[South Florida DX Association] Frances Aftermath at Ground Zero

[Michael Raskin]

I never dreamed that Sewall's Point would become famous and so well known when we first moved here over a year ago!  If you haven't heard, Associated Press reported Sewall's Point as "ground zero" - what a dubious honor.  We just got power and phone service.  We are fine and so are the dogs.  Since we are in a mandatory evacuation area, we left our home Friday afternoon and moved into the pet-friendly Marriott Golf Resort in Coral Springs.  They had their own emergency power, we could bring our dogs, room was only $89 a night, and the bar stayed open all night Friday and Saturday.  We were not allowed back on Sewall's Point until Tuesday, expecting the worst.  The house is standing without any real structural damage.  No shutters but the impact resistant glass held beautifully without any leaks.  However, we are on the wide Indian River, facing the east, two miles north of the Stuart inlet to the Atlantic, and the storm surge had the ground floor under three feet of water and muck - everything in the garage blew around and was totaled.  Our new vetted was written off as a total loss (I guess I always wanted the C6 instead).  Yard is a total mess - everything down but the palm trees.  Lost the entire fence.  Sherry and I took down the Big Stepp-IR, 160M vertical, and Butternut last Friday.  My 40' crank up with 5 element M2 6M beam had no damage.  Butternut and Stepp-IR goes up tomorrow.  My best wishes to all who suffered and had losses, but the best part is that we all survived.

73,
Mike, W4UM (ex-K4KUZ)  w4um at arrl.net
Sherry, W4SLR (ex-KE4JMX) w4slr at arrl.net
South Florida DX Association  http://www.qsl.net/k4fk/
Florida Contest Group  http://www.floridacontestgroup.org