The biggest problem for most is getting gas to run the generator. After Katrina people were driving 400 hundred miles to bring back gas. You can always sell the generators you bought. It is a sellers market.

It took three months to pickup debris in areas that saw lighter damage{shingles and siding torn off and huge tree limbs]. Everything smelled bad for a long time.

Got a text from my flying buddy in Venice this morning. House survived. No power and no internet. Lots of debris. Airplane and hangar a total loss.

Alabama Power has a regional/service territory layup yard/hub down the street from me, I believe they service ~15 counties from that location, which is a pretty large area. Normally, over the weekend when they aren't doing as much scheduled maintenance, there will be around 100 line trucks with pole trailers in that yard. Drove by there a bit ago, 5 trucks.

If anyone needs me to come and bring supplies, please let me know. I have a short bed F150 I can load up.

Tony.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is a nice gesture. People helping other people.

Thank you everyone for all the updates, keep them coming.

We saw more power company trucks heading west on I4 and south on US27 today. We also saw what appeared to be eight, thirty man bunk trailers heading south along with big industrial generators and flat bed trailers with tow behind lighting systems.
It looks like they are going to set up a staging area where there are no hotels or restaurants to take care of the relief workers.
We also saw what looked like the National Guard staging at a truck stop off I4 in Auburndale possibly getting ready to head west.
We have lived in Florida 23 years and we have never seen a response like this before, it's amazing.

Be safe everyone.

With the recent influx of people from NY/NJ, I wonder if they're going to reconsider their choice and go back.

This is going to take years to build back the infrastructure, insurance is going to go up and I suspect a lot of flooded cars and water damaged homes will be for sale.

One of my friends in Port Charlotte is still without power. Fortunately, he has a generator, water, food and fuel for days.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
With the recent influx of people from NY/NJ, I wonder if they're going to reconsider their choice and go back.

I sure fucking hope so.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
With the recent influx of people from NY/NJ, I wonder if they're going to reconsider their choice and go back.

I sure fucking hope so.

Me too.

Well, I'm headed to Port Charlotte (it's between North Port and Porta Gunda) tomorrow morning to volunteer with Operation Barbecue Relief. I'll let you know how it goes. Basically, they make BBQ all day to hand out to police, medical workers, electrical workers, firemen, and anyone in a shelter.

https://operationbbqrelief.org/

Gotta get some sleep and head out at 4AM.

Later...

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
Well, I'm headed to Port Charlotte (it's between North Port and Porta Gunda) tomorrow morning to volunteer with Operation Barbecue Relief. I'll let you know how it goes. Basically, they make BBQ all day to hand out to police, medical workers, electrical workers, firemen, and anyone in a shelter.

https://operationbbqrelief.org/

Gotta get some sleep and head out at 4AM.

Later...

I'm sure it'll be appreciated. If I knew how to post a thumbs up emoji, I would.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
Well, I'm headed to Port Charlotte (it's between North Port and Porta Gunda) tomorrow morning to volunteer with Operation Barbecue Relief. I'll let you know how it goes. Basically, they make BBQ all day to hand out to police, medical workers, electrical workers, firemen, and anyone in a shelter.

https://operationbbqrelief.org/

Gotta get some sleep and head out at 4AM.

Later...

That is just terrific! What a great effort.

Just ran across this video and thought others might enjoy it. These guys do an absolutely terrific job in the wake of these storms.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
Well, I'm headed to Port Charlotte (it's between North Port and Porta Gunda) tomorrow morning to volunteer with Operation Barbecue Relief. I'll let you know how it goes. Basically, they make BBQ all day to hand out to police, medical workers, electrical workers, firemen, and anyone in a shelter.

https://operationbbqrelief.org/

Gotta get some sleep and head out at 4AM.

Later...

They are a 501c3. Go fund me is within their link. Just gave some. Good bless all those folks affected.

Put in a solid day of effort there! I arrived at 6am but it turns out I was early and it didn't start going until 8AM. There were already pork butts in the smoker when I arrived that had been smoking all night.






People came from TX, TN and other states as well as Floridians from all over the state.

They had a very large kitchen set up under tents.


Those are industrial smokers behind the two gentlemen...


Morning muster, breakfast, and safety brief...






The gal in the straw hat with her back to me actually lived a mile from our staging area and rode out the storm and lived. She was never so terrified in her whole life...


Pulling the first butts...

Pulling the bone...



Shredding...


Sorting...


We still had others adding sauce with a huge ladel and adding more seasoning. I personally took turns pulling butts from the smoker, deboning and seasoning.

We also cooked an entire pallet of mixed veggies in those huge cookers on the 4th picture of my previous post.

Meals for pickup from local agencies...


Loading the truck for distribution at "The Rays" baseball stadium...


Making meals for survivors at the stadium...




Drive-through lines (national guard in the foreground giving out drinking water)...

Looks familiar, keep up the good work. All the good work you do comes back to you.

So today was their first official day serving the community. They said they plan on being there for about a month, or until power is restored and restaurants are operational, or until they run out of supplies or money. Whichever comes first.

I believe the final report was that we prepared enough food for 5,000 meals. Those 5,000 were split between pickup orders and drive-through at the stadium. I believe 2,000 meals were distributed at the stadium. My job at the stadium was pork plating. I only took a brief break to take a few pictures.

They said that once they hit their stride, they can make 30,000 to 50,000 meals a day.

A news crew did show up as well as the green beret amputee who's running for a Florida seat.




Rays stadium was a mess...




Gas station destroyed...




A furniture place was liquidating their inventory...


Drive-through...




I encourage others to participate or donate if you can.

Thanks for reading...

Tony.

That’s awesome! After you posted I looked around and was able to spend a few hours at a facility near me that was handing out ice, water and food. Only I can spend time in a truck full of ice and still sweat. Yesterday I went around the neighborhood and helped take storm shutters down for the old folks. I was told that people were charging up to $700 per home to do that. No home took more than an hour. I don’t begrudge a contractor making some money for their time but $700 an hour is obscene. I didn’t accept any cash but I did accept some free bourbon.

And I got power back today! No internet yet but I assume the internet companies aren’t coming in until power is restored. Like a fool I had not been checking the FPL Facebook page. They are updating that very often, mostly with pictures and stuff, but that is where the best estimates seem to be posted. I know a lot of people here hate FB, and rightfully so, but that’s where most companies seem to post their latest updates so if you are in FL without power I’d recommend checking your power companies FB page.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
Trapper-

Grocery stores and gas stations are open in Venice. Also, Venice High School just opened as a shelter.

Not sure if you can get up there but if so there are some options.

That’s good to know.

I went 70 miles east to Moore Haven this morning with six gas cans, ten propane tanks, and one diesel can. I came back with everything full including my truck and a new 120qt cooler full of ice. I don’t like waiting in line or going on wild goose chases, so I figured Moore Haven then Clewiston would be the best bet. I would have gone to West Palm if I had to. Not all of the cans and tanks were mine. When I mentioned my plan to my pastor, he mentioned he was running low on propane for his generator. Naturally, I offered to take his as well. Word got around and I wound up with a few more tanks and cans besides mine and the pastor’s.

First stop in Moore Haven had diesel and while filling my truck a guy wandered by with a 20lb propane tank. I’ll be darned, they also refilled propane there, 92.8 gallons of propane later, I was on my way to Clewiston. WalMart was open, so I bought another cooler but they didn’t have ice. Pulled right up to the pump at the gas station at WalMart and filled the cans. I’ll be darned if they didn’t have ice.

Off I go back home. Stopped at the church and found I was right on time, because the service started 20 minutes later than planned.

My wife went to Sarasota for groceries after I got back, so we are in good shape for a few more days.

Last night at 1am, I was able to search the internet to find out what kind of oil I should use in my generator. Forum member and fellow SWFloridian bubbatime posted a week or so ago that air cooled generators needed fairly frequent oil changes which got me looking at the requirements for mine. I’ll be darned if I didn’t come across a 2008 post in another forum from some guy named bubbatime in SWFL recommending 15-40 diesel truck oil and hey, I have some of that. Changed the oil in the generator and she’s purring like a kitten. Thanks bubbatime.

Has anyone heard from bubbatime? He doesn’t seem to have an email in his profile and hasn’t posted since 9/22.

Thanks to all the folks who have come to help. Had I know Benny was at the Charlotte County Sports Complex serving up BBQ, I’d have bent my rules on lines.

Hey Trapper I am up by SRQ right now and it’s even better than Venice. No lines at all for gas at the 7/11 near the airport and pretty much every business is open up here.

My email is on my profile, hit me up.