Please allow us to introduce ourselves.
My name is Tim Gilligan, but everyone calls me
"Skipper" and this is my wife, Janis. Everyone
calls her "Mary Ann".
That's our picture over there at the top of the
left sidebar so you can connect a face with these
words you're reading and feel a little more
comfortable.
I know I always feel a little more comfortable
knowing what the person looks like that I'm
talking with when I can't actually see them face
to face and I guess everybody sort of feels the
same way.
Now, I guess you're probably wondering how we got
tagged with those nicknames.
Well, with the last name of Gilligan, you can
imagine the amount of teasing we've taken over the
years.
Anyway, last summer, after we took a direct hit
from Hurricane Charley, we became quite heavily
involved in the relief and recovery efforts in our
area.
That program was named "Neighbors Helping
Neighbors" and we helped an awful lot of people
that were much more unfortunate and worse off than
us and suffered a lot more losses than we did.
We not only helped our neighbors right here in our
own neighborhood of Ft. Myers Beach in Lee County, but we also traveled up to the
Charlotte County area to help those people up
there in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte.
It's only about 30 miles up Interstate 75 from us
here in Ft. Myers Beach. They got slammed a lot
worse than we did here in Lee County.
But, that's a whole nuther story that we can get
into a little farther down the road.
To get back to how we got tagged with our
nicknames, when the people that we were helping in
the "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" program found
out our last name, the word went out immediately
and spread like wildfire that "The Skipper" &
"Mary Ann" are here to rescue us!"
Everybody got a good laugh from that and it really
helped to relieve some of the terrible feelings of
absolute total loss and desperation that most of
these folks were experiencing.
I guess you could say we became "Instant
Celebrities" and everywhere we went to help out
however we could, people would recognize us and
stop what they were doing and and say, "Hi
Skipper, Hi Mary Ann, thanks for rescuing us" and
then we would all laugh a lot.
It also made us feel good inside to know that in
our own little way, we were helping these people
find a little something to laugh about in the
midst of all of the destruction and devastation
that was all around us.
We decided to create this
special section of our website as a direct
result of our experiences during the
historical Hurricane season of 2004 when the
state of Florida was slammed with FOUR major
Hurricanes in a matter of only six weeks.
And I hate to have to say this, but it's looking like we
are going to be in for another pretty hectic season
again this year.
We've already had five "named" storms in the first six
weeks of the 2005 Hurricane season! And TWO of them have
been major Hurricanes and made landfall in the Florida
Panhandle area!
This entire section is the results of the
combined efforts and resources of the
NBC-2.com First Alert Storm Team, the
editorial staff at the News-Press.com
(our local newspaper in Ft. Myers,
Florida) and us here at TeeJay
Enterprises.
This special section of our website was
compiled to help you prepare for this
Hurricane season which is now right here
(June 1 to November 30) in our faces and
we have no alternative but to "Deal
With It!".
Please do not misunderstand us, this
information is not presented to scare
you, or cause you to be unduly concerned.
We feel that the more informed you are,
the better you can be prepared and if you
find it necessary to evacuate the area
where you live, then you will also be
more able to do that and feel just a wee
bit more comfortable knowing that you
have done everything you possibly could
to protect your home, property, and
personal belongings the best you could.
We also feel that the information
included in this special section
pertains to not only Florida residents,
but also to residents in the Gulf Coast
areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, all of Florida from Pensacola in the Panhandle
all the way around to Jacksonville, and all the way up the East
Coast clear up to Boston, and
maybe even further up than that!
Who knows WHAT those Hurricanes will do?
Mother Nature has a tendency to do
whatever she pleases, whenever she
pleases, however she pleases, and doesn't
have the least bit of concern about how
it's going to affect any of us.
Janis and I have lived on Ft. Myers Beach since June of 1995 and we got
our "Baptism of Fire", so to
say, the very first summer we were here!
We had a major "Named Storm"
(A "Tropical Storm" Not a Hurricane) pass right by us a few
miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
Much
like the typical "tourist", we
went down to the beach to watch the
storm pass by us out in the Gulf.
Being totally inexperienced with these
kinds of storms, little did we realize,
the fringes of that storm were a heck of
a lot more violent than we expected.
As the torrential rains started coming
down, we made a flying dash for the car
and tried to leave the area.
As we were
sitting at the intersection waiting for
the light to turn green, we heard a
tremendously loud clap of thunder that
sounded like the whole world exploded
around us and all of a sudden, the power
transformers on the power line poles all
the way down the street started
exploding, one right after the other!
Needless to say, Mother Nature instantly
gained our absolute, utmost, complete and
total respect right then and there.
Now, when the weather guys start talking
about severe thunderstorms and issue
severe weather alerts, we pay VERY close
attention!
I learn REAL QUICK and I only have to get
hit upside the head ONE TIME with the
baseball bat for somebody to get my
immediate attention!
Some Links
You May Want To Add To Your
Favorites
The following links are what we
would consider to be the most logical places
to start seeking up to the minute
information on hurricane or major storm
disaster conditions on the Southwest coast
of Florida covering the six
county area of Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades,
Lee, Hendry, and Collier
Counties.
To give you a slightly
better idea, that's from Marco
Island in the South up to the
Port Charlotte area in the North.
These are the links to the
Internet websites of all three of
the major TV and radio network
affiliate stations and also our
local daily newspaper
(News-Press) here in Ft. Myers,
Florida.
News Press Newspaper --- www.news-press.com
NBC TV --- www.nbc-2.com
www.nbc-2.com/hurricane
ABC TV --- www.abc-7.com
CBS TV --- www.cbs.com
FOX NEWS --- www.fox4florida.com
During the onslaught of Hurricane Charley
on Friday, August 13th (sort of
makes you wonder about that old
superstition about Friday 13th, huh?) both NBC and
ABC combined forces and both
Chief Meteorologists (NBC's
Robert Van Winkle and ABC's Jim Reif) were both on screen in the
same studio at the same time.
When they both made the announcement about
10:30AM Friday morning that it looked like
Charley was changing course and heading
straight for us on Ft. Myers Beach, that's
when we decided it was time to head for the
hills.
We went to my son's house in San Carlos Park
(his house is constructed of concrete blocks
and is on a concrete slab) about 15 miles
inland from us.
We stood on his screened in patio (here in
Florida they are called "Lanai's" and don't
ask me why) but anyway, we stood there and
watched two tornados go over his back yard
and literally tear the tops out of all of
his trees.
Both tornados touched down in his neighbors
yard up the street (two houses away) and
totally destroyed their wood frame house and
garage and all of the landscaping in their
yard.
Okay, I'm getting away from the point of
this special section of our website.
I would strongly recommend if you would like
to keep as informed as possible when there
is a Hurricane threatening and you would
like to have access to the very same
information the National Weather Service and
all the local TV weather guys have, just go to
this page:
www.nbc-2.com/hurricane
We have found
that this website is THE most informative
and up to date as far as weather alerts and
storm tracking capabilities of ANY site on
the Internet!
Here is something interesting from Chief
Meteorologist Robert Van Winkle on the
NBC-2.com First Alert Storm Team I thought I
would pass along to you.
|
A Word On
Hurricanes |
Hurricane Season 2005 is likely going to
be an active one.
That's why we designed this special
place on our website for you.
Everything you need to prepare for and
learn about hurricanes is here.
I know everyone is looking at this
season with a little trepidation. And
that is certainly understandable.
After our experience with Hurricane
Charley last year we have every reason
to be a bit nervous.
But remember.... despite the predictions
for a busy season, they are only
predictions.
It's a best guess at what to expect.
We don't know where the storms will go
when they develop and there is no reason
to believe every one of them will head
right for us again this year.
So my advice to you is to prepare for
the worst and hope for the best. We live
in southwest Florida because it's a
great place to be!
Use the information on this page to get
ready for hurricane season 2005 then
relax, enjoy the summer, and keep tuned
to NBC-2.com for the best local weather
you can get. |
|
-
Robert Van Winkle |
When you go
to the website at: www.nbc-2.com/hurricane
you will see a blue box right in the center
of the page with a whole bunch of topics
listed in it.
To get to the satellite images and the
tracking charts, just click on the "NBC-2.com
Tropics Tracker" link in that box.
I'm telling you, you will be totally amazed
at the information about any storms or any
other kind of severe weather you will find
on just that page alone.
In the the top part of the page, you'll see
all of the updates, advisories, warnings,
etc. that are issued by the National Weather
Service (NWS) and the National Oceanics and
Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).
This is the exact same website that ALL of
the State and County Emergency Management
Directors, the local Meteorologists (Weather
guys) and even the so-called experts on The
Weather Channel use to get their
information.
This site will help to keep you well
informed as well as help you make a decision
as to whether or not you should head for
higher ground or stay at home and ride it
out.
In most cases, you will be as informed, or
maybe even a little better informed than
those so-called experts on The Weather
Channel.
So, the next time there is a major storm
threatening your area, go to www.nbc-2.com/hurricane
and click
on the "NBC-2.com Tropics Tracker" link and
actually see for yourself exactly what is
happening.
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
