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Dan....
Thanks. My son and nephew are down there coping.
We have a farmer's type system in "hurricane islands".......neighbors and
fishing club guys all getting together and helping one another to get back in
shape.
I have a 150' dock right out on the open water. It was demolished in
'98 by hurricane George. Using that system, we built it back up......this
time, using nothing but stainless steel bolts and big stainless screws....no
nails. One of our guys is a master carpenter, and another club member used
to work, years ago, as a commercial dock builder on the Chesapeake, so we had
some great know-how. With that storm, we were without power or water for
over a month, and we needed to rent a bulldozer to clear the land of old parts
of houses, wrecked boats, other folks' docks and unrecognizable debris......one
neighbor who had experience with big machines worked that thing for a week just
clearing. Needless to say, our cistern and generator
were invaluable. I supplied electricity and water to his home as a
neighborly, "trade off".
We elected to have no insurance. If we HAD had it, the combined
wind-storm and flood coverage would have paid NOTHING......So I came out way
ahead. (What with the fine print and deductibles, etc.)
Years ago, I built my own storm shutter system patterned after one I saw on
the Pacific coast in Ecuador. It has never failed me, and is a lot more
secure than anything I can buy for my windows.
My roof is special. Heavy construction over which is: Triple
layer of 90Wt roofing material, a flamed on roof of EPDM (We flamed it on
ourselves with a device known as the "DRAGON WAGON"). That made, in
itself, a very competent roof. Despite that, I had stainless steel
shingles made and applied them using no nails....only stainless steel boat
screws. It has survived many storms over the past 20 yrs.
We elected to postpone our CCI and MCI courses for November, and will hold
them March 13th - 18th, '06.
Pris and I have been staying with my daughter, Amy at Cutchogue, N.Y.
The striped bass fishing was spectacular until Wilma collided with Alpha and a
Northern low pressure front a few days ago. That moved the bait out to
kingdom come.
The good news is that Tom White tells me the water has cleared.....and we
expect the fishing to pick right up in the Keys !!!!!!
Gordy
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