(09-30-2022, 11:45 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote:

(09-29-2022, 10:27 AM)NYC4jags Wrote: Looks like the structure survived, but we have damage to deal with. Still accounting for staff. 
We have a skeleton crew there now on a generator preparing meals for displaced people in the community and power line workers who are making their way in to restore power. 

Lots of damages to homes in the area and the mobile home/RV/trailer parks are half razed to the ground. Most of those folks evacuate, but ...

You're a good man for providing those meals for those displaced folks.  Anyone on those barrier islands of Sanibel, Ft Myers, Captiva, Gasparilla and Casey Key should ALWAYS have the good sense to evacuate, but sadly, some just won't.  Same with those mobile home communities.  There are so many in the Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda area, along with Englewood, Venice and Cape Coral.  It's going to be a long rebuild.

Crazy stuff I've been seeing and hearing down here. 
Very lucky personally, but tons of friends and colleagues are in bad situations. 

The efforts from the local responders and those that have funneled into our area have been impressive in restoring power to many fairly quickly considering the damage. That may be the most positive thing I can say. 

It turns out that our restaurant and venue is next door to a large staging area for FEMA disaster relief and there are 400 Army reservists stationed there. 
We have taken on feeding the lot of them breakfast and dinner every day along with our patrons who grow in number each day. 
We have a skeleton crew of staff still, so it's has us all deep into overtime. We also can't get enough food to pull it off via distributor delivery, so we have a convoy of personal pickup trucks going each day to a distribution house in the next town. Getting gas has been tough until yesterday as more and more stations reopen. I worked my fifth 14 hour day in a row yesterday and finally took a little time off today. 

Next weekend we'll put music back on our stage and use the turnout to drive revenue for a fund to help individual families in our community that are struggling to get what they need. 

Gonna be a while before anything feels "normal" down here.

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