[aprssig] Help needed in Florida

[Rich Garcia]

The Jupiter I-Gate (AS close you could get to Francis's Landfall!) was off
the air for several days since power was out for 5/4 days and the telephone
lines were irratic. Do remember if you have never lived in a area hit by a
disaster the last thing that people are thinking about is radio unless used
as a tool.

Tens of thousands are still out of power and telephone, may have been left
homeless, and others still need to work even though their homes are damaged
or gone. I have been working 20hrs a day since Sunday and was locked at the
office from Friday night till' Monday night since I am bringing cell sites
back on-line. I was one of the lucky ones and still have a home, I lost some
shingles, have a water logged garage door torn screen porch and a damaged
repeater antenna but all in all lucky.

Now with Ivan it looks like Jim may be in for a ride and we will just be
"insulted" again. Now that we have damage even a tropical storm will be a
very big blow since thousands of us have water leaks and partial roofs.
Recovery efforts are also hampered since crews from other states are pulling
out so they do not get caught in a CAT 4 Hurricane away from home.

Rich

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org
[mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]On Behalf Of WB4GQK at aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 7:22 AM
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Subject: RE: [aprssig] Help needed in Florida


Chris, KB8UIH,  posted this message:

>Lately I haven't seen activity so many of the stations
>may be down or ruined?  Maybe others can update this
>situation.

My APRS station was knocked out when Charley came thru almost a month ago.
In
the process of lowering and securing our tower, my XYL, N4TFP, and I were
caught in a sudden and violent downpour. We rushed inside and within minutes
the
tower was on the ground. Two sections were destroyed.

I immediately ordered two new sections from Texas Towers, however due to all
the emergency relief trucks pouring into the state and very limited diesel
fuel, delivery was delayed until just 3 days prior to Frances arriving on
the
scene! We decided it would be far better to just leave everything on the
ground
rather than erect it. (the good part is I didn't have to mow the back yard).
We
did prepare all the sections for raising. I even purchased new coax cables,
since the old ones had been up about 8 years.

Frances arrived late Saturday and we lost power and phone service. Power was
restored Monday about 1100. Phones were restored by Thursday morning. In the
meantime the XYL and I debated should we finish assembly of the tower with
IVAN
on the prowl and possibly coming thru the area? We decided again to leave it
all on the ground until IVAN passes. (I think my wife is suspicious that I
am
hedging because I don't want to mow the back yard!)

Seriously as soon as IVAN is clear we will have the tower up and hopefully
be
back on APRS maybe as soon as next Wed.

73 de Jim wb4gqk

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