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1664-11 Real Estate, Commerce, & News THE CARL G. FISHER PROPERTIES MEMO TO La-. Carl G. Fisher DATE - ptemher 30, .. 1929_ FROM Peel Kuneehj„k SUBJECT 1.,,. 00..50.14e0Z a�— I have made another chock on storm damages this morning and have very little more to say than I gave you in a telegram yesterday. The damage is really negligible. The ferry boats rode thru the storm surprisingly well. The J. N. LUIMtJS suffered • a little damage to its guard rail rapping against and being pushed against the piling where it was tied. This is being repaired today. The DAN HARDIE suffered only by breaking one or two glass panes on the upper deck and the COLON, which we have mentally condemned a number of times, is riding the water as good as ever. 'y next stop was at the Flamingo where the chief damage is the breaking of glass in the dome. The steel frame is in perfect condition. Lee Appleget, as well as Er. Singleton, think we probably have enough glass of this type on hand to make the repairs. About 100 tiles went off the roof or ridge, which will not cost very much to replace. A few windows were broken in the kitchen. The cottages, the old ones as well as the new ones, went thru the blow with practically no water dripping in. A few coconut palms are down - only one is broken - and these can be reset. The buds of a few of them are injured and this probably will mean that the trees will die. Other shrubbery suffered more by loss of foliage and the driving of salt spray, but apparently will recover. I next visited the Boat Slips where ne dzrage whatever was done of any kind. The Slips are just as they were before the storm. I next drove up to the Bay Shore Golf Course, which has a great deal of water standing on it, but a sample of this water disclosed that it is fresh water and, therefore, will do very little dxna e to the groyne and fairways. The clubhouse is intact 'with no damage except a little water dripping in. At the Miami Beach Garden, or Auditorium, I noticed a window pane out and two of the temporary storm doors blaan cut. No other damage. At the Nautilus about eighteen window panes are out or cracked and one water spout is dorm. The radio towers suffered no damage and are as straight and per- fect as they were before. The aerial is down on the ground and Mr. Jay advises that it will cost about 125.00 to replace it. There is no damage to the expen- sive equipment on the inside of the building. One small window pane is broken and a little damage was done to one or two of the awnings. The cottages came thru wonderfully, the same as at the Flamingo. Practically no water came in. No windows mere broken, but a few screens were torn. A few tiles, not over 100 in all, are off the edges of the roof or copings. The shrubbery'sufferod less damage than at the Flamingo with the exception of the palm trues in the east front of the hotel. This was due to the fact that those particular palms received the full force of the northeast wind, the east wind and the south wind for nearly 36 hours. The wind velocity as estimated was never more than 60 mid. stp8rh h1 and the average probably less than 45, but by reason of these wings/Me Torce oP the wind was greatly increased, the same as water in a bottle neck, and the trees suffered not only from the direct force of the wind, but also from the terrific backlash as the wind struck the building. They were, therefore, protty badly -T . THE CARL G. FISHER PROPERTIES EMO TO Mr. Carl G. Fisher DATE September 30, 1929 FROM Paul Kunschik Storm damages SUBJECT v---- 12 - Continued whipped. Mr. Caldwell, the caretaker, and Mr. Hoorgor and I are of the opinion that it will be desirable to remove these coconut trees to another location where they can recover and move to the east front of the hotel other trees as we certainly want this entrance of the hotel looking its best the coming season. Tho King Cole Hotel suffered no damage except a few tilos off the ridge. Other damage was caused by water driven in thru the windows and some leaks in the roof which. have existed for sometime, some of which are very difficult to find. The new bungalows, which are still in the hands of the contractors, show a certain amount oy water seepage thru the flashing of the roofs and a certain amount of water driven in under doors which have no threshold and windows which were not fitted properly. These damages will have to be stood by the contractors and they will have to make some corrections in faulty construction. The shrubi,ery at the King Cole suffered practically nothing. A ferr fronds were broken off palm trees, but these were old fronds which probably would have been cut off anyhow before the hotel opened. GarrettHeath ,l coat. advises me that the only damage to your home was a gutter on the roof on the third floor, which was torn away and will have to be replaced. One small window pane was broken. A little damage was done by water at the boathouse, which caused some plaster to fall and there is a small leak in the roof of the house which vrill have to be repaired. The grounds show very little damage - a few fronds off the palms. Other shrubbery is somewhat whipped by wind and spray, all of which with reasonable care should recover very rapidly. The 51st St. Apartment Building suffered no damage except some water blown in thru crevices and the skylight, which was to be expected. Not one single plate glass in the shops was cracked. The La Gorce Golf Course is in just as fine condition as you. could possibly expect it, considering the amount of ,water that fell on it and the amount of wind. Trees that stood out in the open with no backlash of wind suffered very little. The clubhouse is in excellent condition. A little water was blown in, but nob enough to hurt. Miss Brenneman reports that the two houses in the La Gorce section, one on Alton Road and one on Bay Road, both furnished, have suffered no damage. The now houses on the bay front being built for Gold Brenneman and Earl Kiser as agents are still in the hands of the contractors and suffered a little water damage and a few broken window panes. Mr. Duffy and I inspected these houses before the storm and cautioned the contractors to make all windows fast. 1+e found a few of them loose enough to rattlo, which is always a dangerous thing in case of wind. A window which is securely wedged rarely breaks. The contractors will have to repair breakages and any other damage, which, however, is negligible. On the other side of the Beach our house on Pine Tree Drive, unfurnished, suffered a certain amount of water damage to the screened porch. Due apparently to a clogged drain there is about three inches of water on the concrete floor. Some THE CARL G. FISHER PROPERTIES AEMO TO Mr. Carl G. Fisher DATE September 30, 1929_______. FROM Paul Kunsehik SUBJECT ., agaS- - Continued water was blown in at the door at the head of the outside stairway, which seeped thru the doorway and caused the plaster to fall on the lower floor. The screen door was torn from its hinges, but wo find that this was probably due to the fact that someone forced an entrance thru the door and left the screen door unprotected. The 42nd S . Apartment at the polo barns shows no damage except a few screens blown in on the screen porches and possibly a little water damage due to water blown in thru crevices around the window sashes. The polo barns have lost part of their slate paper roof, but Fred Hoerger tells me that this roof was about due for replacement anyhow. The polo clubhouse is undamaged, but the grandstand has lost its roof, which blew over into Alton xoad. Score boards are down and the equestrian statue at the north end of the fields lost its head. I under- stand this head, however, was loose for some little time and might have been removed by children playing around there. The old laundry building came thru with practically no damage, just one window glass. Mr. Collins' home shows no damage except one awning on the apartment at the boat- house. His palm trees lost a few fronds. One palm tree will require straighten- ing and a certain amount of debris was —2 shed up over the bulkhead by the water, which will have to be cleaned away. The Montemare School lost a few of its slate paper shingles and a few of the screens on the east porch were bloom in and torn. The Boulevard Hotel lost four or five window sashes, one glass door and two metal down spouts. Frankly, it was a ridiculous thing to have put downs spouts on a building that high, but it would probably be much more expensive to run the drains down in the inside now than to replace the metal spouts, and we will probably recommend replacement as originally built. A few tiles were blown off the roof, altogether not over 25. i'iindows which did not fit did nothing to prevent a certain amount of water being driven in. Of the shrubbery just planted there this summer, one coconut palm is down - no damage - and can easily be reset. Tho enclosed tennis court doesn't show a scratch. I found only one small pane of glass in the transom broken, and I am inclined to think that this was broken before the storm because it is on the north end which did not suffer from the storm at all. Shrubbery, particularly bou^airvillea, had their leaves blown off, but can easily be replaced if they don't recover. The .Lincoln probably fared better than any of the others. There is no damage except to one of the palm trees in front which lost its top and probably can't recover. A few sections in the fenced enclosure were blown over and can be repaired at very little ccst. There are a number of leaks in the roof, which wore there before the storm and which Lee has not been able to repair on account of his time being devoted so much to the new buildings. Due to these leaks certain small patches of plaster have fallen and will have to be replaced. THE CARL G. FISHER PROPERTIES • AEMO TO Mr. Carl G. Fisher DATE September 30, 1q29 FROM Paul Kunschik SUBJECT storm damages — f4 - Continued The company's house on Meridian Avenue, partially furnished, has no damage except to some of the screening and a little water blown in thru crevices around the windows. The office building lost two window sashes on the fourth floor. These windows have always given trouble. They do not and never did fit properly. Even an ordinary, driving rain causes water to come in on that floor. It seems to me that we should find somebody that knows enough about fitting windows, if necessary with weather stripping, to protect this building. More than 35 bucketsful of water were mopped up off one floor, which is inexcusable. I am going to take it upon . myself to investigate weather stripping and I shall submit at the earliest possible moment an estimate of cost for installing weather stripping in this build- ing. On the seventh floor - your office - the doors in particular always permit water to be driven in, even in an ordinary rain and there certainly is someway to stop it. I have had several people around here tell me it can't be done. Personally I don't like this word it "can't" be done. There is a way to stop this from ordinary rains .and I am going to find out what it will cost to do it. During the boom daysthis organization spent a lot of money on expensive rugs and furniture and it is a crime not to protect them with ordinary precautionary measures. The Miami Beach Golf Course, leased to the City of Miami Beach as a municipal course, is in the same condition as our golf courses as to water standing. The city is today straightening up a few trees which were apparently blown over. The clubhouse is in excellent condition with no damage except to screens. 111 From the foregoing you will see that our damage is very negligible and I make the remark today that I am having a great deal of trouble trying to find enough damages to file claim under our tornado and hurricane insurance. The only properties covered by hurricane insurance are the five hotels and the Montemare School and under the present insurance there is a $100.00 deductible clause in,all the policies which means that small damages must be borne by the property owner. That being the case it looks as if the Flamingo and Boulevard are the only ones on which we will have damage big enough to file insurance claim. When you have to hunt for damages in • order to file a claim there is no better evidence than that that the storm touched us lightly. Mr. Hoerger is using all of his men for the next few days cleaning up the fronds that have broken off the palm trees and the debris that accumulated from various places. The same is being done by the caretakers at all the hotels who are using their men first to dry the rugs that are moist and those that are very badly wet are being taken up and exposed to the sunlight and aired. Those only partly wet are being lifted up and dried where they are. The caretakers then are cleaning up the debris agound the hotels and I believe by the middle of this week that all evidence of the storm will have been removed. During the summer the city planted two coconut palms in front of the office building on Lincoln Road. They had not had time to. take root in their new location and both of them went over. Today they are standing up, propped of course, as nice as ever, without any damage to them. , If there is anything more that you car© to mow about this s� (?) I shall be glad 1 1 to investigate for you and let you 'mow promptly.