It’s 6:30 pm and with evening approaching Jeanne is leaving us with only diminishing winds in her trail. We've seen about 6 inches of rain in the past 24 hours and plenty of short, intermittent power "blips," but that appears to be the extent of things for us personally.

In the area I'm sure there are many without power, one of the major suppliers, Florida Power, is reporting at mid-afternoon about 600,000, 18,000 in our county alone, without electricity. If Frances was any indication, my guess is there are about 30,000 in Marion County without power.

The winds are diminishing in strength but remain gusty. Currently they measure in the 15-21 mph range. Out on the coast at Cedar Key they remain strong in the range of 30+ mph as Jeanne heads north towards Valdosta, GA where winds area already blowing at 26 mph.

I'm glad this "event" is essentially over and our community has come out of it relatively unscathed. Sadly, other areas of the states cannot make that claim.

My brother-in-law, Tom, and his wife Janna, in Lakeland have reported a large oak in their front yard is split with one part leaning toward the street, the other towards their home. They need wisdom in dealing with this and protection from the potential damage should it fall their way.

The rest of the family, while collecting loose shingles and debris, is doing fine and all have power as of the last time we checked.

Thanks for visiting, Jeanne. Please don't send any more friends our way.

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