Class Note 1964
The latest natural disasters—hurricanes, floods and wildfires—often cause us to reach out to classmates living in these danger zones to see how they are doing. In response to an inquiry I made of classmates in many of these regions, I heard from the following classmates. Bruce Cole writes that he and his wife, Harriet, who live in Naples, Florida, did okay during the hurricane. They evacuated and “when we finally got back home we had some very minor wind damage in the entryway soffit, no power for a few days and that was it! We were very lucky when the storm surge never developed as the western side of the eye wall petered out. Foxfire [their subdivision] did lose many trees but all three [golf] courses were playable within three weeks!” Carlos Ballantyne reports: “I actually had an idyllic time as I left Florida a few days before the crunch came and drove up to Thousand Islands area of New York State, where my daughter and granddaughters live. I made it for the fifth birthday party of the twins and stayed in perfect weather for two weeks before heading back down. My location, Hobe Sound, didn’t even suffer a power outage. My decision to leave was greatly aided by the windy.com weather app. People who attempted to leave in the days after I split Florida had horrific tales of taking four days to drive to Tennessee and hotels in Atlanta filled with Florida escapees. My girlfriend and I are moving to Sedona, Arizona, area. Other than all those doings, life has been uneventful. And at this time I am holding a reservation to Kathmandu, Nepal, for April for another six-week trip to the Mount Everest region.” Tony Lott writes: “Debbie and I live on a barrier island in the far northeast corner of Florida [Amelia Island]. In the last 11 months we have been hit by hurricanes twice [Matthew and Irma]. Luckily we came out reasonably well in both cases. In Matthew [October 2016] we completely lost our 180-foot dock on the Intracoastal Waterway along with assorted screens, fencing, etc. Insurance company refused to pay a dime. It is still only partially rebuilt. We did not stay for that one, but went to Debbie’s sister’s condo in Tampa on the other side of the state. We were lucky it came through at low tide. If it had come through at high tide we would have had about six feet of water in the first floor. For Irma, last month, I stayed while Debbie was in Ohio babysitting grandchildren. Only damage was the cupola and weather vane on top of garage, which ended up in our driveway—it’s already back up. I also lost a huge magnolia. I was without power for three and a half days. For Irma we had tornados bouncing all around our neighborhood, but luckily they skipped around our place.” I would love to hear from any others who experienced these natural disasters.
—Harvey Tettlebaum, 56295 Little Moniteau Road, California, MO 65018; (573) 761-1107; dartsecy64@gmail.com
