Cape Coral, FL. (Punta Gorda, Sanibel, Captiva: for rent, houses, buy)

[firemed]

[firemed]

[NYBill]

Cool, love the old car

[firemed]

Thats on the Old Edison Bridge
In Florida you don't shovel snow you shovel sand to get your car out. It won't melt.

[firemed]

Charlie was a little storm moving fast and did not have a storm surge. The Islands were lucky this time.

[V20]

Hurricane Donna was in 1960!! That was quite a while ago. I was on vacation in my first Cape Coral Yacht Club home during Hurricane Charlie. I was lucky - the only damage to my house was a 5 inch slash in the pool cage screen from a neighbor's roof shingle. After the few hours of high winds all I had to deal with was no AC for 6 days. I thought that would be a nightmare as I was in South Florida in August. I found it to be no problem at all (the summers are not as horrifically hot as many of us northerners would initially believe). We slept with the front doors open - no bugs. After Charlie, life may have been more uncomfortable for several days (for those without a generator).

The following winter, Cape Cod received a powerful blizzard that knocked out power and dumped 36 inches of snow. I was told it was the biggest blizzard since the 1880s. Now that was a nightmare. Without power there is no heat - pipes burst and homes are destroyed. Driving is not possible. Being outside in such weather is more than uncomfortable, it is painful at the least.

Terrible snow storms, ice storms, nor'easters and blizzards are fairly common in the northeast. I would imagine that every area in the country has it's natural disasters to deal with.

So if the last truly brutal hurricane to hit Southwest Florida was 47 years ago, I guess the locals should consider themselves luckier than the rest of us elsewere in the nation.

P.S. Massachusetts has also had it's share of devastating hurricanes (Cape Cod is brushed or hit by a hurricane every 5.62 years and the average years between a direct hit is 33.75).

[pslOldTimer]

Originally Posted by firemed

Donna did a job on Cape Coral and if you like I can post the pictures.

Did Cape Coral even exist during Donna? According to the city web site, the city was started 40 years ago, and was incorporated in 1970.

Also, the spoil from digging canals, whether muck or sand, is not swamp in and of itself. Swamps are low-lying areas. If you raise the swamp fith fill, it is no longer a swamp, because it is no longer low-lying. Whatever the fill is under the houses in Cape Coral, it has been compacted over the years and is exactly the same as the land under any other house in South Florida.

[NYBill]

Originally Posted by pslOldTimer

Also, the spoil from digging canals, whether muck or sand, is not swamp in and of itself. Swamps are low-lying areas. If you raise the swamp fith fill, it is no longer a swamp, because it is no longer low-lying. Whatever the fill is under the houses in Cape Coral, it has been compacted over the years and is exactly the same as the land under any other house in South Florida.

I couldn't agree more but didn't want it go any further then FIREMD stated.

Where I grew up you should of I saw plenty of marsh lands filled in and turned into a sewage plant and golf course, even made a new channel and this was right on the water.

Times and things change.

[firemed]

Originally Posted by pslOldTimer

Did Cape Coral even exist during Donna? According to the city web site, the city was started 40 years ago, and was incorporated in 1970.

Also, the spoil from digging canals, whether muck or sand, is not swamp in and of itself. Swamps are low-lying areas. If you raise the swamp fith fill, it is no longer a swamp, because it is no longer low-lying. Whatever the fill is under the houses in Cape Coral, it has been compacted over the years and is exactly the same as the land under any other house in South Florida.

Cape Coral was started in 1958. The Yacht Club and was not a city yet..


In the late 1950's two brothers, Leonard and Jack Rosen, began to transform a vast landscape of swamp, scrub, and pasture located across the Caloosahatchee River from Ft. Myers into the housing development of Cape Coral, Florida. They bulldozed acres of trees, dug miles of canals, built a network of roads, and laid out thousands of residential building lots -- for which they then needed thousands of new home buyers to come to purchase. One of the many ways they enticed potential residents to come over to the Cape for a looksee was to build a tourist attraction, Cape Coral Gardens, with hopes that some of the tourists it attracted would then buy a home and stay.
Cape Coral Gardens opened its gates in 1964 and included porpoise shows, a rose garden, animal exhibits, and Gunter Przystawik's "Waltzing Waters" dancing fountain shows.
As the city grew the garden's waterfront land became more and more valuable until the attraction was dismantled and the area turned into an upscale residential neighborhood. Waltzing Waters and some of the garden's other attractions then found a new home at Waltzing Waters Aquarama.

[firemed]

1965 Rose Gardens
After Donna no one wanted to touch Cape Coral but if they got you drunk and had you watch a show it was easy to close the deal. You just have to love real estate marketing !

If you like History on this area go to http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/flsgp/flsgpm...003_part2g.pdf