Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Hurricane Wilma Update -- Back at home on Sanibel! 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Greetings to all of our guests, friends and family,

Just a quick email note to let everyone know that we are all fine and our
houses suffered very minimal damages from Hurricane Wilma.  We had 
a rather restless night what with the approximately 100 mph winds 
that we experienced at our evacuation hotel - the Ramada Inn on 
Cleveland near Colonial.  From all we have heard and seen, Fort 
Myers itself was hit a little worse than Sanibel this time, much of 
Fort Myers still doesn't have power, which makes returning to 
normal very difficult.

We were happy to come back home to Sanibel on Monday 10/24/2005 at 
about 6 PM, after evacuating on Sunday at 3:30 PM, and here is the report...

All of our houses have power (most never really lost power!), except 
one which the power guys finished later in the evening on Monday 
and the others got power back at around the time we came back on 
the Island at 6 PM.  The power had gone out around 7 AM for only a 
couple of the houses.

Phone, water, sewer and cable TV are all working fine at all the 
houses.  All the pool screen cages are fine and so are the roofs.

We lost a coconut tree at house #1 (fell over from the root).
There are a few downed trees around the Island, not nearly as many as 
with Charley, and we didn't have many downed trees because we took 
action last year after Charley to remove most of the trees that 
might have problems.  Our several orange trees now have a lot fewer 
oranges, but hopefully they will be better but fewer.

The weather has turned cool after the storm, the coolness helped to 
keep the storm from gaining more strength and causing more damage.  
It's going to be cool all week, and we understand that a Canadian 
cold front is making it cold everywhere.  We checked the beach 
briefly last evening and there are shells strewn everywhere, but hard 
to tell about quality with the flashlight.  The beach has some very 
minor erosion in our area, but that will smooth out over time.

We sent out daily hurricane updates but we mostly included our guests 
that are here as well as anyone who indicated that they might want 
to be included.  We don't want to ever overburden anyone with 
excess emails!  Susan's brain has turned to mush from too much Island 
life, so if she missed including you on the hurricane update email 
list and you wish to be included, please make sure to let us know 
that you want to be on our regular update list so that we can 
include you in future notices.  Also, we apologize for the group letter 
format, but it is the easiest and quickest way to get the word out 
to everyone that wants to know.

We are grateful to everyone who has sent their good wishes and very 
grateful and happy to be back home and feel extra lucky to have had 
so little damage.

Thank you all very much for your thoughts and prayers.

Please feel free to email us if you have any questions or concerns.

Warm Regards,
Ed and Susan

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Sanibel International Vacation Home Rentals
Edward and Susan Hanna, owners
Website:        www.sanibel-international.com
Email:          sanibel@earthlink.net
Telephone:      (239) 472-0692
Toll Free:      (888) 232-2459
* Member of Sanibel Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce
* Member of Lee County Chamber of Commerce
* Member of Lee County Visitor Convention Bureau   
* Renting Sanibel Island private homes since 1999
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
 
Our website shortcut directory:
Website:               www.sanibel-international.com
Availability & rates:  www.sanibel-international.com/rates.html
Sanibel Rental Info:   www.sanibel-international.com/info.html
Useful Links:          www.sanibel-international.com/links.html
Sample confirmation:   www.sanibel-international.com/letter.html
About us:              www.sanibel-international.com/AboutUs.html
Where our houses are:  www.sanibel-international.com/map2.html
                      (dotted lines are beach access paths)