Hurricane Wilma Update

I know that many of you are out of town and concerned about the Olympus and your condos. We are making progress. 

Thanks to the efforts of the city and the volunteers from all over the country the roadways are being cleared and the power is coming back on. Our power was restored at about 3 PM on Wednesday but many businesses and buildings in Hallandale are still in the dark. It is predicted that all of Broward will have power by November 22nd.

Our staff is working diligently to keep everything running normally. There will be repairs that will need to be taken care of and some condos suffered broken windows and sliding doors. We are asking that those of you who are out of town have a friend or family member check your condo for you. The notice below that was posted throughout the buildings will give you additional information. 

All in all we are in good shape and most of us are smiling again!!

There will be further updates and some photos posted on a special page very soon.

Be Well

Sue Ward 

We have, all in all, been extremely lucky. Hurricane Wilma has left her mark on the Olympus but we have to count our blessings that as of Wednesday evening we have electric power back on. Most of Broward County is not that fortunate.

A brief rundown of where we are right now.

ELEVATORS While we do not have full elevator service in the A and C buildings the company that services them is coming to work on them…they are expected today but no one can guarantee that.

OFFICE AND STAFF The office is open today and will be running with volunteers only on Friday. The computers are not up and running yet and we have been unable to reach the computer technician as yet. On Monday we hope to have Pam Parsons back in town to help us .The staff that works in the office, in maintenance, engineering, valet, pool and security have no electric or water at home at best and some have damage to their homes and must take care of that. The other problem is finding gas for cars just to get to work.

MANAGEMENT AND THE BOARD As most of you know we have just agreed upon the new managers contract at the last board meeting and as of this afternoon the contract has been signed. The new manager has given notice at her current position and will be with us soon. She will be reviewing our documents, rules and regulations, bylaws and budget prior to beginning so that she will have a head start when she gets her to begin an unbelievable task.

The board members that you have on the property currently are Susan Ward who will be assisted by Bobbi Goodall and Morris Keil. Stuart Scherline, who took his parents out of harms way on Tuesday afternoon, will be returning to be here for us as well as of this evening. Fernando Vazquez will help as he can but as a city employee he has had his hands full at work in Miami. The balance of the board will not be back in town until the 5^th of November.

BUS SERVICE The Olympus bus will be running as long as we can get gas for it. There will only be runs to Winn Dixie and Publix for right now so that you may restock your refrigerators.

POOLS and BAR-B-QUE Stanley has cleaned up the pools about 95% and the heater is now running in the large pool. He is working on the A heater. (At least we can relax a little !!) The barbeque was a savior for many of us during the last two days and continues to be operational. Go meet your neighbors….

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT Structural was on site yesterday and today cleaning up most of the debris. We used their fuel to maintain our emergency generators so they will need to replenish it to really get back to work but it appears the project did not suffer too badly other than the obvious trees and shrubbery and some damage to fencing on the new tennis courts.

ROTUNDA The doors to the building were blown in and the roof sustained additional damage over and above what there was from Katrina. There were also large glass window broken by the gym. Please do not go to the Rotunda. We will be having someone come to assess the damage and repairs necessary.

ADDITIONAL INFO There was extensive damage to two apartments in the C building as well as several units with broken windows and sliding glass doors. We are compiling a list of apartments with damage in the office. If you have damage please put it in writing and be sure to provide your name, unit and building number as well as a contact number and bring this to the office. The Olympus is not responsible for repairing damage to your unit in most cases. Please contact your insurance company and if possible get photographs of the damage.

THANK YOU There is really no way to adequately thank the staff members and volunteers properly in this note but I will mention just a few for now:

Our Chief Engineer Cos who lost his own apartment has been here doing an unbelievable job of keeping this place running.

Howard Chimberoff who spent endless hours working on getting us additional fuel for the emergency generators.

Those residents from the A building who ran up and down 14 flights of stairs for two days to let people know what was going on and to bring them ice and water ..Maureen Henry, Joy Russell, and Jane Blackmore.

Thank you all for your continued patience in this ongoing situation

Sue Ward

10/27/05

the olympus association, inc.

A Condominium             

500 Three Islands Blvd.* Hallandale Beach, Florida 33009-2887. (954) 456-8886- Fax (954) 455-1310

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  August 26,2005

Dear Unit Owners,

I am writing this letter to keep you informed as to what has transpired, at The Olympus, during our last Hurricane. Katrina started as a storm, suddenly changed to a hurricane and headed straight for Hallandale.

Cos Romero, our building engineer, stayed on the property all night with four of our employees. We were very fortunate to have them here all day and night, thirty hours straight. Due to the foresight of the construction company and our employees there was no water intrusion in the garage. Every crack was sealed and the garage was patrolled all night.

There was some tree damage. Many of our huge trees were uprooted and are currently being removed from the property.   There was a leak in the library and the fitness room, when the hurricane damaged the Rotunda roof. There will be a crew of men covering the roof to stop the rain from dripping into parts of the rotunda. We will have employees from the housekeeping department, at work on Saturday, so they can dry the floors in the rotunda.

All in all, we are all quite fortunate that we sustained heavy damage during this hurricane. I would like to thank Cos, Nicholas and all our employees who stayed, at the Olympus, all night, to kept us out of harm's way. I would, also, like to thank our pool staff for working on Friday to set up the pool area.

Sincerely,

Gail Schneider