Sebastian Update (What Little I know)

[jceman 1]

I took the following from a post on my "Thanks A Lot, Jeanne" thread but seeing as so many people have asked about the FL DZs, I figured it deserves its own thread:

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Still no word on the store, btw, I talked with the Indian River Emergency folks tonight and they could not give me an answer. They did tell me, however that Roseland Road (the main road to the DZ) had been flooded in spots. The store is on what passes for high ground in FL, but it is the glass exposure on the east end that concerns me; there was nothing in front of it to protect it from the wind or, more importantly, the wind-driven debris.

Word is that it may be at least three weeks before power gets restored in the area. The county was hit extremely hard. Those of you who know the area are well acquainted with the Sandrift Motel, the second story is gone; Capt. Hiram's sustained major damage and the road along the river has been washed away in many areas.

I'm not complaining, folks, just letting out what information I have. I have tried to get in touch with BendyWendy, but have had no luck. The ES folks assured me she is not on any casualty list, just out of touch as the phones are out and cellular service is spotty at best.

When I find out anything else, I will update this thread. Thanks to all for your good thoughts.

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them?

[rjackson 0]

Thanks for the update. I posted a question wondering how they held up (events & places to jump). Doesn't sound good.

---------------------------------------------

Randy

[bendywendy 0]

Ok, here's the deal! The main hangar & team room building are fine as is the store. The ZooBar lost a good portion of its roof and the old Skydive U building is now laying on its side.

The plane is fine but the airport is under emergency use only at the moment and they can't tell me when they'll lift that. When they do we are good to go.

The town itself took another hard hit. It is extremely hard to find fuel each day and some of the bridges are out. My five mile ride to work has turned into a thirty mile ride since a bridge right down the street is out. Power lines are down everywhere, there is a liquor ban & and an early curfew.

The phones from the dz are forwarded to my cell phone - however, I have to leave town to get a signal with Nextel. Evidently towers are down and they are restricting use since all the emergency people use Nextel - isn't that nice?

Personally I'm hating life, my Ford Explorer is still abandoned on Route 60 after I attempted to drive through a flooded area that was over a mile long and at one point (I didn't know this when I started through it) the water was well above my wheel wells. I sucked quite a bit into the intake and seized the engine. I had a lot of fun swimming in the alligator, snake, fire ant infested water under the vehicle to attach the tow rope to the front end. I'm nursing those fire ant bites right now - the alligators left me alone fortunately.

If you are one of the five zillion people who have called over the last few days I am trying to return calls. I had the problem of locating fuel today so that I could get out of town. I'm going to find somewhere to settle in for a couple of days to answer phone calls and emails while the airport is closed.

The Keys Boogie is still on for everyone who has called to ask about that. I swear I'll call everyone back - please just be patient.

It really is crazy here right now. If they can get the power restored a little quicker this time - we are actually in good shape and ready to get back to skydiving!

[jdfreefly 1]

Don't leave out the important details,....

How was the huricane party, and did anyone take the time to kick Kro in the shins...if not, please see that it gets done.

Glad to hear you weathered the storm ok

Methane Freefly - got stink?

[sunshine 2]

Damn Wendy. You're a strong chick. Stay safe.

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

[jceman 1]

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Damn Wendy. You're a strong chick. Stay safe.

Yeah, what she said.

And thanks again for the real info.

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them?

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Wennnndy! I feel so bad you're going through such crap! You're a trouper! I think many would have just thrown their hands up, but it seems you're still chuggin' -- no doubt I speak for many when I say I appreciate it.

I hope things start workin' out for you again. Good luck with everything. If there is work that needs doing this weekend, and you're looking for volunteers, get me here or on my phone and all you have to do is ask. I'd be happy to help. If I'm not up there jumping this weekend, I might as well be up there helping to get skydiving happening again.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[bendywendy 0]

To be honest there really isn't much to do. Well that isn't entirely true we need to tear apart the Skydive U building and put it in a pile for the town to take away but other than that - the DZ is clean - no debris laying around it's really ready to go we just don't know when they are going to allow us to use the runways.

They are using the airport for the staging area for all the power trucks and I don't know what else but I guess they figure it should be no alcohol, no firearms and no skydiving.

We are anxious to get going again but it is really difficult to get through town right now. As soon as a gas station gets in gas the line forms and is usually over a mile long. Tiffany & Ian waited in line for almost two hours today. I took gas I bought for the generator and just kept driving north until I found gas stations with fuel and slightly shorter lines.

Now anytime I start complaining to much - like at night when I have no a/c just remind me that I could have been living in Haiti - with over 1,500 dead I don't think we have to much to really complain about.

Now the Hurricane Party - we actually had a mini one Friday night when we thought Jeanne was still a little bitty hurricane of no consequence and were making the decision on where to all gather the next day. I however went to the dz the next morning and checked on the storm which was looking pretty scary so then I went to a friends house with cable tv and a local official basically freaked me out saying that the storm was serious and people weren't taking it serious maybe because they were tired or because Frances while bad wasn't all that bad. He started to scare the crap out of me.

I ran home grabbed my dog and a few things and if we hadn't stayed up all damn night I would have driven up to the Carolinas again but I was too freaking tired and barely made it the two hours to my parents house in Lake Placid. (Which the hurricane also struck there but it was a mere 1.5 or 2 by then). They are in a new house in the Highlands so I wasn't too too worried. (I fear hurricanes about as much as alligator - which is a lot - or maybe it's just a very health respect for things way beyond my control).

There place was fine. I stayed up all night and watched the news with all the shots of Sebastian, Melbourne and Vero Beach just saying oh, shit over and over.

I snuck out three times and measured the wind in my pjs with an anonometer - did I spell that right? I don't think I went out during the worse of the storm I was tired of changing out of wet pjs but I clocked it at 74 mph.

OK, back to bed...

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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I snuck out three times and measured the wind in my pjs with an anonometer - did I spell that right? I don't think I went out during the worse of the storm I was tired of changing out of wet pjs but I clocked it at 74 mph.

OK, back to bed...

Heh, I can just picture that! Were you a science geek in high school? I think it's anemometer... but I'm not sure. Yep, I just looked it up, "anemometer."

Just the fact that you have an anemometer... "Johnny, is this true? 'Cause if it is ... I don't know how to react!"

But now that I think about it, um, it makes perfect sense for someone who runs a DZ to have one of those. Carry on.

What's the best way to find out if we can skydive this Sunday? I don't want to pester you via the DZ phone. Will you just post here?

-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[slug 1]

Hi BW

Sounds like your practicing to be a weather reporter checking out the winds in your PJ's.

I'm surprised your wind gizmo reads up to the 70mph range damn that's got to be at least 6-10 shoes in the windsock. Paragear?

What were you thinking if you got knocked out in your PJ's by some debris passing by at 70 MPH in the middle of the night.

Got any cool looking PJ's with feeties? or hop waders.

R.I.P.

[WFFC 1]

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The phones from the dz are forwarded to my cell phone - however, I have to leave town to get a signal with Nextel. Evidently towers are down and they are restricting use since all the emergency people use Nextel - isn't that nice?

Just the quick background on this, when Nextel was growing, they wanted to get the lucrative government contracts and the best way to do that was to build in some serious redundancy. Not many of the other providers did (or do) this. When serious failures happen (like natural disasters), Nextel is sometimes the only one that can be up and running quickly. (how I know - researching new cell service for the company I used to work for)

-----
~~~Michael

[mouth 0]

Wendy,

I'm so glad you are ok. hang in there there and know that if I can do anything all you have to do is ask. I think we should plan a F*ck Hurricanes Boogie once you get things back on track.

Anyone know what we can do for Bytch? I know she won't know until she gets back there, but it sucks to loose everything like that.

Anyone heard from Denise?

lisa

--
Hot Mama
At least you know where you stand even if it is in a pile of shit.

[skynole 0]

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Anyone heard from Denise?

I spoke with Greg (Denise's BF) and he said that her house didn't sustain all that more damage than Frances had already caused. It ripped the tarp off the roof and they got more water in the house, but it was already in pretty bad shape from Frances. They are staying with friends and are in good spirits, considering.

[katiebear21 0]

So glad to hear from ya'll. Makes me feel incredibly fortunate. I, too, wanted to call, but am glad now that I didn't. I was sure you'd post as soon as you could. You're awesome that way!

Please let us know if there's anything we can do to help! Otherwise, we'll see you late October!

Katie
Get your PMS glass necklace here

[mouth 0]

I just got off the phone with Bytch. she is hanging in there. Staying at the Drop Shop without power or anything but she has warm beer so she says life is good.

Her spirits seem high thankfully and she has salvaged a few things that are meaningful to her.

Somehow I just can't imagine loosing everything and being as cheerful as she was. She is a much better woman than me.

Lots of hugs Lisa and Denise. You guys hang in ther.

Lisa

--
Hot Mama
At least you know where you stand even if it is in a pile of shit.

[bendywendy 0]

Ok, still no power but guess what? We will be open for skydiving starting Saturday so come on out.

If you come though, keep this in mind - no alcohol can be sold right now in Indian River County - so bring it with you although, it is only a few miles from Brevard county and they don't have any such restrictions. Also, fill your fuel tank because you never know how long the gas line will be or how far you will have to drive to find gas right now.

But think how fun it will be to survey all the damage from altitude!

[Ncrowe 0]

Due to the hardships the people of florida have endured I vote Sebastion brings the otter and skyvan south much sooner to ease the pain of floridas skydivers:):)

"Don't Mess Around With the Guy in Shades- Oh No!!! "

[bendywendy 0]

I think CrossKeys would have something to say about that since they are still using them!

I'm all for it though.

Oh and by the way - anyone know a damn orthopedic surgeon that I could actually see before my arm completely heals into this shitty position! My OS has rescheduled me three times now because of the storms - which I understand it's tough right now - but come on we were supposed to figure out if I had to have surgery back on September 7th and now he's put me off another week or two. I can't jump and if I smack this elbow into something one more time I think I might go postal.

[Ncrowe 0]

Let me email crosskeys and see what I can do

"Don't Mess Around With the Guy in Shades- Oh No!!! "

[bendywendy 0]

Yeah, you let me know how you make out on that. I'll be waiting.

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Due to the hardships the people of florida have endured I vote Sebastion brings the otter and skyvan south much sooner to ease the pain of floridas skydivers:):)

Seconded!

-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[bendywendy 0]

A little bit of good news! We will be open for jumping starting tomorrow - still no power but we've got a couple of killer generators.

The really good news is that the curfew has been pushed back to 11 pm and they will sell liquor in the county again - I know a lot of you were worried about that!

The gas lines are shorter and it's more plentiful already.

[uncaged 0]

Got any Pictures of you in wet PJ's?

Good Luck and hang in there...

When the going gets weird, The weird turn pro...

[Paige 0]

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Oh and by the way - anyone know a damn orthopedic surgeon that I could actually see before my arm completely heals into this shitty position!

Dr. Cole in Orlando FL Hospital South. He put me and many skydivers back together. One of the top surgeons/orthoped. in the country.

Tunnel Pink Mafia Delegate
www.TunnelPinkMafia.com

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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A little bit of good news! We will be open for jumping starting tomorrow - still no power but we've got a couple of killer generators.

The really good news is that the curfew has been pushed back to 11 pm and they will sell liquor in the county again - I know a lot of you were worried about that!

Actually, I was more worried about not being able to buy guns!

See ya Sunday!
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"