across the road so they had no job to go back to for a year until it was rebuilt. My uncle got a temporary job up in MN (where they are from originally) and we did some fundraising drives for food, clothes and such.



That Katrina killed them, literally and financially. Uncle ended up with COPD from all the mold he was exposed to and passed away about 6 yrs ago.



My cousin stayed down there while it hit... holding a shotgun while he guarded the house. The town's firefighters had to chain themselves to a large tree to keep from floating away, just so they could begin rescue efforts as soon as the storm passed. The city was obliterated. I think less than half of their block decided to come back...ever. SO like half the block was just completely abandoned. I remember when I went down about 3yrs after Katrina hit to visit and I was like dang, this is an entirely new town. They rebuilt everything from the ground up.



My cousin lived in a Katrina trailer and watched over the house while his parents were up here in MN. They lost a lot. Devastating. My dad and I had to go down and gut their home. The church helped install new windows. Then the inside remodel began. The home is still not 100% finished after they gutted it down to the studs. The crazy thing is the fence held back a large pile of debris and had it not been there, they would have only had a slab to go back to.



I remember none of the homes on the coastline were standing. You were lucky if you could find even the front concrete steps. I'd never seen such devastation. No trees to speak of, if there were they were just stems with no actual branches.



Camille hit the same area a while before that so they had rebuilt the cities once before. Waveland, MS is the name of the city.



Here is a random video someone recorded who said they "regretted" staying that shows the 7' storm surge over 1/4 mile from the coastline.

My friend lost his grandma in that hurricane. She was too frail to leave her home to evacuate and drown to death in the surge.

That is so sad. My sister and her husband lived in Gulfport and got 5-6 ft of water in their house. DH and I flew down to help a few days after the storm. The devastation was awful. I also lived through Betsy and Camille as a kid. Now I live in earthquake country but we prefer that to hurricanes.

 

[Scuba]

I feel for all the people in FL who are dealing with destruction from Hurricane Ian and hope that life returns to normal as soon as possible for you. Glad to read the reports from people who are safe and have homes not too severely affected.

 

[pugmom]

We were very fortunate to not have any. damage whatsoever in St Pete Beach.. we have cameras and they never went out, so we apparently did not even lose power. But my best friend in Ft Myers lost literally everything and barely escaped with her life.

 

[simple girl]

Not sure if the Floridians on the site have seen this FPL notification, so I thought I would pass it on. I got it earlier today. Looks promising.

We saw the FPL notification, but thank you!

We are in the Oct 9 group and hoping for earlier, BUT, a neighbor talked to a repairman near our area yesterday and the information learned was not encouraging. Apparently there is a line down between our community and an apartment complex on the other side, by the fence between the two. There is no road access right there, so they will be unable to access the area via the repair truck. Hence, the repairman told our neighbor not to expect to be in the 95% of people restored by October 9.

Apparently this wire is live and the repairman is going to report it. Maybe that will increase the priority, we'll see.

We are supposed to have visitors coming into town Oct 7. Gonna have to tell them today that we can't promise to be able to host them. Small potatoes compared to what difficulties others are facing right now!

 

[Aerides]

We are supposed to have visitors coming into town Oct 7. Gonna have to tell them today that we can't promise to be able to host them. Small potatoes compared to what difficulties others are facing right now!

To be honest, any decent visitor would absolutely understand postponing (were it me I would have already done so), until you have more than just power. I'd tell them now let's hold off and we'll let you know when to rebook.

Even if they are flying in or whatever, I'd imagine all the airlines are flexible.

 

[folivier]

There is a series that recently came out on AppleTV, "Five Days at Memorial", about a hospital and nursing home during Katrina. DW and I tried to watch it but only got 2 episodes in before it brought back too many memories.

 

[Rianne]

There is a series that recently came out on AppleTV, "Five Days at Memorial", about a hospital and nursing home during Katrina. DW and I tried to watch it but only got 2 episodes in before it brought back too many memories.

I watched the entire series, devastating. Excellent acting, it felt like I was there with them. It felt like a war zone and difficult decisions had to be made.

 

[MRG]

DW'S DB and DSIL are home in Lee County. They normally get wet when everyone else is dry, somehow they were spared. No power yet and they have some stuff to clean up but compared to the expectations it's a relief.

They left to come out west before there was a storm. Didn't get to put up their storm shutters so it's amazing what didn't happen. They were with us when the storm went through and they were naturally pretty anxious. Three days to get home in the new camper stocked with gas, water....