"Bob Jude" <bobjude@charter.net> wrote:

 """
Marv,  How well did you survive the storm?   I saw a lot of broken airplanes
 in your area on TV.
 Bob Jude
"""


Well, all I can say is it was very interesting.  The storm ripped straight through the middle of downtown Orlando, and that's where I'm staying while we finish up Ted's IVP.  Power went out about 8PM, and my rental place took on a bit of water, (amazing how much rain accompanies these things), my trusty 4-legged sidekick was a bit frightened, but we made it through ok, albeit a little soggy.  Frankly, I'm tired of being wet.

We were at the airport (Orlando Executive) late last night (after removing most of an oak that came down and blocked our drive) and it was just horrendous.  A friend of mine has a Lake Renegade tied down there, and that was our primary interest.  Turns out his airplane survived pretty well, considering that the gable-end girder of a hangar that blew down landed on his left wing.  His plane was between 2 others that came out unscathed.  Several others, none more than 50 yards distant, were either upside down, or rolled into teeny balls.  We happened to be standing right next to a demolished T-craft last night, we only found out it was the remains of an airplane when we saw it this morning by light of day.  While Orlando got tagged pretty hard, much of the wind velocity had scrubbed away while the hurricane made its path over the state, but the folks in Punta Gorda, just 20 miles north of my Fort Myers home-base, fared much worse where the storm was a true cat-4.  I suspect that folks from the Tampa area who followed the FEMA directive and evacuated to the center of the state were less than pleased to discover they abandoned a relatively unscathed area in favor of the bullseye... luck of the draw I guess.

Thanks for your concern... we've managed to cobble together power and cable, so as you can see I'm back online.  I'll try to get some photos over the next few days and post them here so you can see for yourself what happened.

     <Marv>