Wow! Bad weather

[Cuda]

I woke up at 4 am this morning due to the weather. I've lived in Florida for 39 years, and I've never seen such lightning before. I could hear the roaring like a tornado was headed towards us. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn there was a bombing attack to the east of us. The worst must have just missed us. There was damage both north and south of us. Our power went out just after the worse of it went past us. The storms were moving at 50 to 60 mph, so it was around us long. The news said no serious injuries here in Deland, but about 25 miles east of us, there were 67 homes with severe damage at New Smyrna Beach. Five semis were turned over at I-4 where Hwy 44 crosses it (we live right off Hwy 44). Catch 22's parents live in Lady Lake, near Leesburg, and a tornado ripped through a mobile home park right near their house. There are several confimed deaths there. Jim and Gina are headed there to help them clean up. A friend of Debbie's called and said there were four houses completely torn up near Hontoon Island, which is about four miles from here. It was raining at the rate of 13 inches an hour, but it was moving so fast, it didn't rain too much. Within 20 minutes of the time I woke up, it was only pitter patter rain here.

I guess we must be living at the foot of the cross.

[vonkamp]

WOW! Glad you are okay Cuda. How about the rest of the central Florida crew? George, Speed Racer, you okay.
Watching Fox news. Unreal, normally Florida gets many tornados but they are generally the F1 weaker ones. This is clearly not the case here.
There are still Tornado warnings.
Be careful out there and our prayers are with the people of central Florida.

[pmreed]

George, Cuda. I was watching the destruction on TV
Saw the devastation in your area. I'm only an hour away if you need anything...just call!

Phil

[Cuda]

I just talked to Jim (Catch 22), he said he spoke with gcarter this morning, and he is fine.

[gcarter]

Like Cuda, Elaine and I were awakened about 3:00 AM by a lot of lightening and thunder. It was extremely intense. At one time there were 5-6 simultaneous strikes. Pretty scary stuff. After it tapered off, I got up and wondered where a lot of wind noise was coming from. I opened the front door (facing South) and while there was little surface wind and little rain, I could hear that classic "freight train" sound...and it was continuous. I knew there was a tornado in the area and that I couldn't do much about it so I closed the door, went back to bed and didn't say a word to Elaine. Oh yeah, we had no power.
This morning early, Elaine headed North to Tallahassie to see a childhood friend. It wasn't 3-4 minutes until she was calling me to tell me the new section of the subdivision, just to the South of us (3/4 mile) was heavily damaged. One home owner closed on his house just yesterday!!!!!
The authorities wouldn't let me leave by the South gate, but I could see 6-8 homes with roof and wall damage (average value, 400K-800K).
After seeing my eye doctor this morning, I headed South down US 441 toward my office and the highway was almost entirely blocked with emergency and repair vehicles. Oh, I wish they had responded like this during the hurricanes a few years ago!!.
One section of highway, where all the TV trucks are set up, looks like something chewed up 80 year old oak trees and spit them out. That path is about 150 yards wide. I recently hired a new tech who lives in the villages, whos house was flattened (he and his wife had many glass cuts) except for his garage and den!!!:eek!:
The authorities and repair folks are working diligently. I just hope we get power soon. I hate living w/o air conditioning.

[pmreed]

If power's going to be out for a while, George, I can bring up my generator. Not big enough for the AC, but OK for fridge etc. 5500 W continuous, 8500 Peak. Just call.:)

Phil

[FISHIN SUCKS]

I know I am not much help here in Houston, but saw the news in my Hotel room this morning and was thinking of all of you guys. Hope everyone is alright! After the hospitality you guys showed Barbi and last summer, you are welcome to get out of the tornadoes and come stay at our house in snow-covered Indiana. I need somebody to shovel the snow off the pond anyway so that Barbi and the kids can go ice skating:wink:

[Cuda]

Debbie just called from work. A guy that lives in the Lake Mack area called in and said he couldn't come to work today, because he found a five year old kid dead this morning. He said there were 14 kiled over near there. Lake Mack is a little area comprised nearly of all mobile homes about six miles east of us on Hwy 42. The tv said the storm apparently went right down Hwy 44 all the way to New Smyrna Beach. Debbie's boss lives on a boat at Hontoon Island and said there was no way to describe the damage over that way. Boats sunk in the St John's and houses torn up. I'm just thankful it missed us. It was more scary than any hurricane we went through. If you hear of the deaths in the Paisley area, that is the Lake Mack area I was speaking of.

Very sad news, I want to go out to see if I can help. I've got a big trailer, a chainsaw and a generator, but they are telling everyone to stay off the streets. I heard there was also damage north of us in Pierson, where a couple of our friends live. I know one of them is a single girl who lives in a mobile home with two children. Debbie has her phone number, but I don't. I hope she's ok.

[Ranman]

and a tornado ripped through a mobile home park right near their house.

That was a given.

[BUIZILLA]

I just talked to my niece in Leesburg, my uncle is a surgeon at the Villages Hospital..... the area around his Villages office is flattened.... he is on foot right now walking the neighborhoods tending to injured, the emergency room is jammed with patients, some cut very badly from glass, some sucked out of their beds and slammed to the ground, over a hundred yards from their homes.... some occupants haven't been found... maybe more dead than reported.... they both went through Andrew living right smack on Biscayne Bay, and said this was light years worse....

geeeeezzzzz

[Cuda]

We took a ride towards Hontoon Island. We have some friends that live on Hontoon Road. One is a single woman with three kids we were checking on. Her dad lives in the same neighborhood. He was standing in front of her house, and said neither her house or his was damaged, but they have no power. His daughter is going to stay at our neighbor Tarra's house that lives on the road right behind us. I offered Gary, her dad, my generator if he wanted it. He said he though he and his wife would just get a room tonight. I didn't think about it then, but I doubt they can get a room anywhere around here, I suspect they will all be taken by emergency workers. I didn't think, but I should have offered him and his wife to stay with us. We have two empty bedrooms.

Here's some pictures. This damage is one block from her house. They weren't letting anyone go farther down Hontoon Road.

[gcarter]

I couldn't be more pleased about the organization of the recovery program. Maybe this is an exercise of what they learned from the hurricanes.
They are running wire and replacing poles as fast as possibly can. It's like a well oiled machine.
Very impressive!.
Also the scale of the operation is overwhelming.

[BUIZILLA]

CNN live is reporting that 11 of the confirmed 14 dead were in Paisley...

[Cuda]

CNN live is reporting that 11 of the confirmed 14 dead were in Paisley...
That was the Lake Mack area I was speaking of. Paisley is the closest town with a name. I just did a job in Lake Mack a few weeks ago. At least they were in a real house.

[gcarter]

Paisley and Lake Mack are areas with a high percentage of low income retirees and people with disabilities, so there is a disproportunate number of mobile homes.
A bad storm in that area was bound to be devastating.
BTW, the count is now 19 dead!!!

[Cuda]

I wanted to see if they need any volunteers to help out, but they had on the news they didn't need anymore at this time. I think they are waiting to get the power lines all fixed before they need more help. Debbie just now remembered there is a girl she works with that lives right by that other girl who we went to check on. Deb doesn't have her phone number, but she just called another girl at work to leave a message to call us, so Debbie can call her and ask if she needs our generator. The destruction was so bad, and we were so lucky, I feel a deep need to help out those that weren't as lucky as we were.

[Cuda]

Paisley and Lake Mack are areas with a high percentage of low income retirees and people with disabilities, so there is a disproportunate number of mobile homes.

Unfortunately, Lake Mack also has a disproportunate percentage of drunks and druggies, trust me. It has no bearing on the disaster, but it's true.

[Budmann]

Glad to here everyone is ok. well, except for the unfortunate thousands in that area!!

I was awakened around 3:00 A.M. this morning by a whaling of wind and rain, and the tornado was 200 miles away from here!!

As always... if there is anything any of you need, please don't hessitate to call me!!

Bud Staples
727-637-7718

God Bless

[22zxla]

hey cuda, dont personally know you but when i saw a news report this morning about bad weather in deland i thought about you . Never heard of that town till your avatar. Glad you and your family are o k!

[Cuda]

hey cuda, dont personally know you but when i saw a news report this morning about bad weather in deland i thought about you . Never heard of that town till your avatar. Glad you and your family are o k!
I bet 99% of America never heard of Deland before today. It's a sad way to make national news.

[Cuda]

As much devastation in Volusia County as there was, amazingly there were no fatalaties in our county according to the last report I heard.

[RickSE]

Sounds like the numbers could go up with people still missing. I thought I heard 9-dead first thing this morning, now the last report I heard was 19.:(

Out west we encourage El Nino to come around and bring us moisture but I bet you guys hate the little bastard out here.

Everyone I talkled to today, Vancouver, to Arizona to California heard about this...it's big news.

[Cuda]

So far all the deaths were in Lake County, but I'm sure it will go up. They say many get killed after a storm goes through from live wires and such.

[gcarter]

One of the unfortunate things about the Paisly/Lake Mack area is there are very few paved roads. It's heavily forested and many downed trees are blocking the roads. These roads literally meander around the trees. When it rains they become impassable. I suspect they will be backing trucks up these roads and clearing them. There are hundreds of miles of these trails/roads.
I suspect the number of deaths will go up some as time goes on.
BTW, one thing they don't seem to need is man power. The number of people involved is amazing.
Catch Sr. lives about 2 miles to the West of me and he was apparently much closer to the path than I was as the storm moved Eastward.

[Donzigo]

Cuda & Carter, you dodged a bullitt, no doubt.

Glad you are all fine.

I know the areas well, kept my 32' Nautaline houseboat a Holly Bluff Marina for a few years.

Richard

[gcarter]

I forget to mention earlier that our power came back on last night at about 6:00 PM.
Oh happy day!!!:)

[EricG]

Glad to hear everyone here is OK...our condolences go out to everyone who suffered damage...or worse.

I haven't checked in for awhile...but as soon as I saw the damage my first thoughts turned to all of you that live in that area...

[catch 22]

Gina & I just got home. Mom & dad are ok. Mom was shook up. They had some debris in there yard but the people who live 4 houses away lost everything. My dad walked up to where there house used to be and found the man walking around in his underware looking dazed. He told my dad he'd been walking around for about an hour looking for his clothes. He said him & his wife heard the sound of a freight train and he shoved his wife and himself under the bed just before there house fell in on them. My mom said the storm woke them up around 3:15am, she said the lightning was nonstop and the noise was so loud just like a freight train. There friend who lives just 3 houses from the people who lost there house had major damage done to her house. The tornado came through the back of her place and ripped her attached carport off the house, back part of her house collapsed this morning. We were very impressed with the way the county worked to restore power to there area. To everyone who offered assistance Thank You. Here are a few pics. The 1st 3 pics are of the house that was destroyed, 2nd row of pics are of my moms friends house. Our thoughts & prayers go out to all the victims and there families.

[sweet 16 1966]

WOW, close call for Jim Sr. I am very glad to see all is OK. I drove through Ocala Wednesday and was in Orlando Friday but slept through the storm.
Cuda, Catch and George... Glad to hear you are OK! How is the Mt. Dora area?

[gcarter]

Russ, it missed Mt. Dora by about 20 miles.
It's amazing to see how fast the clean up is going. For instance, Jim Sr's neighbors house was a concrete block w/ brick veneer and about 2000 sq. ft. and it was flattened.
Today the property has been completely cleared, including trees and every thing on the property has been neatly stacked by the side of the road. Building materials in several piles with the trees in other stacks.
There's still a long way to go. It might be a week or more before everything is cleared. Then there's the wait for reconstruction to start. I read this morning there's more than 1500 houses in Lake county that will require total rebuild or substantial repairs.
I guess this is good for the building trades. Thing have slowed down here recently.

[Speed-Racer]

Glad to hear you guys are all alright, my Dad's mother is a couple miles south of where it went threw in Deland....She said the same the thing Carter said...scary stuff I can only imagine:eek!:

[LKSD]

Gald your okay. We saw everything that was going on down there on the news. Did not realize you were so close. Kristin & Jay