Today's Weather in Guangzhou is Brown with scattered muggings

In a previous blog entry on 10-12 about Guangzhou (aka Canton) "This is Greg's big meeting and it's a disaster. His vendor and the agent are lying through their teeth. Their stories change, their body language says anxiety, and they don't come clean. I pass Greg several notes warning him it's bad news on most counts but he's aware of it, just not how bad .... Glad it wasn't my meeting." Anyway that's just so you remember the post.

As you all know I despised Guangzhou because quite honestly, I don't like a city with smoke-stacks the bellow Mountain-Dew coloured smoke, nor do I like a city where "brown" is a valid description of the weather. Here's the rest of the story. Greg relayed the balance of this story to me today. When we left the meeting, one of Greg's associates, who shall remain anonymous, didn't particularly hate it and stayed behind for a few more days before directly returning to the USA. Turns out on his last day, he was being driven around in the corporate Mercedes, as is the custom in China, and they were pulled over by a guy in a motorcycle -- not sure how that works but I'm just relaying this -- and the guy promptly robbed the driver and the passenger before leaving.

Needless to say he's no longer a fan of Guangzhou. Carjackings, muggings, and robberies, Oh My!

I am cold.

It's cold. It's Florida and it's not supposed to be in the 40s dammit. I just wanted to say that. It's odd, I like the cold normally, but not today.

Hurricane Wilma Damage Report

I'm back from the Far East, but what have I come back to? As you know, Hurricane Wilma pounded into Florida while I was away. We had toyed with the idea of coming home to prepare in advance of the storm, but Wilma kept changing speed and direction, and we weren't even sure if we were needed back home. Quite frankly, we weren't sure we'd even make it back in time: that would have left us in the USA but not home, so ultimately we decided we'd be better off finishing up the trip. After Wilma hit, we tried to come home, but there simply wasn't any way to get home. The airports were closed, and if we flew to an open airport (Atlanta, for example), there wasn't gas available to drive -- a situation that is still a problem.

My home has sustained extensive damage. The exterior has severe damage to the roof (most of it's in the backyard, instead of on top of the house where it belongs) – the roof needs to be replaced: it is not repairable. There are holes in the roof, the tiles, felt, and tar paper are stripped away and the wood underneath is damaged and broken. There is interior ceiling damage in the garage, downstairs hallway, upstairs hallway, closet, bedroom, and bathroom. Lots of drywall will need replacing, plus the related mold and mildew problems that will come along with it.

I have a broken window pane – one of the big ones in my kitchen (4' x 2' panes). Although I have covered this, the repair of this window – which is comprised of six of these panes will be difficult. As a result of the broken pane, there is water damage.

My lush landscaping is gone. In fact, our entire neighbourhood has been entirely denuded. Whatever trees Katrina missed, Wilma got.

My exterior paint has lots of embedded grass and crap in it. If you've been through a hurricane before, you know how it literally gets blasted into and becomes part of the paint.

Today I took a few dozen pictures for the insurance adjuster and after I talk to him/her next week I can begin the slow clean up and repair process. Today, I piled up the broken tiles on the ground, but the ones on the roof I can't get to. I am unhappy.

11-6-05 update: The insurance adjuster called and we have an appointment for 11-29. Yay. I've been cleaning for days and the yard and everything looks presentable (except for no landscaping) but the roof is still missing large chunks. My roofer and I signed a contract but they don't expect to be able to start until after the first of the year.

Hurricanes Redux

I am so damn tired of hurricanes. I have been stuck at home all day because of that bitch, Rita. Relatively harmless to us as it turns out (unlike Katrina) but still a nuisance. Frankly, I'd rather be at work. Scary, eh?

BTW, if anyone knows a good roofer, I've been trying to find once since before Katrina.

(Hurricane) Katrina Blows Eric and then New Orleans

OK, I hate Hurricanes. I hated Andrew. I also forgot how much I hated them. I have been reminded.

As late as Tuesday evening there was no real inkling there was any sort of problem. Wednesday we learned we were probably getting a tropical storm. Thursday they said it might be a hurricane just as it hit shore. They were confident it would hit in North Broward county and that the worse damage would be on the north side.

As it got later and later they moved the impact zone south. As soon as one hour before it hit, they were confident it would hit north of I-595 in Broward and most rain would be north of the storm. Judging by the radar pictures, I found this dubious. However, at 4pm we closed work early and sent people home (people north of 595 were sent home earlier in the day because that was where the storm was supposed to hit).

Because effects of the storm in Miami were supposed to be relatively minimal at best, we made no real preparations. I did not put up my shutters. In fact, except for a few items outside which I brought in, I made no notice of the storm at all. That was, in hindsight, a error. I should know better.

Katrina came ashore in Hollywood (on the Dade/Broward line) many miles south of where it was projected. However even while it was hitting they insisted it would continue almost straight west which would mean no major issues for us.

All hell began breaking loose in my neighborhood before 7. By 621pm there was no electric. Winds began increasing. Driving rain (to the extent it was moving parallel to the ground) blasted around. It was dark and, just like Andrew, scary. But, at least in this one, I was never worried of my incipient death.

Trees began being stripped of leaves and branches, streets began with rising water, and then, after what we thought was the worst of it, calm. Many of us went outside to help neighbours who needed assistance (there were several). We still didn’t know it but more was to come.

It began getting that sickly colour in the sky that signals “Very Bad Weather” and we all headed indoors. And then it came from the other direction. None of us realized the storm had turned Southwest and was headed at us. Sustained winds were recorded at the airport (a few miles away) in excess of 87MPH. More trees were uprooted, the ongoing symphony of car alarms abated (assumedly as the cars were crushed), and then came the deluge. It rained, and rained, and rained.

State Road 836 is still closed because the overpass at 97th avenue collapsed and fell. (It shouldn’t have but some contractor will go to jail over that). You still have to wonder how four TEN TON beams of steel and concrete were blown over.

This morning I woke up at 6am and took a walk outside in the wind and rain (nothing terrible). I ran into the Mayor /and/ Chief of police and their entourage. He told me (and the news later confirmed) that the eye of the storm passed DIRECTLY over Doral and we sustained more wind damage than anywhere else in South Florida (there was much worse rain damage further south of here).

We got hit by the front of the eye wall, the back of the eye wall, and it continued South towards the Keys via the NOAA Hurricane Center (ironic they would get hit after assuring us it wasn’t coming this way).

I am lucky. There is little new damage to my property except to foliage. My four existing roof leaks are still leaking to no surprise, though one of them has turned into a eighteen foot by twenty foot monstrosity. Most ancillary damage (mailbox, etc, etc) I have already fixed.

Helicopters still fly over every few minutes: news crews, damage surveys, police and rescue trying to get into some inaccessible areas. Four dead. Five missing so far.

I finally went to work (after talking my way by the police and the mayor) to check it out, and work fared well. The sign is gone and there’s no trace of it. The carport at work under which I park is missing. But the building is fine except for a tiny roof leak at a corner seam.

It could have been worse, but I am reminded why if a storm MIGHT come you should put up your shutters.

Pictures? (EMAIL ME AND ASK FOR URL. To preserve site bandwidth which is nearing its limit, I have removed the URL from the public posting.)

8-28-05 Add-on
I would like to offer my advance condolences to those who live in the city formerly known is New Orleans. As a survivor of another Category Five monstrosity (Hurricane Andrew) I know firsthand what they are about to undergo. I hope the evacuated and offer my hopes they survive. This will only be the fourth Category Five hurricane to make landfall (Labor Day 1935, Camile, and Andrew) and I still hope it slows down before it hits. You may not thing there's much difference between 140 and 160 but there is. Hurricanes are terrifying and people say Tornadoes are bad, but they're quick. Imagine a tornado that lasts 14 hours. Katrina was relatively minor and even so 14 hours of up to 86mph winds frays the nerves and tears things down. Andrew was 8 or so hours but the winds were over double those of Katrina. Good luck. I also am not putting money on survivors at the Superdome. Most stadiums are built to withstand maximum sustained winds of 125mph.

8-31-05 Add-on
Happily, Katrina missed New Orleans and instead decided to remove all traces of Biloxi from the map. Such things are never good and I am not making light. But as bad and terrible as things are in New Orleans, but being grazed by a Category 4 is much better than being hit by a Category 5. Had Katrina hit dead on as a 5, you'd have had tens of thousands dead and damages upward of $100 billion dollars. None of the 12,000 people in the SuperDome would have been alive when the sun came out. We in Florida were lucky, and indeed, our woes have been totally forgotten and ignored as attention moves towards the New Orleans and Biloxi areas. That is understandable, but we had almost 2 million people without power after the storm, and there are still 100,000 people without -- we have gas shortages, ice shortages, and so on. And still we are lucky. We all know it too.

At work we are taking collections from employees for relief efforts and matching donated money $2 for every $1 donated and in addition adding $1,000 on top of that. I am making my own personal contribution which (as is my custom) remains an undisclosed amount.

9-2-05 Add-on
I have to reinforce one fact: this did not have to happen. Florida is now prepared for hurricanes. We have proper building codes (the process is full of graft and corruption but the codes are sound), our government is prepared and cognizant. The people and government in New Orleans simply did not accept the reality and gravity of the situation and now they're paying the horrible price. Half of what is destroyed, maybe more, would have been standing. The flooding couldn't have been averted but the complete destruction of homes could have. IF YOU LIVE IN AN AREA SUBJECT TO HURRICANES GET HURRICANE SHUTTERS THAT MEET MIAMI-DADE PRODUCT CONTROL APPROVAL.