Photo Log

As previously mentioned, I spent Friday Night in an Orlando hotel (embassy Suites) and so was able to witness Charley First hand. Well, as near hand as I could from my hotel room. My room had two rooms in it; a bedroom and a living room, with the bathroom in between. Well the Bedroom had a big window to the outside of the building, so I decided to sleep in the living room (which had a window open to a big open space in the middle of the hotel (kind of like an atrium). Here's a picture of my bedding arrangements.



They passed around a note to let us all know what to do in preparation of the hurricane (from whence I got the idea to sleep away from the window). It also suggested filling the bathtub so we could still use the toilets. As you can see I followed that advice too, although it was not needed.



Here was the view from my window at about 4:30 or so? Not to exciting, although you can see the rain sort of.



On the road the next day I ended up taking I-4 in the direction of Tampa, which proved a less effective strategy for leaving Orlando (since all the Tampa Evacuees were also using that road). On the way, however, I did see some evidence that Charley was an anarchist hurricane, hating signs that told people what to do.





As you can see by this picture, some creative people, frustrated at the stop and go traffic on the I-4 decided they would create an additional lane. As if the situation weren't dangerous enough.



Eventually I got off of the I-4 and traveled up Apopka Vineland and some other surface streets until I could get to the Florida Turnpike. This gave me the opportunity (The Chinese, as you know, use the same character for crisis that they do for opportunity. Usually that's kind of use as a motivational image, but I can sort of see it going the other way.) to see Charley's damage from a somewhat closer vantage point.



This next one might be hard to decipher, but half the road was covered by a fallen tree which we had to drive around.





Anyway, my own experience was pretty mild, but there are plenty of people who have had tough times. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to lend a hand, but one organization who always gets called into these situations is the Red Cross. So you might consider dropping them a few bucks or finding the time to give blood.