Hurricane Dennis Letter

[gpickett00]

This letter is from one of my moms friends in her experience with hurricane Dennis. I thought it was rather interesting:

Upon my return from FEFPA Friday evening, the Dennis fun began.



The house was a rental. Dick wanted to live in the salt marshes, which was fun. Last year we “ran” from 3 hurricanes and were moving cars/packing/ etc to run this time to Orlando. Usually the fire department would send a truck with horns to run us out. They didn’t do it this time. However, we were all packing. This was all night Saturday and into Sunday morning. Cameron, Dick and I monitored the water all night, as did our neighbors. High tide was at 3:30 am. Cam and I had moved 2 cars fully packed to about 6 miles away; we moved power boat same place and were going after sailboats; using Dick’s Jeep. At 3:00am we moved jeep to within ½ mile away, to a “high point” where we could wade through water if necessary and drive the rest of the way out. Well, water came up so quickly, that at 3:15 we could not move jeep; and we waited for high tide to recede, so we could get out … it never went down. Just kept coming. Nobody got out. The whole street was awake and moving, but we all got caught. We spent Sunday in another neighbor’s house, up on stilts, watching docks, cars, boats that had been tied to docks, boats on trailers, parts of houses, all float by. We waived to our other neighbors also stranded at other homes; there were many unintended hurricane parties on Live Oak Island. We had 5 dogs and 3 cats with us at our party.



The papers said we had 12 feet of water. Our house was about 2 feet off of the ground and about 3 feet above sea level, with a water mark inside at about my ear. So, we had about 8 feet at our place. We lost the jeep; one neighbor lost both cars, another lost 1 car. Sailboats (lasers) 2 on one trailer with masts, and etc, floated 3 lots down, over a fence, and were deposited, right side up, cover in place, masts in place, etc. Our neighbor found our power boat key in her front yard (it was attached to a float, and had floated from a hook in our house) and probably swirled around her house many times before being deposited in her yard. The water flow was incredible, and the key was so improbable; but there it was with our name on it. Debris deposits were at least 2 feet thick (even with the top of our septic tank mound). The doors broke off of our house because of the water pressure, and we had pilings, logs, branches, and debris all over inside; smelly mud everywhere.



It is an old neighborhood; 1950’s houses, on the ground. All had significant damage. Our rental had all interior walls removed (CMU slab on grade). Houses next door and across street were condemned (wood frame), so must be rebuilt to new standards (up high).



We found a rental apartment in Tallahassee. I commented to Dick, it is like when we started 35 years ago … no furniture.

Hey, I like to look on the bright side, it makes vacuuming easier!! AND, Cameron has had a summer adventure to tell his classmates this fall in New York City: “life in the swamps of Florida battling hurricanes”.



I do look forward to working with you later this summer.

[Astro_man92]

WOW that is a great description of the damage following dennis. You are right it was very interesting.

[Hurricaneman]

Thats alot of damage, but it could have been a whole lot worse

[EDR1222]

It definately could have been worse, but still alot to go through especially after Ivan last year.

[gpickett00]

Hey EDR, I'm in satellite beach

[Swimdude]

Wow, that sounds terrible! I guess that just goes to show the rain factor in major hurricanes... It isn't just the wind.

[Acral]

Incredible tale. Funny how eerie things like the boat key happen. During Ivan, the most annoying part was the doorbell. It rang and rang from the wind gusts until mercifully the power went out.

[vbhoutex]

Wow, that sounds terrible! I guess that just goes to show the rain factor in major hurricanes... It isn't just the wind.

This wasn't about rain. It was about storm surge from Dennis.

[Acral]

Surge tends to be the biggest problem in coastal areas along with flooding inland. One met I heard said that the wind and tornadoes are a "sideshow" in a big storm.

[HurryKane]

Incredible tale. Funny how eerie things like the boat key happen. During Ivan, the most annoying part was the doorbell. It rang and rang from the wind gusts until mercifully the power went out.

No kidding? That would have driven me bonkers. Like, punch-a-hole-in-the-sheetrock-and-rip-the-wires-out bonkers.