Hoping those in Florida are staying safe...

[Neal]

Let us know how you're doing if you're stuck battling IAN. Stay safe out there! I'm not sure where it's headed next, I know areas up the coast get hit hard too by these things. Think about your high winds and or escape plans. If you have any details on how campgrounds and areas are holding up, please share.

 

[Fish]

Our place is about 45 miles east of Ft. Myers and I've gotten 2 messages in the last hour telling me no damage there, just lots of water, and the winds are starting to lessen.
West coast looks like hell though.

 

[sheridany]

A friend of ours Newmar is at North Trail for service, and National Hurricane Center predicted it would be further north. Instead, it came in at Fort Myers. They said they were connected to the coach when the winds were 100 mph, and then everything went dead. Sadly their coach is outside, so they are expecting the worse. The water is everywhere.

Intense video shows devastating impact of Hurricane Ian on Fort Myers

An hour later, the camera was inundated with water and at times fully submerged.

nypost.com

 

[Buly]

We are in Gaffney GA Freightliner for the 60K mile service. The hurricane eye passed over our house in Titusville and Cape Canaveral. No damage report yet from our neighbors. I don’t even know when we’ll be able to drive back?

 

[FL-JOE]

I played cornhole with part of our regular winter group at our leased lot just north of Avon Park FL, Monday. Even though at that point it looked like Ian would go to Tampa we decided that was even too close. We left in the afternoon and went to Cottonwood AL just in case.

It turned out Ian came within 40 miles or so of our leased lot as a Cat-2 last night so we made a good decision. I have a buddy who stayed in his RV down there and came out of it with only minor damage. That type of adventure is not for me.

Now trying to figure out if initial reports from SW Florida are accurate or not as far as hundreds being killed. I know we have a good friend just outside of Port Charlotte we can't get in contact with. Hoping it is just because cell towers are down.

 

[Buly]

We have lots of friends in south and central FL. No one has contacted us yet? Wander if the cell towers are out?

 

[Scotttkd2]

Our lot is in Fort Myers, was not in an evacuate zone but currently has no power (I am told). We delayed our arrival by a week to allow more time for clean up there, but as of this morning I cant reach anyone from the park to get an update. I believe Buly is right, cell towers stilol down is most likely......they don't have much backup for those when power goes down

 

[Buly]

Here in the waiting room we were talking to a guy that has a rental RV spot in Melbourne. They told him that all the power pedestals are under water.

 

[Neal]

A lot of times in disaster areas VOICE calls don't work as everyone is calling and checking on people but TEXT/SMS does. Give a text a try if voice calls don't work for you.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Just heard from my landscape guy and got a pic of my lot from him, lost a strip of siding off my casita, but no other damage, just some tree debris to clean up! Yay!

 

[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??