My Fun with Wilma......

[Brian C.]

.....so far.

OK. First of all I want to ask, "What the heck is with the friggin' Gallery!!!" It doesn't want to work, it won't accept my uploads, it will only take one image.....!! I want to appoint 632Regal as Official Moderator of the Gallery. Get in there and kick some ass Jeff! ;)

Now Wilma. Monday morning was a tough one here in South Florida. Around 7am, Hurricane Wilma came through with wind gusts up to around 110-120 mph. The first photo shows what my townhouse looked like last year after I bought and installed my aluminum storm panels. My PT Cruiser is in front. Note the blue arrow.

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/BrianC/before%20wilma.jpg

And here is what the same place looked like Monday afternoon. Note the blue arrow again....same location. There was...WAS...a huge oak tree next to the road in front of my place, and at about 7:30am I looked through a small opening in the storm panels and saw it leaning. Then about 8am it went over and onto my car and front courtyard wall. The red arrow is my car!

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/BrianC/afterwilma.jpg

Luckily, the upper branches got caught on the tree to the left and didn't come down with all it's weight completely on my car. But it was a biiiiiiig tree. I'm just glad it didn't crash down on my roof. I needed some guys from my office to come with chainsaws and CAREFULLY cut just enough branches so that I could drive the car out. Some scrapes and a couple little dents and my antenna is history. Then they cut the tree in pieces and now I need to wait for all the storm stuff to get picked-up. My neighborhood got wacked pretty good, but not as bad as some other places. We got lots of trees down, but not too much structural damages. Other areas lost roofs and windows, and tornadoes got some places completely.

Funny how this was "only" a Category 2 or 3 storm, but I was home during it. My storm panels saved my ass....no question. It was a very rough blow. During Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5, 13 years ago, my former home was completely destroyed, but I wasn't home at the time. No shutters on that place though.

So...................all in all I'm OK, you're OK............it's just Jeff we're a bit worried about!!! :p (j/k!) I got my power back when I came home tonight, so life goes on baby!!

Brian C.

[Jeff N.]

Whoooooa. Glad to hear you're OK Brian. Think I'll stick to exploding volcano's and earthquakes if you don't mind.

Jeff

[Gayle]

Amazing. Very glad you are ok and the power is back on.

Since you have a good excuse for not keeping up, here is the scoop on the gallery.


http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=15315

[uscharalph]

.....so far.

OK. First of all I want to ask, "What the heck is with the friggin' Gallery!!!" It doesn't want to work, it won't accept my uploads, it will only take one image.....!! I want to appoint 632Regal as Official Moderator of the Gallery. Get in there and kick some ass Jeff! ;)

Now Wilma. Monday morning was a tough one here in South Florida. Around 7am, Hurricane Wilma came through with wind gusts up to around 110-120 mph. The first photo shows what my townhouse looked like last year after I bought and installed my aluminum storm panels. My PT Cruiser is in front. Note the blue arrow.

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/BrianC/before%20wilma.jpg

And here is what the same place looked like Monday afternoon. Note the blue arrow again....same location. There was...WAS...a huge oak tree next to the road in front of my place, and at about 7:30am I looked through a small opening in the storm panels and saw it leaning. Then about 8am it went over and onto my car and front courtyard wall. The red arrow is my car!

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/BrianC/afterwilma.jpg

Luckily, the upper branches got caught on the tree to the left and didn't come down with all it's weight completely on my car. But it was a biiiiiiig tree. I'm just glad it didn't crash down on my roof. I needed some guys from my office to come with chainsaws and CAREFULLY cut just enough branches so that I could drive the car out. Some scrapes and a couple little dents and my antenna is history. Then they cut the tree in pieces and now I need to wait for all the storm stuff to get picked-up. My neighborhood got wacked pretty good, but not as bad as some other places. We got lots of trees down, but not too much structural damages. Other areas lost roofs and windows, and tornadoes got some places completely.

Funny how this was "only" a Category 2 or 3 storm, but I was home during it. My storm panels saved my ass....no question. It was a very rough blow. During Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5, 13 years ago, my former home was completely destroyed, but I wasn't home at the time. No shutters on that place though.

So...................all in all I'm OK, you're OK............it's just Jeff we're a bit worried about!!! :p (j/k!) I got my power back when I came home tonight, so life goes on baby!!

Brian C.
WOW!!!

[Incantation]

holy chit.. so the wind moved the car? .. .... that is amazing.. glad to hear you are ok

[Jr ///M5]

I was thinking about you last night wondering if you had any trouble....sorry the tree didn't crush the PT so you could get another BMW...

Glad to hear you're ok Brian, we were worried about you.

Jr

[onewhippedpuppy]

You guys may have the beauty of the ocean and year round warmth, but I'll take the boredom of Kansas over the constant hurricanes. At least tornados are somewhat small, and you can hide in the basement. Glad you're ok.

[DanDombrowski]

GAH! You bastard! I'm coming down there and stringing an extension cord from your house!

Kidding though, I'm glad I had no real damage. I moved the E34 twice during the storm (once before, once during the eye) and each time I did, a tree branch landed where it would have been parked.

I tried to take some photos of the e34 during the storm (it had to stay outside). It looked like one of those commercials with the car in the wind tunnel- you could see the water spray curving around the body of the car, and it was shaking back and forth. I thought for sure my car was a goner.

I have a whole camera full of photos of damage in my area I'll be putting up- problem is, I got no power at home, and were not allowed to have cameras at work, so I can't do it here.

This no power SUCKS, and I don't have if half as bad as most people do. I have a job to go to with a paycheck, power, plenty of water, I can get ice at work for free, I can get lunch at work, and the house still has its roof, no damage other than the trees. I'm headed up to gainesville this weekend for the FL-GA game, and I plan on picking up a generator while Im up there, thinking about like a 3700 watt coleman for $450 at lowes. If our power miraculously comes back on (last time it took 2 weeks) soon, I'd sell it at cost to anyone that needs it, no price gouging for .info members (other people on the other hand.....)

I've got 1 more days worth of gas in my volvo, and a full tank in the e34 (having 2 cars is nice), so I got a good bit of gas, but lines are getting, well, scary. How is gas by you Brian?

[granit_silber]

GAH! You bastard! I'm coming down there and stringing an extension cord from your house!

Kidding though, I'm glad I had no real damage. I moved the E34 twice during the storm (once before, once during the eye) and each time I did, a tree branch landed where it would have been parked.

I tried to take some photos of the e34 during the storm (it had to stay outside). It looked like one of those commercials with the car in the wind tunnel- you could see the water spray curving around the body of the car, and it was shaking back and forth. I thought for sure my car was a goner.

I have a whole camera full of photos of damage in my area I'll be putting up- problem is, I got no power at home, and were not allowed to have cameras at work, so I can't do it here.

This no power SUCKS, and I don't have if half as bad as most people do. I have a job to go to with a paycheck, power, plenty of water, I can get ice at work for free, I can get lunch at work, and the house still has its roof, no damage other than the trees. I'm headed up to gainesville this weekend for the FL-GA game, and I plan on picking up a generator while Im up there, thinking about like a 3700 watt coleman for $450 at lowes. If our power miraculously comes back on (last time it took 2 weeks) soon, I'd sell it at cost to anyone that needs it, no price gouging for .info members (other people on the other hand.....)

I've got 1 more days worth of gas in my volvo, and a full tank in the e34 (having 2 cars is nice), so I got a good bit of gas, but lines are getting, well, scary. How is gas by you Brian?
I don't miss living in Florida (Jacksonville) at all! Although there is nothing like seeing at 200+yr old Oak tree flex and bend in the massive winds. Last September my sister was married on the day Jeane came to town. They left the church and 2 minutes later the rain started falling sideways! The next morning we came out of my mom's house to find that the really freakin old Hickory tree had fallen, the oak caught it, and my e34 was underneath it.

I glad you guys are doing alright. Last night I saw footage of two older Miami women about to scrap at the gas pumps 'cause one of them cut in line.

-ashley

[ryan roopnarine]

baaahhhh that looks bad brian. it shames me to say it, but after it made landfall and didn't look like it was coming my way, i forgot about it--they didn't mention it making landfall anywhere i had ever been. now i feel badly....if a storm happened here, i wouldn't want its damage to be an afterthought. hopefully the insurance will make things right (if the damage is that expensive).

[MBXB]

I'm glad everyone came out unscathed.
We had to evac my wife's 86 yr old grandfather from Punta Gorda. He had just moved into his new "manufactured" home after Charlie levelled his last one.
If a true Cat 4 or 5 hits the Tampa Bay area just right...we're screwed. The storm surge alone will turn this place back into the swamp it used to be.

[zuzuk212]

So ... you've got firewood for all of us? :D

Glad that you made it through with only scrapes and are able to talk about it.
Now, all you need is a T-shirt or hat that says you survived :D

Ken

[Brian C.]

The power comes and goes, along with the phone and DSL service, but it's back now.....for the moment.

Thanks to all for the kind words and wishes. Except for the lack of power here, life isn't all that bad considering. Unfortunately the lack of electricity has made getting gas very tough since the stations have fuel, they just don't have any power to pump it. But everyday gets a little better. In my general area of northern Miami-Dade County, the problems all come from fallen trees mostly. Many of the biggest ones fell or broke and came down on cars, homes, power lines, roads, and the occassional person. It's amazing how many idiots actually go out in the worst part of storms just to see what it looks like, and get wacked by falling branches. At least 10-12 people were killed during the storm by falling or blown debris. Many large office buildings lost glass windows in Miami, but most of the real damage was to the north in between Ft.Lauderdale and Palm Beach. That's about 5-50 miles north of me and that's where the worst part of the winds hit.

Hopefully, my power will stay on and everyone elses will be back soon. I've been having fun at work driving my van around distributing food and cold drinks to Police Officers who are directing traffic at each of the 11 gazillion intersections that are now without traffic lights. They've been working 12 hours shifts and I don't envy them one bit. Of the lights that are out, maybe 2/3 are destroyed and the rest just have no power. Strangely enough, most people are actually acting somewhat civil to each other when courtesy on the road is an unusual thing to see here. Soon enough though..... :p I'll see if I can post more photos later, I've got to be back at work at noon and I've got a bunch of things to do here while the power and phones work so.......CAIO FOR NOW!

Brian C.

ps..........If you can, donate to the Red Cross or one of the many relief organizations. With all the disasters this year, they are all pretty much tapped to the limit.

[Interceptor]

You guys may have the beauty of the ocean and year round warmth, but I'll take the boredom of Kansas over the constant hurricanes. At least tornados are somewhat small, and you can hide in the basement. Glad you're ok.
In my town, snow is the biggest natural disaster - when it falls every 10 years, people crash their cars like crazy because they don't know how to drive on snow and don't have winter tyres/chains.