LaserBlog.com

From nbc-2.com:

“Satellite photos show damage caused by Hurricane Charley
A side by side comparison of satellite photos taken before and after Hurricane Charley show the devastation to Charlotte County.”

http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/040817_pg_mobilehomes.htm

http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/040817_pg_apartments.htm

Aftermath images: http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/charley-slideshow.shtml (each is a gallery)

I laughed when I read the Fark headline below, but I shouldn’t laugh at all, it’s not funny at ALL:
from fark:
“People begin to figure out it’s stupid to live in a mobile home in an area prone to hurricanes”

It’s not funny at all, people died in those mobile homes, at least in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. It’s really sad. There was one couple who was “too old and too imobile to evacuate” and their bodies were found under rubble, by their wheelchairs. So sad. This hurricane ruined alot of people’s lives. It was obvious from the get-go that the mobile home communities suffered the worst, but the ppl who live there can’t afford better.

By the way, M is watching south park and lauging so hard I think there’s gonna be pee on the couch.

Tired. Stress realllllly makes you tired. The mold smell is REALLY getting old right about now.

The builder came and will take care of the west wall which is the leaky wall. No charge, and we’ve been out of warranty for a while now. They are trying really hard to please us. But this is the fourth time they tried to fix the water intrusion in this wall. He says it’s cracks in the stucco, again, for the third time. He wants to fix all cracks, caulk all windows, and reapaint the whole house. He has to convince one more guy and then his boss will OK it. I hope it goes well.

I’ve been house hunting and new houses in our area are alot. We got a great deal on this house 3 years ago and now similar houses are WAY more than what we paid. We’ll make a profit on our house if we sell now, but man, the new houses, even smaller ones, are way more than this is worth now. So, we may just try our hardest to keep this house dry so we can hold on to it longer. It’s appreciated 40k in 3 years, so if we can keep it dry, we can make a killing later (as I have NO intention of living in this stinkhole of a town/state for the rest of my life). I just hope this neighborhood holds it’s value. High-value homes are going up all around it but alot of ppl have had problems w/ their homes, so it’s POSSIBLE that values could go down if too much word got out about the problems. *sigh* One day at a time. So so so so tired.

Just sittin’ here waiting for the builder who is coming to look at the problem wall and the crack in the slab.

The roofers said they couldn’t come for a week but they came today, the very day after calling, and said our ridge vent is fine. It didn’t look fine to me so maybe the builder can check it out as a courtesy.

The roofers came earlier than they said, so did the phone company, and the builder is coming sooner than I thought he would, so maybe Fireservice will too (to fix water damange from windows and roof). The water damage is dry, I think, but we are concerned about mold growing in the walls and attick since it was wet and isn’t ventilated to dry well.

Well, for some reason we have dsl internet starting this morning, but still no phone. That makes no sense to me but that is the case. The dsl light on the modem has been on for days but we have not been able to connect to the internet until now, but the phone still doesn’t work.

Drove to mom’s condo yesterday which is across town and closer to the water, and she had no power, no phone, no cell service, nothing, but at least she had no damage.

All the traffic lights are out and it’s total chaos here. Most of the hotels nearby are still full, because of all the island/beaches evacuations, they are still not allowed back to their homes yet, and they don’t think it will be until Thursday the earliest. Most stores and restaurants are closed because of no power or spoiled food. Most of the town still has no power and it’s Monday already. The gas stations have a 45-minute wait, and only some of them are open. The grocery stores have only canned food: their refrigerated and frozen food is all ruined. The traffic lights are out and the National Guard is directing traffic at the major intersections, but small intersections are a free-for-all and it is REALLY dangerous.

So my house is torn up, my house smells of must/mold/stank… We have to cut more holes in the drywall to air things out. Fireservice can’t come for ten days they are so backed up. Can’t get ahold of roofer yet.

Last night we opened up the wall that has apparently been leaking for a while and there was water running down inside the wall and we had NO rain that day and the sprinklers hadn’t run. What happened last time was the builders said they graded the lot wrong, and the soil line was above our floor line so the moisture was coming in thru the stucco/cement block, evaporating within the wall, collecting at the top (the beam of the second floor floor), and then when it collected enough water it ran back down, that’s why we saw active dripping when there was no rain or sprinklers and there are no pipes in that wall or floor. So they tore up the grass and regraded the lot and resodded and it fixed the problem. But it’s starting again. So either they were wrong or… I don’t know what.

I’m house shopping today. I’ve had it with this leaky house. There have got to be better built homes, ones that use that Tyvek Home Wrap that goes between the cement block and the stucco… or ones that KNOW how to grade a lot. I also have to dig for phone numbers.

Mom is at work (no, she just came back), M is at work. We don’t know if her condo power/phone is back on yet today (mom checked on her condo and still no phone or power).

I’m stressing. Really stressing. I think I’ll take a shower and go house-hunting. Maybe just drive around if the places aren’t open, but there are some new neighborhoods nearby that use tyvek home wrap.

I love this house, but I can’t risk dealing with constant water intrustion, getting sick from mold, or not being able to sell the house later on because there was some OTHER leak that we didn’t even know about, like say, in the attic where we never go.

I’m really stressing.

Power is on, thank god for a/c. No phone, no dsl. Cell phone works ok so am using cell phone’s internet on palm pilot (clie). Water in all windows and found even MORE water damage. Only 2 rooms spared. Roof leaked, water in attic and walls. Found water AND MOLD in 2 rooms so we’ve been leaking all summer. we ALSO found cracks in our slab so we are VERY upset. Was in tears last night. This is my dream home yet I may just fix it and SELL. This is the leakiest hoise I’ve ever seen. Most of town has no power, we are lucky. Barrier islands are trashed, town to north is wrecked. Updating moblog more than anything: http:\\laserone.textamerica.com

Have cell phone/gprs internet right now, but it is intermittant. Power is on and off, but mainly on now, after being off for 24 hours or so. Most of town is without power, nearby town is demolished, we are fine, but lots of water damage inside from water forced in thru windows and roof. No phone, no dsl, no cable. May plug satellite back in later tonight, be we have to pull carpets up and stuff tonight, fun. House is a TOTAL MESS, when it was predicted as a cat 4 coming our way, we pulled everything out of storage and THREW it into piles in the family room and living room so that we could cower in the closet under the stairs, we pulled a futon matress downstairs to hide under, and the house is a total pig stye. Every single sheet and towel is wet and musty from being put under windows and doors. It’ll take forever to get it all washed, fix the carpets, and clean the piles we threw all over the house in a panic.

live radar:
http://admin.winktv.com/public/x411.xml
Wish we’d set up a webcam!

Another local news link:
http://www.winktv.com/

They say power could be out for days/weeks. Things are not as bad here as other places, so I’m guessing that the power co will be prioritizing, so we may have to wait a while for power. I’m moblogging when I can’t blog here.

Our roof tiles are in the neighbor’s yard, neighbor’s houses u can see ridge vents coming up, tiles flapping in the wind, trip flapping in the wind, etc.

towels in windows are full and news on radio just said we have several more hours of this.

Every window is leaking, wet walls, wet carpet, wet blinds, second floor ceiling is leaking now, bedroom wet, water coming from a/c vent, door frame, light switch. Wind is bad gusts but overall not too bad, but I’m upset about water damage!

Shutting down the computer so I can put it in plastic (the large laptop). My tiny laptop has a great battery but who knows if there will be power for the DSL, wireless hub, or if there will even be internet or cell phone. They are saying 145 mpg + winds coming right for us, they’re saying to get into inner rooms and put matresses over our heads! Crap!

It’s now a category FOUR! and coming OUR way!

Local news:
http://www.nbc-2.com/
http://www.news-press.com

Ok, it’s heading OUR way now and they just said that it is now STRONGER than the infamous hurricane Donna of 1960. Oh sh******t.

Oh man, the storm just shifted in a direction more toward us. It’s been wobbling, so maybe it will move back, but if not, we’re gonna get hit.

I don’t know which will go down first, the cell phones (moblog), or our power here or our internet, or what.

Eeek!

UPDATE: Will be adding photos to the moblog with camera-phone images as long as the cell phone works.

There are TWO… 2!!!!! hurricanes coming directly for us. It’s rare to have any hurricane hit THIS coast of Florida, but now there are two… TWO! One is supposed to hit well north of us, but could still bring alot of rain/flooding (and we’re right on a pond in a neighborhood with TERRIBLE drainage). The other is supposed to hit us directly, although it’s to go over Cuba first and will probably graze the coast, so I’m thinking it will weaken over Cuba and not have time to strengthen over the Gulf.

But what gets me is our leaky house. Our very nice, brand new, but LEAKY house. (and the poor drainage on our street and the fact that we are on a lake) I’ve never seen such a leaky house, and even alot of rain could bring us wet carpets or something.

One time the roof leaked and water got in the smoke alarm system which is all thru the house and wired. They’re daisy-chained so while they SCREEEEEEECHED in our ears we had to disable them one by one until we got to the one that was wet before all the screeching stopped.

It’s a stucco home and water can go right thru the stucco if there are even hairline cracks not visible to the eye and case wet carpets. The windows constantly leak. There are “mold homes” in our neighborhood, the kind w/ toxic mold in them. That’s cuz when these people had water intrusion, they chose to sue the builder rather than get the water intrusion damage fixed, so now, of course since they let it go, they have toxic mold. So we have to really keep up w/ it.

The worst thing I can see happening is debris being picked up by wind and blown against our windows, or the power going out (very likely) and having to go without air conditioning or fans and not being able to open windows cuz of the wind and rain. That’s the worst thing I think will happen.

I can live without tv, internet… never thought I’d say that, but I think I can. But I can’t STAND to be hot.

Here’s the kind of flooding we see with REGULAR “florida summer thunderstorms”, so that’s why two hurricanes heading our way is quite scary to me:

This one above is a shot of my last Eclipse (I really miss her) getting flooded. It was an RS and she got flooded (water came in passenger side cuz the car was tilted) and then the engine and brakes never sounded the same, so I thought I’d better replace her before something went wrong. Now I have the blue GT but I really miss my ol’ red one, I liked that body style better and she was my first new car ever. *sigh*

UPDATE: from the local news site:
“Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency for the entire state ahead of the two tropical storms bearing down on Florida.
Tropical Storm Bonnie could be at hurricane strength by early Thursday morning, just off the Panhandle coast. Tropical Storm Charley is already near hurricane strength, with arrival expected off the southwest Florida coast sometime Friday.”