Ajax USA, Ajax Orlando impacted by Hurricane Frances
07 September: Two Ajax institutions in North America were
impacted by Hurricane Frances this week. Ajax Orlando, the
official affiliate of AFC Ajax in the United States, was
completely shut down by the storm but avoided serious
damage. Ajax USA, in its turn, was shut down by the
storm and nearly suffered a much worse fate.
Ajax USA was unavailable for nearly four straight
days, the longest sustained down-time in its nearly
ten-year history. The massive storm virtually destroyed the
co-location facility where our webserver resided. As a
result, the Ajax USA website was unavailable until a new
hosting facility was found, late Sunday evening.
"We're really lucky that the server itself was undamaged and
we're grateful to the guys at Frontleaf for restoring the
system as quickly as they did," said Ajax USA Publisher Jim
McGough. "All things considered, we got through this relatively
unscathed."
Meanwhile, Ajax Orlando football club was also impacted
by Hurricane Frances, but managed to avoid significant damage
to its facilities, and no injuries were reported by staff.
Training had been suspended by the time the hurricane reached
the Orlando area, so no athletes were in jeopardy at any
time.
The storm did force the cancellation of the prestigious
Disney Tournament, scheduled for August 6 thru August 9 at
Disney World in Orlando. No word yet on whether the tournament
will be rescheduled.
Mark Dillon, President and CEO of AOFC, told Ajax USA that
the storm had caused some problems, but nothing too major. "The
office has been down for 6 days and we haven't been able to get
on the fields. The gas shortage likely means that kids couldn't
get to training anyway." Commenting on the state of affairs in
the city, he added, "Orlando looks like a war-zone with all the
downed trees, etc. But we're holding strong and will be
back to full strength by the end of the week, assuming Ivan
minds his manners and stays out of Florida."
Ivan, the third hurricane to threaten the region in as many
weeks, is now bearing down on the Carribean and may hit the
Florida coast early next week. (JM)
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