Checking in after Frances

[Aurora63]

Hi everyone from southern Palm Beach County.

Things are slowly getting back to normal here. We just got our power back last night at about 8pm, it had been out since about 10pm on Saturday. Nice to have electric, you don't realize how dependent you are on it until it's gone!

From what I hear, there are still over 200,000 homes w/o power in this county. There are still many traffic lights out as well, which makes driving dangerous in some areas. Lots of people don't get the four-way-stop principal, or are just impatient.

Thankfully, there was not much damage in our area, aside from many trees having been uprooted and knocked down. I have some pictures, which I'll try to upload later. Our apartments came through fine, and no flooding. I think more trees would have made it had Frances not moved so slowly...treess are down everywhere here!

School is still cancelled, mainly due to the power issues, and now, preparing for Ivan. This is stretching into a very long, stressful vacation for me (I'm a teacher.)

And speaking of stress, you can feel it in the air...it had come down quite a bit as of yesterday, but now that the newspeople are saying that we may be visited by Ivan as early as Sunday or Monday...it's just too much. We are hangin in there, but I am really amazed that this could be happening again!

And Frances was just a Category 2! Thank God! I am praying very hard right now that Ivan dissolves somewhere over the ocean...that being impossible, that it at least weaken and hit an area with a small population.

Anyway, we are all still hanging in there, and hope to be done with all this hurricane garbage soon!

 

[JimB.]

Northeast Florida.

SIGNIFICANT power outages, mostly trees in lines.

I'm at day 5 with no power (&since I have a well, no water) at my house. About 25% of my county is still in the dark. FPL is doing well, but htey are stretched thin for people and parts. They came and cut the trees out of the downed lines at my house, so I am hopeful I'm within a day or 2 of getting electricity.

Some property damage, but not much. Some isolated bad hits, but mostly sheet metal (gas station soffits) and shingles.

All in all, the NE fared pretty well (except for the power thing), and hopefully a week from now we will just be thumbing our noses at Ivan.

I'm sick & tired of dropping sheets of plywood on my feet!!!!

& my kids need to get back to school!!!

 

[bsnyder]

We're in Tampa and we just got our power back on this morning.

We had very little problems on Sunday afternoon, from the northeastern winds as Frances passed about 20 miles to the north of us, but after she got out into the Gulf we began to get winds from the southwest and they were much stronger. I went to bed that night thinking everything was fine, and woke up at 2:00 a.m. to hear the howling winds and torrential rain. We lost power about 30 minutes later, as did many of the people in South Tampa. We also had widespread street flooding.

Kind of scary what a tropical storm heading AWAY from us did. The latest Ivan track is not something I even want to contemplate!

 

[Dax]

Central Florida...

Well we fared pretty well here as well. House is fine, neighbors houses, very minor damage. I had power for the majority of the storm. Some people just started getting power back yesterday, while some still without. People are now getting ready for the next one.

 

[bsnyder]

Originally posted by JimB.


& my kids need to get back to school!!!

Hope you get the power back on very soon, Jim.

My oldest son is a student at Stetson University, in Deland. They evacuated the campus last Wednesday evening, and classes are cancelled and the campus is shut down until at least Monday (no electricity, lots of trees down and some roof damage to the campus), but they are now talking about another week's delay, due to Ivan.

I just got off the phone with him. He and 8 friends were here in Tampa until last night, but they relocated when one friend's family got power back on at their house in Zellwood. They just wanted a change of scenery, I think. Anyway, he called to tell me the latest, about the possibility no school again next week, and he was actually upset. He asked how they could miss 2 1/2 weeks of the semester. I reminded him these are natural disasters, and we just have to learn how to cope.

 

[MouseEars4us]

Just sending prayers and pixie dust to all our "Hurricane hit" DIS friends...
We have lots of friends & family in Florida and Georgia ( Venice, Lakeland, Deland and Atlanta & Alpharetta)

You guys sure have had a rough go these past few weeks and we're hoping Ivan will not bring too much more to you all!


jenn

 

[Soupermom]

Just thought I'd pass along another update from Tampa, the downtown/Harbour Island area. My re-located sister lives there now and they faired very well with Frances. She lives on the coast of an island and except for a 6 foot tidal surge on Sunday, they have no problems to report. Never lost power! She said many of her co-workers just blocks away did lose power for many days, but somehow they lucked out with this one. I wish the same was true for all of you! Best of luck to you with your next unwanted visitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I tried to find a four-leaf clover, but this was the best I could do! )

 

[Aurora63]

Here's a picture from my apartment complex:

Hope it shows up!

 

[newholiday]

just heard MILs Barefoot Bay home has damage
carport = gone
front porch = gone
shed = gone
interior damage? havent heard yet

their friends in same neighborhood = house destroyed!

with the extra water - hows the mice, snake, bug situation?

 

[Buzzlvr31]

I decided to post in here as well. I'm doing very well since Frances is FINALLY out of Florida. The only damage that Frances caused here was that a tree got uprooted onto its side behind my screened-in porch, and the porch only received a couple of holes. Considering the damage that occurred in counties north of where I live, St. Lucie, Brevard, etc. , I feel VERY lucky!!!! I got power restored on Monday morning, thank goodness!!! Living without it for two days was just tooooo much!!!!!

Now to find out that Hurricane Ivan is on the prowl, and MIGHT hit FL as well, I am at my wit's end!!!!!

But, for now, I'm doing just fine!!!!!

 

[RitaZ.]

Here are two pics of the damage on 1 of our black olive trees. I have had one estimate so far (from a neighbor that owns a landscaping business) and she wants $800 to clean up the broken branches. Yeah, right! I have called 3 other companies and they haven't returned my calls yet. We lost power and it was finally restored Tuesday. Now with "Ivan" out there, I'm worried about the branches becoming projectiles if Ivan decides to come our way...

Today, I filled 8 lawn bags with junk/debris from the tree, we still have to clean up the other side of the yard and the back. I'm so tired of this, but at least our house in intact.

BTW, what you see here is the top of the tree hanging down, it's tangled among other branches.

 

[MB MinnieGirl]

I'm praying for you all that Ivan steers clear of Florida (and SC too for that matter - we didn't like Charley too much ourselves). Pixie dust and prayers for you all!!

 

[LindaG4458]

According to one of our neighbors, Grand Royale in Vero Beach suffered minimal physical damage. All the soffit boards blew away and one of the two carports blew down. Most trees are at least damaged if not destroyed completely.

We were going to leave for Vero Beach on Saturday morning to inspect our condo, deal with insurance if necessary, and get my husband's sand fleas out of the freezer (phew!!). The power has been out since last Friday night with no idea at this point when it will return. Those of us outside the city limits are served by FPL. They were expecting another 100 line crews sometime today to work in Indian River County. We hope that means restoration is within days, not weeks.

IRSEC.com recommends keeping plywood and all storm preparations up to date in case Ivan comes ashore. One possibility mentioned is that it might turn from the western end of Cuba and cut a path similar to Charley but further south. That would hit Vero from the other side!

We decided to wait until the Ivan situation is resolved, so will leave sometime next week. That is, unless another hurricane comes along!

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Glad you're okay!