Good to hear from you Ray - I'm glad your family is
safe, everything else can be replaced.

My sister in Clearwater had her home boarded up when
it appeared Ivan might head that way. She says she is
leaving it up until Christmas!!

Take care,
David H.


--- Ray Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Thanks to all of you who have been concerned for us.
>
> As most of you know hurricane Ivan hit us Thursday
> morning about 2 am or so.
> I had evacuated my family to Jacksonville. I had all
> intentions to stay and
> safeguard my business but with my sons pleading I
> decided to go with my family.
> Turns out it was the right decision.
>
> I've never seen destruction on the scale of this
> outside of a war zone. This
> town is a mess to the degree that it will be years
> before it's ever the way it
> was and maybe not even then. Any direction you want
> to go on every street
> there are trees down over power lines, trees in
> peoples homes, whole buildings
> just vanished, boats where they shouldn't be, and
> the list just goes on and on.
>
> I was very fortunate. My home lost a few shingles.
> It appears a tornado went
> through my back yard. My neighbors pool had all of
> the water and the lining
> sucked out of his pool and then there is a break in
> his fence leading to mine.
> My back yard fence is laid over and the greenbelt is
> the only reason I've still
> got a fence. There is a hole on the opposite side of
> my yard where it looks
> like the tornado cut a path through tall pines I
> have on my right side. If a
> tornado came through its amazing that I still have
> my screens on my porch.
> Strange!!
>
> My business made out fine. Nothing looks out of
> place. I had a large sign on
> the roof that I had taken down and that seemed like
> it was a good move.
>
> Speaking of good moves. I just had the transom
> redone on my boat and was
> going to take it back to the marina. I thought that
> with the marina being so close
> to the water that I might better try my chances
> elsewhere. As it turned out
> the marina is completely destroyed with all of the
> boats piled on top of each
> other. My boat survived.
>
> I bought a generator and this is the first time I
> have been able to get
> online from home. Our phone lines just came back up
> today. We are still without
> power and it looks like we will be for a while. Of
> course my business is closed
> until we get power back and who knows when that will
> be.
>
> I'm very impressed with the emergency crews. They
> all seem to have a plan and
> I couldn't tell you how many different companies
> from other cities are here.
> Of course with all of the power being out there are
> a few gas stations that
> have a generator running the pumps. The gas lines
> are four to five hours long
> but each day that passes more come online so that
> shouldn't be much longer.  The
> local hardware stores have got emergency deliveries
> and there are SWAT teams
> in place to make sure the crowds remain calm. They
> were needed a couple of
> times when the first generators came in.
>
> My business is still without power and that means
> security is a major issue
> for me. I've been going up to the store at night
> just to check and make sure
> that everything is OK because it's black as an ace
> of spades there at night. I
> always seek out a patrolman whose area is around my
> store and ask him to please
> check in on it several times a night.
>
> DeeDee from this list didn't make out anywhere as
> good as I did from what I
> know. Her house is on the island (sound side) and
> from what she knows she lost
> her roof and there is several feet of sand in the
> bottom floor. She doesn't
> know for sure yet and our phones have been very
> sporadic. I haven't heard back
> from her and when I've tried to call the lines won't
> connect.
>
> Another friend of mine took is 36 foot Newton (dive
> boat) about 60 miles from
> where the storm came ashore and at one am he had an
> anchor break loose it
> slammed him and his deckhand into the bridge causing
> some fiberglass breakage and
> then a wave just picked him up and set him in
> somebody's yard.  He said it
> was the scariest night of his life.
>
> As far as my trip to Lapaz. Without a security
> system for my store and a baby
> sitter for my son its just not going to happen. As
> far as the charms/pendants
> that I'm making for the people who ordered them I'll
> get them down and ship
> them to yall after we get my business back up and
> running.
>
> Thanks to my many friends on here and I hope yall
> the best in LaPaz. This
> just hasn't been my year to try to make trips.
>
> Take care,
>
> Ray
>
>


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