We just got power and letting everyone know that we are fine with very minor damage.

Later

Thought about you many times during the hurricane.
Phyllis and I prayed.
Hearing you are fine is great news.

Take good care my friend, John C.

Thank you John. We almost called you to ask if you had a spare tent to pitch in your yard, ha ha

Bernie, my wife said we should call and see if you wanted to stay with us –-- my PK brain went to another subject.
Sorry, John C.

Great news, Bernie. Wasn't sure which of our members was in harm's way. Might be time to move to North Dakota .

chas

Glad to hear Bernie and John. I hope our other Floridian members are ok too!

Lived in the north for three years, Spokane, Washington. No hurricanes, beautiful place to live from late March till mid November - then it begins snowing. One winter we had 100 vertical inches of snow in our front yard, had to attach a 10-foot bicycle antenna to the front bumper of the car with a red flag on the top so someone knew you were at an intersection, all the cars had head bolt heaters or dip stick heaters so they would start after being parked for an hour in 20 below zero temperatures. Most of the town's parking meters had 110-volt outlets so you plug your car's heaters in while shopping.

The summers were incredible in and around Spokane. You could go snow skiing at Mount Spokane in mid July, or water skiing in the Spokane River the same time of year. The town was adjacent to some pretty high mountains to the north and high plateau desert to the south. There are beautiful, clear, clean lake throughout the state, incredible freshwater fishing opportunities, a big game hunters paradise with elk, moose, mountain caribou, black bear, grizzly bear, big horn rams, dall sheep, and a huge variety of birds and waterfowl.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfGXyibCQAAdiZz?format=jpg&name=small

Stay safe, old friend,

Gary

Good to hear, Bernie. Most of us here in the Panhandle have friends down there that lost a lot, and we know all too well what a big one can do. I am so happy to hear you’re one of the lucky ones. 🙏😎

South and central Florida has always been deadly when a big one comes, as all evacuation routes go through the likely path of a hurricane crossing the peninsula. You either leave WAY early, or you can’t leave at all..! We are so much luckier up in the Panhandle with a larger choice of evacuation routes.

Stay safe!

Thank you all for your kind wishes. I would feel guilty for escaping the devastation, but, who knows about the next one? The last one to hit Port Charlotte was Charlie in 2004. I will likely not live to see the next one. In the meantime will enjoy my bit of paradise.

Hi Bernie, great to hear you and John are both ok. I think we have another couple of members that live in Florida, StephenM and Saxman ?. Anybody heard from them?

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.

The earth cycles between hot & cold and has done for millions of years, (And will continue to do so) it is called climate change and denying it is a nonsense.
Human made climate change is another matter, however with all the pollutants we have put in the air it has to make some difference, the question is, how much of the currently changing climate is natural and how much is caused by humans, nobody knows for sure as the time frame is too small, so a prediction (Guess) has to be made.
The green lobby are working on a worst case scenario, so the question is, do you start building for the worst case or ignore it and hope for the best.
BTW: You cannot stop climate change (No matter what silly little bipeds believe) so how much you prepare for it, will be determined by how much you believe will occur and over what time period.

Bill

So, apparently, the advice that Gary made about taking a debate about the CAUSE of global warming to The Bar didn’t sink in.

Welcome back Gary. 🙄

Glad to be back, Diki. With all the physical problems that hit me 3 months ago, the odds were not in my favor of making it this far. Gotta give thanks to a wonderful, Gastro-intestinal surgeon who performed a very delicate surgical procedure on me.

Thanks again, everyone,

Gary