Hoping those in Florida are staying safe...

[FloridaSon]

Cell phone towers were refitted with batteries for 5 days back in 2004 after all those hurricanes but they may have been overtaken by flooding. This morning, the weather channel used this outage graphic.
We lost ours a 11pm last night. Still getting gusts strong enough to keep the power crews buckets from going up At 1:45 PM.

So they may not be able to contact you right now.

 

[AbdRahim]

Just heard from friends in Tampa area. Fortunately, no broken windows and even the kids’ swing set is undamaged.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Our youngest son and his new bride are on their way back to Punta Gorda to see if their new to them home survived, hoping they don't have any nasty surprises but they were in the crosshairs and in an evac zone.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Just heard from youngest son and home is fine, some damage to lanai and backyard fence but nothing serious. For being in Punta Gorda evac zone we are grateful!

 

[Neal]

@lostinfla are you home or on the road. All okay??

 

[lostinfla]

@lostinfla are you home or on the road. All okay??

Thanks for asking Neal. We're still on the road heading home slowly checking on fuel availability. Minimal damage according to neighbor (fences, trees) but apparently the roof held so no major damage, thank God.

 

["EZ"]

Over a million people without power. I wouldn't be in a hurry to go home just yet.

 

[RKins]

We live in Sarasota FL and the whole county looks like a war zone. Everywhere you go the streets are lined with piled up trees and debris. We have 2 big oaks on our property and both of them had the north side of them pruned by the storm. We were without power for 39 hours, got power back Friday morning a 7 AM. Our coach was on it's pad next to the house and is fine. I had 9 fence panels hit the ground, snapped the 4x4 posts off at the ground. I am rebuilding them a little bit at a time when not cleaning up something else.
Overall, this is the worst storm I've been through and I've been in Sarasota my whole life, through many hurricanes. Would not like to go through this again.
My neighbor decided to go ride out the storm at his son's home in Venice, FL - he said that was the wrong answer. He said they were in the eye wall or at least hurricane force winds for over 12 hours.

 

[John&Andrea]

I’m glad your okay, and the coach.

 

[redbaron]

We live on Captiva Island, a barrier island between Sanibel and coya Costa.


Coya Costa is approx 11 miles due north of our home, and was the epicenter of the land fall for Ian.

Our home is in the village of Captiva, and is essentially cut off from all communications and land based transportation due to the cause way damage and infrastructure on sanibel.

We sold our sanibel condo last year, and I am very thankful we did.

Although we do not have any good images of our Captiva home, the limited footage and initial reports indicate Captiva was mostly spared. We did not get the surge sanibel received, nor did we get the stronger winds sanibel received.

It will be days before we know the extent of the damage, but we do know that no lives where lost on Captiva.

Coast guard footage shows that South seas resort took a major hit, and has the most physical structure damage.

Largely, Captiva home all have roofs in tact, and palm trees standing. This is in contrast to sanibel at blind pass (the bridge connecting Sanibel to Captiva) where the pink flamingo no longer stands, and the beach cottages where wiped out.

Across the bay in Forty Myers Beach, times Square looks like a bomb went off. The peir no longer exists, and the beach has now been extended 300 yards into the ocean.

It will be several weeks before I can get onto the island and survey our damage. We are blessed to have insurance and another place to sleep safely in Texas.

Lee County was not in the projected cone until 22 hours before land fall. The evacuation orders went out as soon as the models showed a problem. This was the perfect storm. Many residents didn't have the time to leave, and had to make last minute decisions to ride it out. Sadly many of those on Sanibel, pine island, and Fort Myers beach perished, and many more have lost everything. Time will heal the pains, but the next few weeks are going to be difficult for all in the community.