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Hurricane
Irma tore across the
state of Florida throughout
the day Sunday and on into Monday
morning (Sept. 10-11) But
thankfully, thus far, I haven't
heard of any our many domain industry
friends and colleagues being injured
(or worse) in the storm.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be
said of personal and/or corporate
property and belongings. I have
heard from several whose homes, cars
and workplaces were damaged. Some of
them are also still without power
and suffering in Florida's infamous
summertime heat - a situation that
could drag for several more days.
The
most extensive damage I've heard of
to date happened to domain registry
operator .CLUB's
office building in Fort
Lauderdale where half of the
roof was ripped off by Irma, leaving
the contents unprotected and
destroyed by the heavy wind and
rain.
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Image
from Bigstock
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Colin
Campbell, the Founder and CEO of
.CLUB Domains, said, “Literally, it
looks like a bomb went off. I
couldn’t believe the damage.
It’s truly a sad day for our
company. We feel for everyone
affected by this horrible storm and
we are very fortunate as all our
staff are safe.”
Above:
This aerial photo shows the extent
of the damage to .CLUB
headquarters in
Fort Lauderdale where
Hurricane Irma's winds sheared
off almost half of the roof.
Above
& below: Inside the damaged
building ceiling tiles fell to
the floor
allowing wind and and rain to come
in through what was left of the
roof.
The
building in the up and coming Progresso/Flagler
area has recently been approved for
funds from the Fort Lauderdale
government via the Fort
Lauderdale Community Redevelopment
Agency (CRA) to launch a tech
incubator under the brand Startups.Club.
The building was scheduled to be
renovated for completion sometime in
2018.
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Campbell
said, “Many .CLUB domain
names are used by Startups.
Creating a working facility
specifically to support
startups in the Fort
Lauderdale community seemed
like an ideal fit in tune
with our mission, and the
perfect environment to also
house our global corporate
headquarters. It is
unfortunate we have to
vacate the premises sooner
than expected, but the good
news is our plans to
renovate and open the
Startups.club facility
should remain on track."
"The
company will find a way
to operate during this
period," Campbell
continued. "We
are hoping
we can find |
Rendering
of what the .CLUB building
will look like when
repairs and renovation is
completed next year. |
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temporary space
near our damaged office. We
love the Progresso/Flagler
area. It’s a young
creative community with a
real fun vibe.”
While
.CLUB's corporate offices
were in the path of Irma’s
destruction, the company’s
technical platform and
servers are located in Virginia
and were not affected
in any way. The company
currently employs 17 people
and has been working closely
with a few Fort Lauderdale
startups who will also now
need to find temporary
facilities until the
building is repaired and
re-constructed. |
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