Rikki, I hope to get in touch with StephanM tomorrow. He moved to a new location farther inland from the Villages, which may have offered him some protection.

I have not talked with Randy in quite a while, but the area he lives in may have been spared a direct hit. I will try and contact him as well.

Gary

Thanks Gary, that would be great. I

Just got this from StephanM:

We did fine here in Ocala. We were actually taking a vacation on Marco Island and had to cut it short by 4 days due to the storm. We left on Tuesday Sept 27th, then the storm hit on the 28th. If we hadn't left Marco Island we would have been stranded a few days. Our house rental was right on a canal so we were lucky to leave in time. The landlord was also kind enough to rebate us for the nights we did not stay.

Gary

Unfortunately, looking to historic records to predict the likelihood of future hurricanes can’t be done with the global warming we are now facing. The odds of another big one are rising.

The rise in average sea level and the rise of global and local temperatures are not a matter of debate, they are scientific facts. And the trends are not encouraging. I pray that none of us in harm’s way have to face a big one, but there’s no denying it’s more likely than it used to be.

Plan accordingly!

Just talked with StephanM on the phone, Randy (Saxman) was completely spared and doing fine.

Diki, the manmade, global warming stuff belongs in The Bar - not here on the main arranger keyboard forum. And, when you refer to as scientific facts do not exist. Maybe this would be a good time for you to actually look at the true science instead of political BS. You might discover that the world is not coming to an end, especially from Global Warming, the east cost is not underwater as Al Gore predicted in his garbage book, and AOL learned about meteorology while working in a bar in the Bronx. Of course, we all know that politicians don't lie!

BTW: In 2012 I sailed the east coast from the upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay to the Florida Keys, a trip that lasted 2 months. Baltimore was not under 14 feet of water as Gore predicted, and when I left, October 1st, temperatures were well below normal. One of the places I stopped at was Tamgier Island, and several other bay islands to spend a quiet night at anchorage. Most of these islands have stilt houses that were constructed by commercial fishermen in the late 1800s. These houses are the same height above sea level today they were when first constructed. Some of the shoreline has eroded away due to commercial soft shell crabbing dredging that uprooted the sea grasses that not only held the crabs, but also stabilized the shore from erosion during high tide and storms. No sea level rising in the 1,500 mile stretch between Chesapeake Bay and the Dry Tortugas.

Good luck, see you at The Bar,

Gary

Thanks Gary for the good news, on both Stephen and Randy.

Who said man made Gary? Don’t put words into someone’s mouth. The world IS getting warmer.

If you want to argue with 98% of climate scientists, you are as welcome to believe it’s natural as the Mormons believe in magic underwear, and indeed the Bar would be the best place to go talk about that. But no one is arguing the planet’s getting warmer.

So my remarks stand AS WRITTEN not how you would like to them to be.

There is no question about the accuracy of this statement. It is the cause debate that is stirring the pot, and causing rife we do not need.

If the earth warms it will be beneficial for some areas of the country/world. Summers here in the NE US have been great. Winters the same old freezing cold. If the water rises, move back from the water. But as Gary points out, it isn't happening. The global warming stuff is driven by activists who want to get their green energy policies in place no matter what.

The world is not ending-not from global warming anyway. I would be more concerned about human nature than global warming or climate change. In the meantime, I'm not going back to rubbing two sticks together.