And this is why it's best to refrain from negativity until you get a first hand account of who is helping out....

My friends ALL reported the red cross on the scene and supporting those who have been devastated in Alabama and the Panhandle. Do all of those who VOLUNTEER their time (Yes, some are minimally paid) for the ARC do a perfect job? No. But they are on the scene right now...where it counts, helping those who need it. It's your site Rick and you have the right to say what you like but perhaps a little positive support for a good crew who is actually getting the job done might be a better spin on this event than recounting an event years ago where a supervisor made what appears to be an agreegious error in judgment based on your story.

I've sent in my money...use your best judgment and send your funds where you think it will be most effictively used.

Just my $.02 Flame away

Anymore word on how Ft. Walton faired? How about the Ft.Walton Yacht Club? Anyone hear from Mike Kelley or any of the other Ft. Walton gang?

I think water has to be the biggest problem for people in a disaster situation -- even more than electricity.

Rick and I are going to close down our house up here in Ohio for the winter, and they are going to shut off the water from our well and drain our pipes sometime late this afternoon. So I have to face the prospect of no longer being able to clean a floor, rinse out a dirty piece of clothing, take a shower, do laundry, wash dishes, use a toilet. So I rush to get everything done that might involve water.

It is very trivial for us, but this is the kind of thing that people in hurricane-hit areas have to face for weeks or even months!

It is amazing the number of things that we take for granted with water. We can survive without electricity, but it is much more difficult to survive and cope without water.

From what Brian told me, the Ft. Walton yacht club got hit hard. The building was damaged, but still standing, however the breakwalls and grounds are in rough shape, the whole area looks like it was lowered quite a bit. The gazebo is still there (!!!). I think I heard the docks survived as well. I didn't see it, just reporting what I was told.

Most people in the area have water, so it shouldn't be a very big problem, you just have to boil it if you live in P-cola area.

Will

Hello all,

Sam Grant here, a club member at FWYC. Our biggest problems here seem to have been caused by the rising water. The club did suffer some damage, the docks are all still there and in decent shape. Yes, the gazebo is still a prominent fixture on the point, however it does have a bit of a list to it.

On the down side, it appears that nearly half if not more of our fleet are either on the rocks or on the bottom. Several of us racers have lost our boats. In our case, we took every precaution and our boat was still on her anchors right where we left her, but 6' under water. Of the boats that sank, it appears that they were vicitms of somebody elses boat coming loose.

To date, the following boats are sitting the bottom:

Olson 34
Frers 33
Catalina 22
Catalina 22
Capri 25

The list for the beached boats is massive. Some appear fine, but others are under other boats...

Anyway, FWYC overall is in OK shape. Just a bit depressed for our fleet loss...

[From the Northwest Florida Daily News, Sept. 20, Ft. Walton: Navigational Aids Status]

In the meantime, the Coast Guard has established a 500-foot security zone around all barrier islands from the Florida-Alabama state line to Destin Pass, about 50 miles east of Pensacola, to try to keep recreational boaters and rubberneckers away.
Gordon’s crews have checked more than 40 navigational aids so far; dozens are offstation — meaning some buoys eventually will have to be towed back into place.
"It’ll take three or four more days to finish surveying," Gordon says. "To repair it? We have no idea."
Gordon skims along the coastline while his crewmate, Ryan Pritchett, punches coordinates into the computer. All the while, both men peer intently into the murky waters, on the lookout for debris.
Gordon turns the boat east, heading into the sound off Santa Rosa Island. A two-mile stretch known as "Live Oak Park," oncepristine white sands, are bathed in splintered remains of the storm: a boat, latticework off a house, chairs, bedding.
"The only thing that was there were trees," says Gordon. "Everything that you see on the beach came from Santa Rosa Island."
Gordon heads into an inlet to take a close-up look at Pensacola Beach, which has remained closed to residents since Ivan struck.

That is very interesting. It's not like recreational boaters and rubber neckers on the water would be interfering with highway traffic or recovery operations.

And terrorists would not be interested in devastating a region that is already devastated.

The only reason I can think of is that looters are coming in by water, since it is so hard to get there by land at this point.

One thing that was mentioned during a radio interview is that there are/were 80 unaccounted for vessels in Santa Rosa Sound. That means 80 more obstructions that could sink/dissable a powerboat, not to mention all the debris and chunks of roadway. For an emergency system that is already spread thin, one more yahoo on a sinking boat would be a problem. Also, I am sure there are significant changes to the waterway that are unknown at this time (read as: more sandbars to run into).

And apparently a lack of navigation aids. Not only are there new potential obstructions but some of the navigational aids have been relocated. What a mess - Yikes.

Add one more racing boat to the submerged list...

Lindenberg 28

Verified yesterday that she has a dock piling through her hull.

Alec Thigpen weighing in here - We were lucky to have the eye pass right over our house, no damage to anything or any of my properties worth mentioning. I do have a small 3000W Sears generator I would be willing to lend free, or sell for a bit less than I paid for it in Tyler Texas last week with about 7 hours I put on it. We borrowed a bigger generator to hook up to the outside panel on our house and don't need this one. If you know someone interested, call me at 251-454-2395. We got our power back last night.

Jim Moody ARC22 Destin, FL
Destin definitely dodged the bullet fired by Ivan at the Gulf Coast. Surge similar to Opal but not quite the wind/water damage. Section of Hwy 98 from Destin to FWB is indeed washed out--the 50 foot section has been patched and should be open to traffic in the morning.
Numerous boats in the harbor flipped, sunk, impaled, but again not as many as with Opal.
Holiday Isle was hit the hardest here and it will be weeks or longer before residents are allowed any more than a few hours visit to their homes.
FWYC--as previously reported dozens of sunk monohulls and the point is seriously rearranged. All of the catamarans were evacuated prior to the storm.
Mike Kelley--living famously in Ft. Walton-rode out the storm in his bayside home. By his account he faired well. Both of our ARC 22's were tied down in his front yard and survived as well.

Agree with the last opinion re the American Red Cross. They have been out in force here in Destin with water, ice and food when needed and available. Need more volunteers and funds.

ON a more morbid topic. There are dozens of unidentified corpses in the Sacred Heart Hospital morgue in P'Cola. Reference the newspaper article at the beginning of this thread with hundreds missing. With comms down and infrastructure crushed the task of finding family and relatives will be a long arduous task.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of this tragic event.

Here are a few pics that I took the "morning after" of my neighborhood in NE Pensacola off Scenic Hwy. Also, I took a few pics at my mother-in-law's house on Bayfront Pkwy as we cleaned it up, and a few more of the marina downtown by the Fish House restaurant.

http://community.webshots.com/album/190415326AIPIbi

Sadly, several of my neighbors in the medical profession confirm Jim's statement about Sacred Heart Hospital's morgue - it's filling up.

Got power back this afternoon! Still alot to clean up, but we're slowly getting things back to "normal".

Key Sailing - Kirk Newkirk report

We had heard from Brad at Sunjammers (Panama Beach, Florida) yesterday. He had just visited Kirk delivering water and fuel to him. THANKS BRAD!

Today Kirk called me. They are all fine. He wanted me to report that to everyone.

Kirk says they had weathered the storm at his old house in Gulf Breeze (now his daughters place). It is on high ground. Says he slept right through the storm alongside his little daughter Christi. They have power and gas, so their immediate conditions are pretty good. He says the damage to the area is intense. He figures that maybe only 3-5 percent of the buildings have as little as moderate damage in an area approx. 30 west to 20 miles east. The rest are really bad. His house on Pensacola Beach was flooded to 5 feet deep inside the first floor. The upstairs is fine.

As previously reported, they had a storm surge of about 40 feet! Sawyer's house, two blocks in from the beach at Gulf Breeze, was completely destroyed. Apparently he was riding out the storm at home and had to swim out at about 1 AM! Kirk also reported that local sailor, Kevin Rejda had stayed home. His house in Oriel Beach was destroyed as well. They weathered the storm inside a cabinet wearing life jackets!

Highest wind speeds? He says they can only guess. All the major reading instruments failed... last reading? 85 and climbing. Lots of tornados. No contact with the outside world for a day and then just an AM channel from out of state the next day for news.

He had just been out to the island to see the store and the devastation. The store is standing. He will forward some pictures as soon as he can get back on-line. The store just needs power, water and some walls. They had removed most of the inventory before leaving. They lost some parts and kayaks, but recovered a couple of the Hobie Kayaks down the beach. One was about three miles away and completely intact with all of the parts in the shipping package. He gives kudos to the kayak packing department. Says a Hobie Banner was still hanging on the wall in the store! He says he hopes to have his website back up and running in about a week or so. At that time he can determine when he will be able to operate as a store once again. Says he will be back in full operation by the spring.

Just found this link to a satellite images of the Pcola area

NOAA Satellite images of Pensacola - post storm

This one has the store on it.

Key Sailing

Greg Thomas thinks that this one has Kirk's house on it.

Kirk's house?

Pace, FL reporting in. Me and my two Hobie's weathered Ivan with no major injuries. I can't say the same for the neighborhood a block to the West of me. My launching spot now looks like something out of a war movie. We lost quite a few trees in the neighborhood and I'm currently running on generator power to get on here. While I might not have power my heart goes out that wish to God they at least had a roof over their head. In my 40 years this is by far the worst hurricane I've gone through and pray never to see another one of this one's power again in my lifetime.

That damn hurricane (Ivan)broke in two came around and hit us here in West Palm Beach yesterday and the day before. Gave us two days of rain and headed back into the Gulf and Jeanne is doing loops and coming back at us. Yesterday they said that Ivan might turn into a tropical storm again and hit Texas with a new name but I have not heard anything about it today. After that leaves Lisa is next in line.

What is going on with all these hurricanes.

IVAN is alive and getting ready to hit us (Louisiana) and Texas. Fortunately it won't be as bad this next time. Mostly flooding possibly some tornados (hope not). We're getting rain now, praying for not too much...

Clayton

How many different children did Ivan spawn?

I know there are 10 people that are not with us anymore up in the mountains of NC thanks to Ivan, now its back in the Gulf? So confused

Wait wait wait....I'm getting bleary eyed trying to keep up with these things, but let me get this straight. Ivan came ashore, went up to N.C., back south into the gulf again, regained a little strength and is now headed for a SECOND landfall in Texas and Louisiana with 50knots or better!?