Hey Brad,

Looks like you may have another visitor of the wind and rain variety this
weekend.  Ivan is getting absolutely huge and powerful (sustained winds of
160 mph).  Will you be riding it out at the fort again?  Sounds like as
good a place as any unless you can get completely out of the state of
Florida.  Let's hope he heads into the Gulf of Mexico and dies down some,
though none of the models are expecting that.  Good luck to you and all the
other Floridian list members!

-Mark

At 05:24 PM 8/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>I was at Fort Jefferson, at Dry Tortugas Natiopnal Park during the
>hurricane. We all survived, but it was a nasty one. We had 120 mph
>sustained winds, and lots of rain. Almost half of the trees were blown
>down, and we lost the dock, and there was some damage to the moat wall.
>But the fort has 6 foot thick walls, is strong enough to withstand many
>more hurricanes. And what a place to ride out a hurricane!!! The ocean is
>a stone's throw from my window, and I had a spectacular view of the
>hurricane. As the eye of the hurricane was approaching, the areas of the
>island that are outside of the fort, were all under water, except for one
>small area. At that point, I thought my house was going to be flooded. But
>I lucked out, and I had only a small leak in my roof. Others on the island
>had it much worse, shutters blown away and water all ver the floor,
>serious leaks in the roofs, etc. So, my first hurricane was a great
>experience that I'll never forget.
>
>We've been very busy cleaning up the mess, and it will take monthes until
>it's all done. Then today, we had more excitement. A plane was flying low
>across the ocean, and crashed and flipped into the water. Four people were
>rescued, and one was stuck in the plane. Me, and two other rangers grabbed
>our scuba gear and went out to rescue/recover the person. The visibility
>was like milk because of the hurricane. We made three dives, and then the
>Coast Guard arrived. They are still looking for the body right now. So I'm
>not sure how this story will end. But it's been exciting.