Post #108359 by Doctor Z on Sat, Aug 14, 2004 11:14 AM

I talked with my aunt in Punta Gorda yesterday shortly after the main storm had passed. At that point, all power was out, but they had phone service. She was doing fine, but she'd lost a lot. Her house is pretty sturdy and made it through ok, but she lost just about everything outside the main structure: the pool, pool cage (?), the deck, patio (and everything on them), all awnings and screens, lots of roof damage, her entire garage door - all destroyed. But the most frightening thing is that she says that EVERY TREE on her entire street - short, tall, palm, fruit, whatever - is simply GONE! Not knocked down or blown over - GONE! Z-Girl and I drove across the peninsula to visit her after Hukilau last year, and I remember what her neighborhood looked like, and it had plenty of trees. She says many folks around here weren't so lucky and appear to have lost everything. We didn't talk for long, and I'm going to call her back later today and see how she weathered the 'tidal surge'.

Glad to hear that our TCers made it through as well!