Hurricane Ian 04

Please note: As of this entry, my posts are being backdated as to give “real time writing” for what happened during Hurricane Ian.

The posts will be mixed with personal thoughts, news interjections and random items. I tried my best to give times, but there are points I did not write it down, so you’ll have to understand that there may be some time spans.

As I typed this out, if I’m talking about news for some bullet points in a row, I am trying to keep them together. In instances where I am rambling, as I usually do, don’t mind the nonsensical freeform. That too, I tried to lump together.

Reader discretion advised (there is some TMI [“too much information”]).

Pictures to come at some point (over 1,000 snaps).

October 1 2022

 

7:41pm – News – Myakka river might over flow. The Hidden River Community (I75 East) is on alert because they need to be evacuated. There are levy concerns there. I75 North and South from Venice to Bradenton is closed. All due to water around there not having crested yet. The levy can’t take it, so the people in those areas are being told to leave home. Fruitville, University Crossing, is under alert too. Just be warned. The alert is for most of Sarasota County, and our cousin is in Manatee, so the alert doesn’t affect her even though that is the area she travels heavily.

 

News – most schools closed now until further notice (Desoto, Collier). Lee is closed til the 10^th.

 

News – Downtown Fort Myers has wind damage – windows blown out… if buildings are still standing. There are boats everywhere.

 

My mother checked her phone and a friend from Massachusetts contacted our cousin Ellen to see how we were. Ellen texted us but we can’t text back. Ellen was the one we spent Irma with in 2017. Our immediate next door neighbors (Dave and Diane) screwed out to Fort Lauderdale at the last minute for this storm. So he texted my mother because he saw on a private Facebook page for the community that people are reporting parts of the community has power. Do we? No. it’ll be a slow roll and isn’t fair.

 

I can’t get my phone connected to cell service. It’s circling like mad.

 

News – Wink tv is on the radio. Downtown location suffered flooding and power loss. They are in a makeshift studio on a transmitter site. They congratulated people who have power. “Wink 3X Doppler” by Babcock Ranch  - State Road 31 is where they are. Babcock Ranch is known locally as the Solar City in Florida.

 

11:40am – we just finished cleaning out our refrigerator and freezer. Wow. A lot of stuff has already turned. Bad. We got to walk around for about an hour before. It’s hot, but no humidity / very limited. Checked out friend’s places for them. Our friend Elaine lives near the Caloosahatchee near McGregor Blvd. she has been so extremely lucky the last few years because she floods easily. This storm.. she got four feet of water in her entire house. She had stayed in it, and she and her husband tried to get the water to stay in one place. She said she watched the water come in and circle around the whole house.. just to lap after lap. It finally went down and away, but now she has too much damage everywhere. Her insurance adjuster said her house could be gone – nothing salvageable enough to repair. So she and her husband are going to put in as many claims as they can, get an estimate of worth, potentially sell the house. Do what little renovations they can. But for the most part, she’s going to talk to her husband about moving.  They have been so blessed all these decades in that house. They’ve had to renovate some places in it, but not this major. They know they’re in a flood zone; they’ve learned it by experience after so many years fixing carpets, buying new furniture. Ian is an eye opener.. no more putting a band aid on the house. They can’t do it anymore.

 

News keeps reporting where gas stations are opening up, but people are waiting hours for gas. Ed said he waited 3 hours in a line yesterday. Some callers on the news are saying their tank emptied just sitting idle in line while they wait their turn at the pump.

 

As we walked around, we met other people in our community. There were sections that got power on, but they are closet to the hospital. Part of our community is on that grid, while the rest is on the next grid. So once the hospital goes up, we’re usually next. It’s typically 36 hours later. Problem is, the news reported the hospital is a biohazard area earlier. Don’t remember accurately when it was released as news.

 

198,666 LCEC customers are with out power, news says. It’s primarily North Fort Myers that is down. LCEC is focusing on areas where most people are, but there has been a lot of damage everywhere. FPL says there is quite a bit of damage for them. 60% still without power. Lee County has 179k without power still. And that’s out of 280k. the assessment is taking longer than they thought due to too much down power, broken grids, debris and water. 228k people in Collier, 87k are without power. 99k out of 126k need power in Charlotte County.

 

We are slowly trickling calls in and out to people. Still can’t connect to apps or get a solid connection for calls. Trying my uncle in CT and we had to re-call three times for a 10 minute conversation. Friend in Walpole got through but kept cutting out. Again, tech reliance is definitely showing its ugly head.

 

4:14pm – when it’s 80 something degrees and no humidity, you still get so hot. You don’t realize how quickly you get dehydrated. We were out in the sun and under a tent, but the sun is blaring. You can’t seem to get enough liquid in your body. You also don’t want to be greedy, but you just get so thirsty. My face is already burnt, my feet are “lobstered”   - you can see my flip flop lines and where it’s red, oh, is it red and hurting. It’s hurting because being in side with no air does nothing to calm your skin. It makes it worse. Fat kids should not live in high temperate climates. Humidity is not our friend to begin with. Tay refers to my location as “the tropics” and that there is “no way you can pay me to live there, let alone visit for any length of time”. he had visited a friend on the East Coast (Hollywood) a number of years ago, and “could not get out quick enough”. True, he was there for two weeks and I hated his guts for borrowing 20 DVDs from me three days prior, but he had a moment where he just dipped out. And he hated every minute of it. I know the reasons, but it’s his personal story. I can’t go further in explaining other than one of his friends allowed him to see the Atlantic side of The Wang.

 

Slowly the news is reporting different areas are releasing their boil water notice. We still have it in effect, and most likely need it for a while after they say it’s ok to stop. We are creating a list of things to clean here as it is. The refrigerator, inside and out, plus drain the line of the dirty water and empty whatever ice is made if power goes on. The replace that filter, even though we just installed it last month.. we don’t want to take the chance. We will also need to run the washing machine once to get the gross out, plus the dishwasher. 

 

The news is reporting that the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, Pine Island and Matlacha are swept away. Rather, the “charming houses” have gone to the river. The (one way in, same way out) roads don’t exist now. You can’t get to any of those places unless you’re going by boat or helicopter. The bridges shifted to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Update on I75: Myakka and Peace River won’t crest / go down until at least Tuesday. Before this happens, it has the potential to raise 35 feet above it’s normal level and go over the bridge to do harm. The city is concerned about the levies breaking.

4:39pm – news reporter said it took him 4 ½ hours to get from Venice to Fort Myers. Usually takes an hour, hour 15 minutes, tops. He had to detour all over the place.

Shrimp boats are pushed together on top of each other in heavy fishing areas on Fort Myers Beach. The same with mobile homes – if it was moveable, it went. At least 60 are confirmed dead between Florida and North Carolina (news).

They are talking about the devastation around – the how the buildings collapsed – everything looks “like tinker toys and building brick houses got thrown around”

4:55 – There is an estimated 4.5 billion dollars in damages in Florida.

Ian is now a tropical storm and is past the Carolinas.

 

7:30pm – just got out of the shower. We had “to do laundry”. Some things we are wearing that we can’t “just put in the washing machine”. We’ve been noticing a slight odor in the clothes because we sit outside all day and sweat in it. My mother had worn her “schmatta” for the past 2 ½ days of being outside. All while grilling, sitting with everyone, just not trying to wear “good clothes”. I’ve been wearing the same two gym shorts and shirts. You don’t realize the small amount of “junk” clothes you have until you have to ration it all out. It’s the unforeseeable future that makes it all rough. Once this is over, I’m going to Walmart or something and investing in more work out pants.

 

News: Miami restaurants will be traveling to Cape Coral to make free food for people. Local food trucks have been cooking non stop and more are coming.

 

While we were outside, a neighbor said that the intersection lights were blinking yellow when getting into our complex. Hopefully that’s a good sign!!

 

The sun is setting and it’s getting dark, but “it’s only” 7:40.

 

News just said Pine Island residents need to be at a specific place tomorrow to be able to get evacuated. Evacuation is running every 90 minutes to 2 hours and only during daylight.

 

8:18pm – I am so mad at myself. I got signed out of imessage and now I can’t get logged in. so my phone keeps circling for texts. It also keeps telling me I’ve got 2 different accounts set up. Which I don’t. I need to get on wifi to fix this or at least a stronger LTE signal. I still keep getting messages failed and can’t go online. You really feel closed off. The power of 5G that my mom has, she got some voicemails on her phone now. They were all sent over the past two days. She’s been able to text people but it’s been Verizon customers, as the other messages fail quickly. I know conspiracy theorists have a lot to say about 5G, so I’m not going to go into who is right and who is wrong. I do see the difference between the cell data usage, but both are equally positive and negative. We both are having problems, but that may very well be the overall towers being down.

 

9:12pm – Breaking news – Bonita Springs is now under a flood advisory, as the Imperial River that supplies them is getting a lot of water rushing towards them. It’s rushing 2 feet higher. So the Peace River, Myakka River, and now Imperial River is having problems.

FPL is reporting 45% of customers have power. LCEC has 9 percent reported. The Governor is really mad at LCEC because they apparently aren’t doing enough. I think LCEC is trying more to get their equipment checked out first rather than start bombarding the fixes.

 

What’s irking me, is the station we are listening to, is broadcasting the TV broadcast and the radio station is very poorly coming in with their station ID. They aren’t slowly fading anything in or out. They’re just coming right in and talking lousily over the TV stuff.

 

Having a few “duh” moments: We are listening to TV on the radio (and anchors know there are radio listeners but aren’t trained for it). Everything is focused on the “if you look on your screen” or “if you want to help, take your phone camera out and point it at the QR Code on your screen”. What about those without power? What do you do? The news says sites to go to but don’t spell it out. Hello…give everyone a fighting chance if you’re going to try to help. They should be spelling out things, not just rumbling through it. The people listening on the radio can’t right things down for when they do get power if it’s some long word they can’t spell (trust me, one of the websites mentioned, I had to ask my mother twice “what was that site?”). My radio professors are in my head right now, including people I worked with. My boy Eddie in particular – I can totally hear him having a kinipshit over the broadcasts when the anchor is saying the website and didn’t spell it. My first out loud thought was something I would totally hear Eddie say – “spell the damn thing out, please! There are people listening on the radio! What the hell was that??”. Tay, if you’re reading this, you know as well as I do, Eddie would be yelling back at the speaker box. Eddie and I share a few Connecticut Broadcasting School friends (one in particular is “Meatball”, who interned at the station Tay, Eddie and I worked at, back in the day). I could hear Meatball say something similar – “You always want to spell it out. No matter what. Long words need a little help”.

 

News – there are over 400 nurses coming from over the US to help in the relief effort.

 

We are on day 3 (?) since the storm. My battery in my camera is starting to drain. I also am going to have to empty my SD card at some point. It’s getting a little full for an 8gb card.

 

News reminded people on Pine Island to be at the fire station tomorrow for an evacuation. It’s not mandatory, but if they want to get out, tomorrow is the chance. Lee Tran will meet them at the end point and bring them to shelters. News also says Pine Island people are hearty and resiliently independent.

 

What are they, soup??

 

            But they fish, they farm, they profit in their own doings. They are year round, hard working people. Totally blue collar people that get on tractors and move things. But it’s going to be hard because there is nothing to help them from a main land right now. Same thing with Bokeelia. A news anchor and a couple people have had to jump through hoops to get people’s stories. They went by boat, hitchhiked, walked, all to talk to strangers. They borrowed power to charge devices. “Islanders rely on each other” and the anchor saw it first hand.