Hurricane Ike Alert

After an Emergency Meeting of the Board early this afternoon, a two page Hurricane Information Alert handout was distributed to all summer residents of the Park this afternoon. ( Please call a Board member if you did not receive one.)

Our manager Cheri Scobee prepared the information and called all the available Board members for this meeting. HORC will do everything possible to support the mandatory evacuation. Goodwin Hall will be locked and not accessible to residents after a mandatory evacuation has been called. Police will be notified of any residents who refuse to evacuate.

Food and Water are the responsibility of every resident who evacuates to the hotel on Busch Blvd with us, in the event of power failures and flooding. Do not anticipate that people will be running out for food during this event. This is not a picnic, nor a party.

So few people requested bus transportation, this year that the Board arranged personal accommodations for those few. As a storm approaches, do not expect the Office to arrange any transportation services for you at the last minute. Rely instead on your neighbors and friends. Our services have been arranged for weeks now.

We cannot stress this enough.....

Clean up your home and lot site! All statues, potted plants, wind chimes, lawn chairs, and decorative items will become missiles, and will damage homes. (We may have to remove some.)

Please follow the directions on the Mandatory Evacuation (page 2). If you have questions, please contact Disaster Coordinator Susan Dunphy (813-839-4992) or (813-917-8796). You can also call President Ron Herb at (813-839-8397) OR (813-416-9115). There is a form for you to fill out to let us know about your evacuation plans. Please fill out this form and return it to any Board member, or to the Office in the mail slot. We want to be able to account for every resident!

Stay alert! Follow the News Bulletins! Be ready to evacuate! Bring water and food.

At 5 pm today, Hurricane Ike appears to be heading south and slightly west of Tampa, hitting midweek. We have no crystal ball, and no one can predict the storm surges. Be prepared with an evacuation site, and food and water.

With all due respect to our Snowbirds: We love you and miss you, but this is not the time we need to hear from you. Please do not clog our phone lines with calls for weather information. Please follow this Blog or our local Tampa weather forecasts on http://www.channel10.com/ or http://www.wunderground.com/. We promise to keep you informed as soon as we can.