Wilma Pics from Sunrise, Florida

[robivi3]

Here is my Townhome development. This is damage from a Cat 2 to two homes. One is a two story (they fool ya') and 1550 sq.foot in size and the other is one story, about 1100 sq. ft. These sell for around 235,000 now believe it or not, AND RISING FAST, no the storm won't stop that. Can't afford to move. The Insurance today on mine is 1800.00 per year with taxes about 2400.00 for me. Just a little info to show you how it's getting pricewise to live here.

Front
Back
Street

I kept the images large.





And two days before:

My wife's uncle's Birthday (he is living solo now, thanks to Americanization/Divorce/Joint property). I married an old fashioned girl, thank God! Just a simple, simple Colombian dinner to cheer him up. Note the Malta, Patacones and Pollo (chicken). But the cake is Publix!!!!!!!!! The best birthday cake you'll ever eat!!!!!!!!
My wife, her Uncle (I'm not in the pic) and two of my boys, Dan and Ben... and the table, I love food... sorry

[Genenco]

Oh wow...I'm crying more about the trees, they looked so nice (Using imagination) in regards to their before appearence...

But sure am VERY glad you made it out A OK....

Keep us informed...

BTW, One of those pics (I think the first) reminds me of my backyard..As it appears now

[robivi3]

The house on the corner (the one with the tree leaning on it)... the poor folks are moving in today and Izzy's family is gone as of yesterday. We said a sad goodbye to little Izzy, the popular little Jamaican boy who could read and write at four and who talked like a grown man. He was loved by all of us and was a testament to good parenting. I'll never forget him "scolding" me for backing up when he was riding his tricycle, it still makes me chuckle. He knew me as "Mr. Danny's Dad" and was the most articulate small child i have ever seen. Even the school crossing guard who is my sister-in-laws landlord laughs when she remembers him when he first started school.

[Minnymouth]

Robivi3,
Nice pics!! Made sure you stayed out of them, huh!!

Looks like there was enough damage to keep you busy for a while.

Food looks great (could tell by looking it was Amer food........

Nice looking wife and kids too!!!

Tell uncle I hope he has many more birthdays...

Minny

[robivi3]

Min, photogenic I'm not. Cameras for me, seven years bad luck for the camera...

[Minnymouth]

LOL I HEARD THAT,

Camera has not seen this ole face in 20 years if I can prevent it......

Mother nature is not kind sometimes!!!

Minny

(If I ever got attacked, when they got me under the street light - BELIEVE ME - they would let me go real quick)

LOL

[AMISLANDER]

The table looks great....

got me to start lunch early but so sorry to see such damage. It's hard to believe that although we're basically hurricane ready here in FL, look what happened again...are we through yet?

[robivi3]

Amis, this was not, I repeat NOT a Cat 1. This is a total LIE. I believe that there is a real fear of businesses leaving or not locating. There was an article in the Herald today on the issue.

The SOB Feds called Andrew a Cat 4. MY FREAKING A*S a Cat 4. Before the National Hurricane Center Building in Coral Gables (right beside Miami) was destroyed and the meteorologists were forced to "defend themselves" they recorded sustained winds of 200 mph. The device for measuring windspeed at Homestead AFB broke with winds at 225 mph. The lying A******S don't want to anti-up for the damages so they downgrade the storm which is probably fine with some local politicians. There is ALOT of destruction here. I've lived straight in the path of cat 1's since David in 79'. BS all to hell to anyone who thinks we are all STUPID ENOUGH to believe this hit Sunrise as a Cat 1. In a Cat 1 I've never had to reinforce my door with my body. Tree branches, large ones were flying by faster than people drive on I-75 in the morning (80-95 mph). I am ugly, NOT STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, eight days later most of Sunrise is still POWERLESS and PHONELESS. NOT A STINKING CAT 1. Downtown of pretty, clean Fort Lauderdale is trashed and hurricane windows that did their job blown out, they held to specs. We are told that the County Courthouse and clerk Division will not open for months. A four story Marine Hangar with boats stored to the roof is flattened, boats and all. Co-workers, some REAL Andrew Vets, have been on administraive leave for eight days due to damage. This was a 3 in our area and a two in most areas. I am damned angry to be treated as though I am this F-ing stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Concrete freaking homes in Weston (Dan Marino and my mother's territory) have sustained some damage. They are freaking bunkers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pastor Sals home in Tamarac Retirement Village built in 1970 of poured Concrete must be demolished and rebuilt (thanks to a MASSIVE, ancient Oak Tree). Cat 1?????????????????????????????????????????

I apologize for the vent but i hate to be trifled with as though I am a complete idiot. I am upset that peaceful, nice downtown Ft. Lauderdale has sustained damage, it really is one of the nicest, most orderly Cities compared to the Zoo that is Miami. I like downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Beach area in general up here.

[Minnymouth]

Robivi3,
You know they always plays things down, to avoid people leaving the area.
They tried that in 1976 when the tornado hit Xenia Ohio and flattened everything in sight for miles. They played it down too.
Lots of people left the area and never came back.
Hits the economy real bad when people move out. Politicians don't get paid!!
Loss of revenue.

Glad to know your okay you and yours.

But I'm like you - wasn't no Cat #1 for sure.
I don't blame you for being bent out of shape and will be long time before you can get your property straightened back out.

Their more afraid of people moving away from Florida along the coast now, then they have ever been. They said lots and lots of people have never went back to La, and never will.

If you have several hurricanes a year, you home could stay tore up all the time, constant repairs.....

Eventually in that area you will have to pay a high price for hurricane insurance and flood damage. Most people won't be able to afford it.

Shame too...

My best to the misses and the boys, hang in there.

Minny

[jennga]

Robi,thanks for the pics, makes it seem so much closer to home, so sorry for what you have endured but glad you and family are intact. You just vent all you want about the Fed Gov wanting to make something less of this devastation. Glad you are back and I for one, appreciate seeing the pics. (hey that cake is making me need a sugar fix, i gotta go find my kids Halloween candy!)LOL

[AMISLANDER]

We were all told on AMI...

really NOTHING! You better believe they're downplaying it. My boss said it was a 3...apparently "they" are trying to keep that all on the down low now. Like I said, if it came across and wasn't even near us on my island in Tampa Bay at 60 mph...go figure...and ya know, we are about ready to leave. If my mother wasn't alive, I'd be out of here tomorrow. And she wants to go back to Ft. Lauderdale...I don't think she even realizes what's happened.

[robivi3]

Sunrise is not the Sunrise she left, the demographics have changed somewhat, SADLY, VERY SADLY. I know the Sunrise she is longing for. It is an armpit compared to that Sunrise, but compared to other parts of SoFla it is still a haven, but not for long...

The Bagel hangout is still there on Oakland Park in the strip mall. That's for the old Sunrise crowd and not newbies. She will remember that place. Remember "Jackie Gleasons Inverarry in Beautiful Lauderhill"? Let's just say, OVERRUN. A dump now, "you live in Inverrary?" "Well, our sections not two bad..." Lauderhill is a bad address now.

And yes, I mean what you think I mean and no, I'm not sorry for saying it. I saw beautiful North Miami become a rathole over night. By the time you've moved a couple of times to escape swiftly approaching blight you shed your fear to speak.

[AMISLANDER]

I lived in Sunrise Lakes when I got out of college in '85

Sunrise is not the Sunrise she left, the demographics have changed somewhat, SADLY, VERY SADLY. I know the Sunrise she is longing for. It is an armpit compared to that Sunrise, but compared to other parts of SoFla it is still a haven, but not for long...

The Bagel hangout is still there on Oakland Park in the strip mall. That's for the old Sunrise crowd and not newbies. She will remember that place. Remember "Jackie Gleasons Inverarry in Beautiful Lauderhill"? Let's just say, OVERRUN. A dump now, "you live in Inverrary?" "Well, our sections not two bad..." Lauderhill is a bad address now.

And yes, I mean what you think I mean and no, I'm not sorry for saying it. I saw beautiful North Miami become a rathole over night. By the time you've moved a couple of times to escape swiftly approaching blight you shed your fear to speak.

....I lived in Phase 7 and rented my mom's condo with a friend of mine....I'm about feeling in the same financial bind as 20 years ago....I remember the bagel place and Mr. Gumps which hasn't been there for years! A friend of mine used to live in Inverrary in Coral Springs....My mom sold her place off of Oakland & Andrews a few years back...she misses the ability to come and go at all hours of the night/day which just doesn't happen over here in Bradenton...at 9pm everyone's asleep unless they're out doing/buying drugs...

Between the constant anxiety of the past two years of hurricanes, constant financial confustion, not only from bankruptcy but just the state of affairs in Florida...I keep trying to wake up & be glad I see palm trees instead of snow banks.

I lived in NJ and Brooklyn after I left Florida back in the mid 80's and feel like I've been through so much moving, transformations, jobs, marriage, divorce, if I could say I've just about done it all...I don't know what's left except to experience what I'm going through now...I'm hoping there's a purpose to all the happines and now sadness that I'm experiencing, let alone, I know there are people even worse off than me and I really have nothing to gripe about at the present...just feeling overwhelmed....thank god I have a job & a roof over my head that I pay for...for another month...and then I might just move home. Tired of taking care of all the bills when I'm in bankruptcy!

[robivi3]

Went to Sunrise City Hall today Amis (the building on Oakland park). The building is uninhabitable and horribly damaged. They are using the Fire Department on Sunset Strip as City Hall. They had a card table chair with folks on hand to take payments. The PD has been moved to the Corporate Park temporarily. These are both STONE FACED CONCRETE STRUCTURES, not windowed monsters. A FREAKING Cat 1 did this?

[robivi3]

And furthermore I would like to thank the three young ladies who are running the Wendy's on Commercial Blvd and Pine Island Road (Zachary Taylor fought the battle of Pine Island Ridge over 160 years ago there) in Tamarac. No McD's or BK's are open, the Wendy's has only plain Burgers and ketchup and they are somewhat cold but these young ladies were still open at 10pm to serve the electric crews and citizens, a long line.

Some folks became impatient and rather "ugly" and of course given my silent nature I jumped in and hopped out of the Truck and gave the girl a hug and publicly thanked her which at least got everyone laughing! One gentleman screeched tires and screamed obscenities because he was unable to obtain the almighty Wendy's Baked Potato. He tried to make an angry exit and was slowed by two Broward Sheriffs who were stationed in the area and both of whom were very obviously Wendy's customers on a daily basis.

And Amis, Sunrise was great until they built the Panthers Arena and put in the Sawgrass Expressway and the I-75 extension, that started the ball rolling. It wasn't just Panthers but an array of concerts, crusades and events that brought Miami up here on that new expressway, Hialeah transferred to Weston and Bonaventure.