To all of the Florida residents out there.....

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

As you all know there are a ton of wakeboarders in Florida and I am sure a ton of Wakeworld members that are from Florida.

TAMPA, Fla. - A "scary, scary" Hurricane Charley zeroed in on Florida's west coast Friday, after state officials urged about two million tourists and residents to evacuate and avoid the path of a storm that could submerge parts of this city's downtown and other neighboring areas.

Charley's expected 120 mph top sustained winds and massive storm surge could devastate coastal and low-lying areas in Tampa and St. Petersburg. Everything from waterfront condominium towers to vulnerable mobile homes were in danger on the Gulf Coast.

Richard, great thread!! This is what I believe wakeworld is all about!!Our Florida fellow wakeboarders, know that us on the west coast are praying for you and your safety. Hopefully, it is just overkill and it will just pass over. Please keep us posted on how things are going!!

As the Monty Python boys said "RUN AWAY!!!!". Hope everyone is safe & remains that way. You guys better be surfing because this is as good as it will get!!

Thanks for the well wishes.
I'm Northeast of Orlando and just to the West of the projected path. We should experience at least tropical storm force winds, heavy rain and potential for tornados. If I have power and a connection I'll try to post an update later on this evening.

It is scheduled to make landfall around 6-7pm EST near Sarasota. Here' a pic...

Good luck Florida boarders, stay safe!

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quote:

This is what I believe wakeworld is all about!!

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i think it has more to do w/ human spirit than wakeworld.

take good care.

I'm in Tampa and luckily the storm has moved a bit east to hit Sarasota and Ft Myers. Good for me, not good for them.

It was upgraded to Cat 4 recently, with winds of 145mph.

50-70mph winds will be felt for 100 miles around the eye supposedly...

good luck Floridians...

someone get some footage of wakeboaridng in a hurricane. you'd be my hero

easy boone, I dont know if that is good human spirit. if some gets some good air then they just might keep on going!

I have family in Venice, FL so I hope all is well.

Good luck everyone and God Speed!

Boone -
Don't think there is any WB going on this afternoon (at least not in Orlando). Everyone I know is hunkered down at home at 4pm EDT - We just had the leading edge storm pass by and now the calm before the big one which is supposed to have turned for Orlando and should hit us in 4 - 5 hours.

Joe, yes your right silly, but a forum to share lifes experiences surrounding wakeboarding and supporting eachother, THATS what is great about wakeworld!
Wakeboarding NOW?? I just keep picturing that shot of Patrick Swaze in Point Break when he was surfing that final wave. I don't think so!!

Hold on tight Florida, we are praying for you!!

(Message edited by teamvaldez on August 13, 2004)

Bonnie was supposed to hit here in Panama City yesturday but it completely missed us. It was a nice sunny day and the best part was we got the day off from school which ment one more day for wakeboarding.

Good luck to you all!!

I was in New Orleans 2 years ago as a catagory 4 was bearing down. Pretty scary stuff. They/I lucked out when it hit cold water that a week earlier smaller huricane had stired up and it dropped to a catagory 1 withn miles of the coast and turned west of New Orleans by 30 miles or so.

But it was crazy seeing the whole French Quarter boarded up. The hotel actually had us fill up our bathtubs with what would have been drinking water just in case it hit full force and the city flooded. They predicted 8 to 10 feet of water in the French Quarter if it made a direct hit.

Just watching the news here in So Cal. Looks like you guys are getting an a$$ kicking. Hang in there. Our thoughts are with you.

Just got off the phone with a friend in Fort Myers. The hurricane bounced off Sanibel, hit North Captiva, and then went through Port Charlotte earlier this afternoon. Winds in Fort Myers were 100+ mph, he lost a bit of his backyard fence and had a little roof damage. Actually he spent most of the time on his enclosed patio watching the storm. Power has been off since 1:30pm their time. Sounds like it could have been worse...

The thing I hated about hurricanes when I lived in Fort Myers was that you feel like you need to be preparing whenever they are coming, and then it always turns out you didn't need to go through all the work. Only once in 8 years did we have big worries --- the canal flooded over the seawall in the back yard and came up within 20 feet of the house. Then we REALLY had to watch out for alligators when walking the dog!!! I'll take the risk of earthquakes any day...

Anyhow, hope everyone else out there is OK...

Orlando is now getting pounded by Charley. The National Weather Service has reported wind gusts of 105 mph at Orlando airport. Hopefully everyone is prepared and safe.

I wonder how the boat that overlooks the OWC is handling it??

I live just north of Orlando and I'm guessing that the eye passed within 10 miles of me. My only casualty was a ripped boat cover and tons of tree debris. A neighbor down the street got it the worse with a large oak crushing the roof of his car and a caved in porch. Power was off for 13 hours from about 9:30pm to 11:00am.

OWC the cable park is very close to the airport and the news reported the eye as hitting the airport. No answer on their phones this morning.

damn just saw the paper. forget that last post...the way the weatherman was talkin about it yesterday it didnt sound that bad.

Hey everyone.... Yesterday, (Friday the 13th) St. Pete dodged one hell of a large bullet. It is a terrible thing that happended to the Ft. Myers area and now your thoughts and preyers must be with the familys and those who lost everything in this catagory 5 huricane. I live in St. Petersburg which is right on the coast of Tampa Bay and we thoguht we were really in for it. After a bizare turn of events the hurricane veered of course and right into the Ft. Myers area. If any of you are Floridians you might have been to South sease planation before. Its a small popular town for tourist and vistors and many people go each year to visit there. South Seas plantation has been almost totally destroyed. Also Port Charlotte has been very very badly damaged. Please everyone pray that all those people and their familes will get through this ordeal.... Ironic that it happend on Friday the 13th though

Good luck to all us Floridians

My Mother and sisters live in Ft Myers and Cape Coral. They managed to weather the storm without to much loss. The barrier islands got it the worse and from what I understand it actually came ashore in Pt Charlotte/Punta Gorda. I'm guessing that these are the areas where the most fatalities occurred. This was a bad storm probably only exceeded by Andrew in recent years.

A lot of the Orlando metro area is still out of power I can only imagine how bad it must be on the gulf coast. My mom in Cape Coral had phone service even right after the storm passed over as did I. So at least we could make sure that everyone was all right.

Early Friday I didn't think it was heading for Orlando. Work let out early and I just went home and mowed the lawn. Then I heard on the news about the change in path and got to work securing everything. I have an 18'x26' screen porch with aluminum roof on the second story and I was really worried about it being destroyed. I bolted a ski rope to the center beam and secured it with 140lbs of weight to keep the roof from flapping. During the storm I could see the wind lift the roof and suspend the 140lbs about an inch off the floor on the big gusts. Thankfully everything held.

I was pretty pissed knowing that so many wakeboarders are going to feel the furry of this hurricane. Well I live in New Orleans, my time is coming since I live 18ft below sea level. Hope the levees hold!

The paper today said that Charley blew the wind off of three terminals at the airport (MCO). I got an email from Bisch saying that his roof was blown off at his home. We have our earthquakes, we understand...Florida, we are praying for you.

bah, wasnt anything compared to Andrew in South FL (miami) in 92. now that messed a bunch of stuff up. I think i went with out power for over a month.

Best of luck to everyone who got hit.

Well I guess I was a few of the fortunate who didn't lose power or water during and after the storm......just the CableTV & internet for about 1day.
Lots and lots of downed and uprooted Oak trees everywhere. Word is that there are some Tree services charging up to 4k to remove a tree.
Some of these trees out here are big enough to keep a fire burning all winter in some parts of the country. There are some areas that still have trees blocking the road. About 80% of Central FL is back up and running to some degree. The biggest concern are the major intersections that still don't have the traffic lights functioning. I guess people forget about treating these intersections as a 4 Way stop and just barrel right through.
Now that I've experienced a Hurricane, I'd much rather deal with earthquakes ....which are just as unpredictable.

Ironically my parent's house didn't receive any damage and they live in Port Charlotte and my brother's (brand spankin new)house did get some minor damage and he lives in Cape Coral.

Goes to show just how unpredictable these storms are.

The eye of the storm came right over my house, as luck would have it. By the time it reached us though it was only a catagory 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 85 mph and gust over 100 mph. Luckily, I didn't have any structural damage to the house or pool enclosure (except for a couple sections of screen). Our power has been out since Friday at about 9 pm and might not be back on until late this week, but we have power at the office here!!!

Trees are down everywhere and a million people in central FL are without power. Ice, batteries and gas are hard to come by in many areas, but that is changing. Numerous houses, cars, pool enclosures and sheds were damaged in my neighborhood. Everyone came together on Saturday morning to help each other out which was nice. A couple of my biggest trees came partially uprooted and are leaning toward the house. They are going to have to be removed, but they're holding so far.

So, I guess it could have been worse. We've been "camping" out at the house. I got whipped at UNO 8 games in a row by the wife, but then I schooled her at Scrabble big time last night.

We're making the best of it, but I've got to borrow a generator so I can get the boat off the lift and at least go ride.

David,

good to hear you are all right. I have another friend in east orlando that had the luxury of having the eye go over him. fortunately his apt complex held up to it.

also, my friends in clermont (including our buddy chase) didn't get hit very hard.

I had my power restored at 11am Saturday morning. Went to the store and bought some food on Saturday evening and then the freak'n power went off again 5pm Sunday. Hasn't been on since. My office is right across the street from my house and has juice. I can see the fuse dangling from the power pole.