mclaurie

Just a quick posting from Boca Raton. Have been here since last week and things are certainly improving but I hear things in Broward County are not so great with a lot of power still out. The biggest issue is the lack of traffic lights which makes traveling around a challenge...but doable. There seem to be more lights working today. The weather has been absolutely spectacular though.

Bokhara

Hi McLaurie,
Was wondering how your trip was going !
Happy travelling to you & yours

Cira

ccrosner, how did it go in Sunny Isles?

ufgator

I live in Boca Raton. We had our power restored last Thursday. The boil water alert was lifted late last week. I know some people in Ft. Laud. that still don't have power. Most people don't have cable (it was on and then it went off). Many of the major intersections have at least one stoplight up in each direction (many stoplights were completely gone or just not working). Many smaller intersections still don't have lights. Many street signs are down so I imagine it would be difficult if you weren't familiar with the area. Grocery stores are open but they don't have everything yet (but there is produce, meat, and dairy and frozen foods - just not all of it yet). Every yard has major piles of debris, whether it's plants or fences. Everyone's house has at least some damage. I know 2 people who had severe roof damage. There was a lot of tornado activity. I saw cars piled up in Pompano. Most of my family lives on the barrier island in Lauderdale by the Sea (between Pompano and Ft. Laud.). At one of my family member's houses, a bar from the neighbor's house got picked up, went over my family's house and landed in another neighbor's roof. Just a lot of weird things like that. There were also a lot of utility poles down. One area on the Broward/Palm Beach line had 5 or more poles down in a row. Many windows in high rise condos and buildings and retail stores were blown out. Damage was really widespread.

All the leaves are gone and it's very bare compared to what it normally looks like; it's a little depresssing. DH said it looks like winter up north. Since a lot of vegetation is gone, you can see buildings that you couldn't see before. Life is returning to normal for most people. Most people are excited just to take a hot shower again!

ccrosner

We just returned home last night from our Sunny Isles/Harbour Island Bahamas trip. All went fine.

It was clear upon arrival at FLL that there was great foliage damage in that area with lots of denuded trees, trees uprooted, debris in the streets. Traffic was not as bad as I expected although a bit slow near traffic lights that were out.

We stayed at the Trump INternational in Sunny Isles. They had no noticeable damage and we had no trouble with meals, etc. A walk south along the beach (actually it was the walk back north) showed quite a bit of damage to windows of all sorts. mostly south east facing. Most had been boarded up (even way up on high floors) but there were also some older motel-like properties that appeared to have been condemned due to unsafe structures.

We visited South Beach one day and that was fun with not much visible destruction (although some).

So basically I would say anyone leaving now to Sunny Isles and its environs would have no trouble whatsoever. Can't comment on FLL area as I know they were hit harder.

Dreamer2

Thanks for the update!

budget4me

Well, I think there were some helpful replies here. I won't comment on the supercilious smirker who scoffed at the idea of power being out for a month (notice he got very quiet after he was proven wrong!). I live in the FLL area and five weeks after the storm, I have still friends who are waiting for their electricity to be restored.

Gas is plentiful, and most traffic lights are semi-operational. What this means is that they turn red and green . . . many of them, however, no longer have left turn signals operating, which means that left turns are virtually impossible at most intersections, as the traffic is nonstop in the opposite direction. Water is safe. Phones are working. Cable is up and down, and the cable company no longer even pretends to answer the phone or e-mail--they just send bills demanding money, like an anonymous mugger. But I digress.

Yes, vegetation was destroyed. For visitors, though, that might not be as noticeable. We are only 25% as pretty as we were before, but depending on where you are coming from, it still might be more scenic than what you are used to.

Our hurricane season ends in two days. If anyone has specific Ft. Lauderdale questions, I'll try to help.

Bokhara

budget4me: I can't begin to imagine how scary it must be at the time of a hurricane (being an Australian, it's not, thankfully, something we have to deal with too often). A couple of universal truths about disasters like yours, though: the impact lasts long after the newspapers, TV & radio have moved on to the "next thing", and how often is it that the people in the middle of it are told authoritively by outsiders what is or isn't going on?

I often want to retort: "The fact that you can't imagine or understand it does not make something untrue". Amazes me why people would think people would say (for example) that they haven't had power for a month, if it had been on all the time.

Best wishes to you & yours as you get your lives back together.