Way to go Pete!
I’m glad to hear your cousin and wife are ok and that they didn’t sustain much damage. 🙂
Also my sympathies go out to those who were not as fortunate.
Speaking of cyber friends, doesn’t Barb B live down in FL? Hope she managed to avoid Charley (not to be confused with my wife Charly).
BTW, hows the weather out in your neck of the woods Beth? We’re taking a long awaited vacation out that way, leaving next week.
Joe
Hi, Joe. I’m on the opposite coast, so things are fine here. Thanks for asking.
Way to go, Pete! I’m sure you’re doing a lot of things for other people that we haven’t heard about, too.
Barbara Brundage is on the East Coast of Florida, so Charley missed her area altogether.
The weather has been beautiful – 80s and 90s here, and 100s in many parts of Eastern Washington. Hmmm. You’re headed this way, huh? Maybe that explains why the weatherman says the hot weather is going out and the rain is headed in; Washington just hates to show off for visitors! We need the rain, though, so nobody around here is upset. The fires are horrible.
Drive carefully and have a wonderful trip!
Beth,
That is really wonderful … Pete deserves a medal 🙂
Wendy
Pete
Good going …. great effort … wonderful results!
Grant
Pete deserves to be Governor of Florida ! Move over Jed !!!
Jodi, Jed as in Jed Clampett??
🙂
hardly a "poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed"…:)
You guys are hijacking my very serious thread! 🙂 The old crew clearly has crawled out of the woodwork and is up to its old tricks.
Alright Pete!! Beth, glad to hear that your cousin and wife are OK!
Juergen
Chuck started it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pete is a real sweetie! He certainly demonstrated human kindness and compassion. Wish he had more time to jump into this forum <sigh>…and I also miss seeing his Challenges with the adorable little tennies on their feet 🙂
Nancy i agree ! Pete always put a smile on my face ! I do miss his work ! I’m sooo happy he is OK.
Beth,
You’re absolutely correct, sorry. See my post 5.1.
Beth, I apologize – and I sent a personal thanks to Pete at his home e-mail. Pete’s a fantastic person!
Chuck started it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually I did with the first reply to Beth’s post. Sorry Beth… 🙁 So just for good measure, Way to Go Again Pete!
Joe
Well, I just wanted Pete to have his moment in the spotlight! Jed/Jeb and his bro get more than their fair share already. No apologies needed; I just wanted you guys back on track Tt was kind of refreshing to see that kind of banter going on – but in somebody’s else’s thread, please! 🙂 (And let them take care of themself!)
It’s nice to hear those heart touching stories… Nice of you Pete 🙂
Ray
Enough, already!
"Ray" wrote in message
It’s nice to hear those heart touching stories… Nice of you Pete 🙂
Ray
Pete…I am basically a lurker, learning when I can and enjoying the challenges. I had wondered what happened to you in general. Then I immediately thought of you with the hurricane. Remembered you were below Tampa and above Naples…just hoped not in the damaged area.
I still love the penquin (I think it was) sitting on the john reading the newspaper! You really did some neat images… Kudos to you for above and beyond action for Beth! D.B.
Beth, ..Sooo nice of you to take the time to relate the story. It doesn’t surprise me that Pete would go out of his way to help. Yes, this forum has exceptionally nice people.
My 3 relative families barely missed it.
Marty
A medal for Pete for going above and beyond the call!
Thank you Beth, for relating this info to the group. It’s nice to hear these kind of stories as opposed to some of the things we read in the news.
My father-in-law lives right at the mouth of the Manatee River (west Bradenton, just south of Tampa Bay) and we were very worried about him right up until Charley did that right turn at the last minute. He realizes that his good fortune was someone else’s misfortune and is planning to go on a work team with his church. He is also took his turn manning a ham radio network. As he always tells us…when telephones and power lines are down, ham radio is still at work.
Again, thanks for relating this good news, Beth.
Patti
Patti, Yes, I know how he must have felt. Whenever I tell someone about my relatives’ good fortune I get a pang of sadness for those others. He must be a good fellow to pitch in and help.
Marty
I finally had a minute to read some of the forum and want to than you Beth for the acknowledgement. But that was a joyful afternoon when I found them safe in their home.
Many areas in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda are getting the power back on as well as the red lights and telephone. Some businesses are even opening like the Nissan dealer that had the entire showroom totally destroyed as well as the offices and extensive damage to the repair shop, not to mention damage to every automobile in inventory. Nissan and some other businesses are trying to open to save the business and provide jobs for the people that work there. But the majority of the businesses are not yet open and may never open putting thousands out of work.
Stories like this could go on and on but the real sad part of the whole storm is the thousands and thousands of people that major damage to their homes. People have been working relentlessly for over two weeks and both cities have piles of debris the width of their property piled 5 feet high.
But the worst part is the roofs of their homes and structural damage. There are few homes of the 150,000 people in Port Charlotte and (I believe around) 50,000 in Punta Gorda that did not have this damage. FEMA (federal emergency management) has just yesterday struck a deal to take over 95 acres south of Punta Gorda where temporary housing will be built and modular homes put up for some of the thousands and thousands that are living in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. A former RV park in Venice was also taken over and FEMA has contracted to bring in hundreds of RV’s to also be used as temporary housing.
I really can’t think of the right words to relate how bad it is. Day before yesterday I helped a 75 year old man pick up his belongings that were scattered through his yard. A 6′ wooden privacy fence around his yard was torn apart and thrown everywhere, snapping 4×4 timbers off at ground level. One of the 4×4’s speared his old car that was beside the house entering the windshield and out through the side window. Since the car is a 1987 there was no comprehensive coverage and just the glass damage alone is well beyond the value of the car.
While pulling debris from his yard I stepped on a black cable about an inch and a half in diameter and immediately jumped when I felt the power going through the cable. But it is worth the risk getting power back on even with these conditions because the heat without air conditioning would surely cause fatalities in the elderly. So we decided that it was best to leave any debris around that power line and remove it after the line is back suspended on the poles. Well that is after the poles that were broken off are replaced. But worse is that he has been startled in his sleep when ceiling drywall fell on him. He moves to another room to sleep and then part of the ceiling in that room falls.
There are entire streets that were the homes were deemed not fit to live in. But only in the most seriously damaged structurally because there is no place to house the number of people that will eventually be displaced.
Well that is just a taste of what is going on and if you see on television that things are getting better that is just the infrastructure like red lights, water and telephone and has little to do with all the people that were affected. I have seen grown men cry in desperation because there is just no way to make things right as quickly as it needs to be. Contractors and disaster recovery people are coming from all over the country to assist but it still is not enough. Just in the Punta Gorda Isles area there are several thousand homes that need a new roof.
Sorry if I have depressed you all but I can feel the help in the areas dwindling already and there is just so much to do. If anyone is so moved to help these people the Red Cross, Charlotte County chapter has been a big help to the people. Don’t forget that the billions of dollars that the federal government has spent so far was to bring in 9,000 electrical utility workers to re-establish power. Future spending will be for the housing. But I know of no direct assistance to the common people there other then the Red Cross and their funds are limited and can’t cover the numbers of people affected.
So when you consider all this and then hear from someone like Beth that they have not heard from someone its a real no-brainer decision that I needed to drive down there and find them.
Pete
