Hurricane Dennis!

[Brian]

Hurricane Dennis appears to be heading towards the panhandle of Florida (where I live) and is predicted to hit about three days from now.

Due to the path and the potential for wide-spread damage of this storm, my family and I are already making preparations to evacuate. Because of this, I will only be sporadically available after Noon (GMT-5 EST US) tomorrow, June 8, 2005, and throughout the duration of the hurricane.

I will bring my laptop with me if I'm made to evacuate, but there will probably be limited choices of accommodations and internet access may not be available to me.

If you have any issues, please continue to post them in the forums and others will help you.

I am the only one that can address license key issues. If you have license key issues, please open a support ticket ASAP so that I can answer it before I evacuate or during a time I have internet access.

I apologize if I am unable to respond to your issues in an expeditious manor during this time. But, rest assured that I will make every effort to be sure they are resolved as quickly as possible.

Hurricane Dennis Tracking Information:
http://www.intellicast.com/Local/USNationalWide.asp?loc=usa&seg=StormCenter&prodgrp=TrackingCharts&product=HurTrack2&prodnav=none&pid=none

[ve9gra]

Stay safe Brian, that's what's important! I'll try to take care of things as much as I can.

[Brian]

Just an update, the island where I work has been issued a mandatory evacuation...

[webmaster23]

Keep you and your family safe - that's more important than a website calendar! Best of luck! Thanks for keeping us informed!

[Brian]

Due to excessive winds and wide-spread power outtages, I've been forced to leave my home. I'm on limited access and battery power at a shelter. I don't know when I'll be online again. I'll post when I am able to.

[Brian]

Hurricane Dennis has, for the most-part, passed.

My home received no damage, but that's better than most along the coastal area where I live.

I have a lot of debris to clean up, mostly from my neighbors trees. I lost some of the wooden privacy fence that separated me and my next door neighbor. Additionally, my neighbor to the back-side of my property has a tall pine tree leaning precariously in my general direction. I expect it to fall at any time.

I live about two blocks from the water. The storm surge pushed water over the highway and within a little more than a half-block to my home. I watched as wind downed a large tree in another location. I saw extremely large trees twisted an torn apart.

There was a tree that fell on a vehicle while it had people in it. They had to be cut out of the car, but they were okay. There were large limbs hanging from power lines on my block.

There were many businesses along the waterfront that were literally washed out to sea. A local restaurant that has been here as long as I’ve been alive was just a half-mile from my house. Now, most if it is in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many sections of the highway were undermined by the waters and destroyed.

The local emergency management has issued a mandatory curfew and is reported to be arresting people that are driving around sightseeing.

My “day job” is serving as the IT Manager of the largest vacation rentals business on St. George Island, Florida. There three bridges (one being the second longest in the state of Florida) from my home to the island that are now not passable due to erosion and debris. Reportedly there is significant erosion and water damage due to the storm surge on the island. I was told that entire sections of the island were completely under water.

I really don’t think anyone completely knows the extent of damages as the water level was still so high during the day. Tomorrow as the tide subsides, we will have a better grasp of what we have to deal with.

I’m going to attach a few images I took around my neighborhood today.

I will try to continue to address posts here whenever possible. The power is still not at 100% with several brown and blackouts within the past few hours. I don’t know what tomorrow will entail so I may not be around as much as I’d like. (As I typed that last sentence the power went off! Glad I have a large battery backup!)

I’ll post an update when I can.

[ve9gra]

Wow! Glad you were safe. Mother nature is not to be messed with!

PS: if you're tired of dealing with tornadoes and hurricanes, the Canadian Maritime Provinces will be glad to accept you :) Here, we just have to deal with snow :P

[Brian]

1) This is one block from my house were houses were under water.

2) The is a view from that same house across the main highway which is under water. That's the Gulf of Mexico.

3) This is the road closest to my house where the water crossed the highway as it was coming towards my house (you can see the stop sign where the highway was). The water level became higher than this, but I did't go out to take photos. :)

4) My poor car has debris from my neighbor's trees.

5) Large tree that fell about 1/2 mile from my home.

[anthony]

Thanks for the updates! Cool photos and great story. I'm glad to hear that your family and home are safe and unharmed. Take care!

Anthony