MTFCA Forum

As you all probably know, here in SW Florida we were hit by Hurricane Ian last Wednesday. Our house and the Model T are fine, we have power back (we have a whole-house generator, so technically we never lost power) so for us all is well. The same cannot be said for Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Pine Island. If there were any Ts on Fort Myers Beach they are probably gone. I hope that any other MTFCA members and T owners in SW Florida are OK.

John

thank you for the report and glad to hear you, family, and home are OK

Scott_Conger wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:33 am

John

thank you for the report and glad to hear you, family, and home are OK

Same from me John. Prayers to all.
Worst destruction I think since and including Katrina. Wife and I toured Pine island 20 years ago. Beautiful place. So sad. My last boat came from Atlas Boat Works of Cape Coral...I wonder how they fared. Afraid to even call Tom to find out. Probly no phone service anyway.

Hurricanes are nothing new, and nothing to be trifled with. See: Galveston, Texas, 1900, Indianola, Texas, 1886, East Coast Storm, 1938, among many others. (Down Easters are not immune, either) Florida has taken many deadly thrashings from hurricanes in the last century and a half, and long before that. Florida is also known for sinkholes, and I suspect that the current massive flooding across much of Florida will aggravate the sinkhole situation.

I have friends in Naples - Melbourne - Miami.
All escaped flooding and major damage


FJ

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:13 pm

Hurricanes are nothing new, and nothing to be trifled with. See: Galveston, Texas, 1900, Indianola, Texas, 1886, East Coast Storm, 1938, among many others. (Down Easters are not immune, either) Florida has taken many deadly thrashings from hurricanes in the last century and a half, and long before that. Florida is also known for sinkholes, and I suspect that the current massive flooding across much of Florida will aggravate the sinkhole situation.

The sinkholes are mostly in the central Florida region. I suspect that you are right about the flooding, though. As an observation, building vacation cottages on barrier islands is probably not the best choice of location. I remember something about building your house on sand... I still feel badly for the folks who have lost their homes though. Interestingly, although not surprisingly, most single-family houses on Fort Myers beach that were on stilts survived with little damage; almost all of the houses that were built directly on the ground were badly damaged or destroyed.

Does anyone know how Thomas Edison and the Ford house fared in Ft. Myers?

ironhorse wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:53 am

Does anyone know how Thomas Edison and the Ford house fared in Ft. Myers?

They came through undamaged, thankfully. The same cannot be said for the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce building. All that is left are the front stairs, which are concrete.

I live in Bartow in central Florida. In addition to my residence, I have 5 other rental houses on the same block. At its’ peak, Ian passed about 10 miles southeast of Bartow. Four hours before it got to Bartow on September 28, we lost our power at 4:30pm. At 3:10pm, it made land fall at Fort Myers, FL as a Catagory 4 hurricane with 155mph winds. By the time it got to central Florida the winds were hitting 80mph. Moving forward at 8 miles an hour, it was a very large, slow moving 300 mile wide hurricane that took a very scary 12 hours to pass with a lot of noise. I live in a 2 story Victorian house with very big 3’ x 6’ windows and luckily, last year, I made 28 custom-made storm shutters that prevented the windows from blowing in. I also have a Honda “EU3000is”. A very quiet running 3000 watt portable gasoline operated generator that has seen my family through 5 hurricanes since 2004. Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne that made direct hits on Bartow in 2004, Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Ian. I highly recommend the “Honda EU3000is” if you are in the market for a powerful, portable generator. It consistently gets the best marks, but you will need a lot of extension cords. My Father in law has had 3 strokes and lives next door and we were able to provide him with power as well. In our house we had power to: 2 televisions, 1 microwave, 1 refrigerator, 1 coffee maker, 1 oscillating fan and 6 lamps. We ran a long extension cord next door and provided power to my Father in law’s 1 television, 1 freezer, 1 refrigerator, 1 microwave, his Mobile-help fall protection system, 1 coffee maker and 5 lamps.

When we woke up the next morning at September 29, we were pleased that there was no damage to any of our houses or trees. Just a lot of leaves, small branches and sticks to rake up. We were without power for about 60 hours until power was restored yesterday afternoon on October 1. Jim Patrick

PS. My Model T made it through unscathed.

Jim

so good to hear from you!
thank you for the report and am pleased to hear of your self-sufficiency...you are in a very low percentage of our population
I am betting that your past experience with your fire led to ultra-interest in self-preservation and for that, I am thankful

as an ex-lifelong Floridian I do not miss those storms one bit

Jim, I was thinking about you during the storm, so glad to hear that you didn't get hit!

Thanks for your many comments/suggestions about my coupe restoration. I want to keep your rivet devise for awhile. Thanks for borrowing to me.

Thanks to all who had us in your thoughts and prayers. It worked. Great to hear from you Scott and for all of your friendly thoughts in our conversations. Bruce…You may keep that rivet driver. I have not used it in years and you will, no doubt have many uses for it for your beautiful Coupe. If I ever need it, I may borrow it back, but it is yours now. Sincerely, Jim Patrick

There was a gentleman name of Roger Barnes who lived on Ft. Myers Beach. He was a frequent poster here around 10 -15 years ago. Roger lived about in the center of the island and did own two Model T’s. I lost contact with Roger about 5 years ago, we sincerely pray he and Alberta are safe somewhere. If anyone is aware of Roger or his situation please feel free to PM me.
Thanks, Jeff P.

Jeff Perkins wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:19 pm

There was a gentleman name of Roger Barnes who lived on Ft. Myers Beach. He was a frequent poster here around 10 -15 years ago. Roger lived about in the center of the island and did own two Model T’s. I lost contact with Roger about 5 years ago, we sincerely pray he and Alberta are safe somewhere. If anyone is aware of Roger or his situation please feel free to PM me.
Thanks, Jeff P.

I did a search for information on Roger Barnes Ft. Myers Beach Fl
Found this address 18 Pepita St, Fort Myers Beach, FL for an 86 year old.Alberta 82 looks like this maybe their phone number too (239) 463-7898.
Included picture of the property at that address (Google map). Looks possible with a trailer. I tried to match a flood map caused by Ian from the news media. Most of the residents in the area have garage spaces on the first floor and living quarters on the second based on the expectation of floods.

Thank You very much Frank! I tried Roger’s #……did not connect.
There are also several Model T owners who lived on Pine Island. I do not recall names.

I doubt that it would be possible to contact Roger Barnes if he is still on Estero Island (Fort Myers Beach). There is no power to charge a cell phone, and if he had a car or cars in his garage, my guess is that they are gone. I hate to be "Mr. Negative," but he is very lucky if the house is there as well. As I posted earlier, virtually every house on Fort Myers Beach that was not built on stilts is destroyed or gone. I hope that Roger followed the evacuation order.

Yes. At landfall, they recorded storm surges of up to 12 feet. That is enough to cover a Model T and the first floor of the average home. Jim Patrick