BoatBanter.com - South Florida Hurricane Report

Yes, it has been an interesting experience and an interesting week,
and it's not over yet. One of my neighbors called me up on Tuesday
night to give me the news that we had a hurricane on the way. After
staying up half the night watching the reports, I decided that this
was likely the "real thing"
and started to make plans. Originally it looked like it would be a
category 1 which I'd experienced several times in the NYC/CT area.
Always a concern for boat owners but in the end not all that bad as a
rule. I called my boss on Wednesday morning and told him I needed a
vacation day to get ready, went out to the local W-M, bought a lot of
extra storm gear, pulled out the generator from the storage locker,
tested it out, bought some gas, and made a few other preparations.

Wednesday night we went out to dinner thinking things were in
reasonably good shape but on the way out of the restaurant overheard
the weather forecast on TV. They were talking about the possibility of
a Category 3 and that's a whole different animal from a Cat 1. My
wife and I decided that we needed to
"get out of Dodge" with the big boat ASAP. We were up until 2:00 AM
stacking
furniture off the floor and everything else we could think of. Back
up at 6:00AM to pick up the trailer for the small boat, get it hauled
out and parked in the driveway. By 10:00AM Thursday we had the big
boat provisioned for a week and were headed up river to get as far
east as possible before the storm hit. The trip up the Okeechobee
Water Way went reasonably well and we found a snug place to tie up
just west of the Otrona locks along the big ship pilings, right behind
the Ft Myers/Key West ferry which was also hiding out. No way to get
ashore but we had everything needed to stay awhile.

Today (Friday) we spent the entire day on the boat glued to the
internet tracking sites and weather radio. In the morning they were
still predicting 40 miles off shore from Cape Coral (good news) but a
direct hit on the area where my wife's parents, sister and aunt live
(bad news of course), especially since there was nothing we could do
to help them from where we were tied up in East Alligator. As the day
progressed the storm moved closer and closer to the coast and then it
was upgraded it to a Cat 4 about 1:00PM when it was just south of Cape
Coral and starting to make a turn to the east. Cat 4s
are really BIG nasty storms with winds over 140 MPH, and houses get
knocked down. Just when we thought it had passed us by, it cut back
east and nicked the north west corner of town pretty badly (we're in
the south east). Close call, but all ends well for us with my wife's
folks escaping a direct hit.

Hopefully we'll be able to head back home tomorrow and pick up the
pieces.
We've talked to neighbors on cell phones back in Cape Coral. As of
6:00PM the water was at the top of the sea wall but slowing its rate
of rise. No power yet but some people have generators. They say that
our house looks OK but much damage to others on the block. Port
Charlotte and Punta Gorda to the north are nearly devasated. Sanibel
Island, Captiva, and the north end of Pine Island have almost surely
sustained severe damage but no reports yet which is bad in itself.