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Subject: Central Florida and hurricanes
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 11:46:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Richard Spohn <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]

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As one of those Florida retirees that HelenJane mentioned (and a
geographer who has a keen interest in climatology), I thought perhaps some
of you might be interested in some of my observations of this year's
hurricane season.

As to libraries in my Orlando area (Osceola, Orange, Lake and Polk
counties), most are pretty new structures and sustained little damage.
The Clermont Public Library had to be moved earlier this year due to
mold problems which are common here in central Florida.

I spent both Charley and Frances in our family villa (4 unit condo
building) in Kissimmee near the southeast corner of Disney World.  We had
a direct hit from Charley on 8/13 about 8:45 pm that evening.  Good news
is that we have an interior "safe" room there.  The
winds were about 110 mph from the northeast in the northern eyewall.  I
could hear things crashing into the place and feared the garage door
would collapse, plus the power went off.  Then all was quiet for a short
period of time.  The winds returned from the southwest at 40-50 mph.  The
villa is in a new development built after the new Andrew codes came in, so
we had minimal damage to buildings.  Many trees and most signage was gone.
Most single family homes on the west end of our lake and on the other side
of Osceola Parkway had no siding on the wind-battered side.  In Kissimmee
just to the south most of the town had large old trees like in HelenJane's
neighborhood.  That area was totally devastated and without power for
weeks.  Many of the developments built in the the late 1980's were badly
damaged, since they had fairly large trees and old roofs.  The houses are
now an array of colorful tarps.  The villa phone went out.  We are on the
list to have phone service repaired the week of Sept. 20.  We only lost
power for about a day.

Frances was a long lasting storm.  We had rains and wind for almost 5
days.  The worst was on Sunday (9/5) when the villa was in the northern
eyewall for 3 hours plus with at least 75 mph gusts.  I saw an egret that
was trying to fly forward sail past my window moving backward.  Perhaps 75
or more egrets weathered the storm in the conservation buffer behind the
villa.  We had a feeder band just after dark on Sunday night with gusts
50-60 mph.  The egrets wailed the entire time.  It was eerie.  We did
lose a few shingles in the neighborhood.  The villa rain gutters are now
piled in the garage.  The houses at the east end of the lake lost siding
on the back side that round.  There were sporadic power outages for short
periods of time.

I travel almost daily in the 4 county area as the gopher helping my
sister-in-law start her new business.  Finding a place in areas without
street signs is a challenge.  One learns to count streets and give
directions that way.  Two days after Charley I was astounded to see almost
no signage for about 15 miles on Florida's Turnpike in Orange County.  I
found myself confused trying to find the court house in Kissimmee with
most signs gone, hugh trees smashed over everything, and piles of debris
as high as the car everywhere.  I sure hope we don't have to deal with
large trees in the road, roads under water, and no traffic lights again
this year.

I hope the folks dealing with Ivan in the next few days will be safe.  We
are watching Jeanne for next week.  And I wonder if storms will continue,
and we make it to "Richard" before the end of the season?  Take care,
y'all!

Rich Spohn -
formerly Head of the map collection at the University of Cincinnati