Saw this on I-75 returning from from Spring Hill today. Pretty much says it all. There were plenty of vehicles on the road apparently loaded with the occupants belongings, maybe all the material goods they have left.

Yesterday there was a gas rationing scare. A rumor raced through Florida that the state was going to limit gas sales to a maximum or $5. The lines at the gas stations we backed out into the streets as people raced to get their fullup before the noon start.

The governor had a news conference flat out stating there was no plan to ration, only to ensure the suppliers prioritized the evacuation routes to fuel the vehicles of those fleeing Ivan.

Needless to say everyone, I mean everyone, is on edge. Thankfully the latest update had Ivan's track about 100 miles off the gulf coast. With winds currently at 165 mph and hurricane force winds extending to 70 miles and tropical storm force winds to 185 miles we are not out of the woods.

The destruction caused by TS force winds here last week were proof of the power of these storms. But I'd rather be 150 miles from the center than 50 miles.

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Today after work (I went in early on my day off and got out at 9am) I went by our county government complex where it had been announced free water and ice would be distributed.

Two elderly ladies, 87 year old twins Flora and Florida, still live in our old neighborhood in side by side houses adjacent to our previous home. They, as well as the whole neighborhood, have been without power and water since Saturday. I visited with them Tuesday and they were coping with the help of Sam, a neighbor across the street who had a generator to provide power on a rotating basis, and a gas grill to cook up meals.

I thought I'd get some water and ice for the twins, when I arrived at the complex there were two semi-trailer units with a semi-circle of cars and trucks forming a wide arc around one side. The water was on the trucks, the ice had yet to arrive. I figured I'd get the water loaded and wait for the ice.

After taking my place in the arc, I saw a line of vehicles forming to receive their own water, and the two trukcers were already tired and worn. There was supposed to be help to distribute, but they hadn't arrived. So I did what anyone should have, but none else did, I got out of my Jeep and joined them to help pass out the water.

After a while several police officers arrived to join the two already there, and two of of them joined in and we had a regular production going. Thirty minutes later the volunteers arrived and we gradually transitioned the work to these young, rambunctous, full of energy kids.

After determining all was well and the ice wouldn't arrive for another two hours, I left to take Mrs. Grigsby and Mrs. Frazier their water. As I drove along I continued to be amazed at the damage wrought by this storm.

I arrived at Mrs. Fraizer's to find the power had come back on overnight and they were in much better shape both physically and emotionally. There are still water restrictions but Brenda, Mrs. Frazier's daughter, had already found some water. I left each a case of what I had brought and left thankful they had their power back.

Driving down the road I stopped by another friend's home nearby and as I drove through the neighborhood I was aghast at the destruction. There were trees and debris everywhere. This had been a beautiful area of majestic old oaks and nice, moderately expensive homes. It was now a mess. Many of the homes had received damage and people were hard at work trying to remove and clear the rubble.

Arriving at Bruce and Debbie's home I found they were not spared. A large tree in their back yard came down and punched a hole in the roof over their master bedroom. It wasn't a large hole but the rain had poured inside, down the inside of a wall and soaked the carpet. With no electricity to power a dry vac and the heat to incubate, it had shortly mildewed.

Their daughter, Megan, found her car damaged from the tree, windows broken and sheetmetal deformed. The damage to their home and car was only made worse by their insurance company who informed them that since the damage was hurricane related, a special clause kicked in and their deductables were now $2700.

In addition, if Bruce, who is very handy and build their home, did the repairs there would be no settlement. This was not an act of compassion or even customer service. Certainly the company is protecting itself and Bruce and Debbie should have known their policy better, but who woulda thunk?

As we talked, Megan told of another neighborhood not too distant where the destruction was even worse, the homes more expensive and the needed repairs slower. Then we talked about Ivan looming in the Carribbean.

As of this moment, the NHC has Ivan heading across Jamaica and Cuba, veering north-east through Key west, then veering again to a due north track...headed directly towards Ocala. Needless to say we are concerned.

I used to think I would be cool to be in a hurricane, to experience the awesome strength and power of this mighty force of nature. After we've seen the distruction of the relatively mild tropical force winds of Frances, I don't want any part of a hurricane, and Ivan is not just any hurricane. It's currently a Cat 5, gaining strength with barometric pressures of 923 millibars. That's very, very low and very, very powerful.

Ivan coming through this state on the heels of Charlie and Frances would make Andrew seem like a walk in the park. It's been forty years since three hurricanes hit Florida in a single season. I don't think three such powerful storms have ever hit within four weeks of each other.

We are praying Ivan dies in it tracks. We don't want it to miss and go on to hit another area of the country, we wouldn't wish that on anyone. Just let it die.

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Finally, a day that's more sunshine than clouds! There is progress being made with the power here, even as nerves fray. The power companies are making tremendous progress here, bringing back online thousands of customers. They are working round the clock putting in 12 hours shifts in a job that requires skill, concentration and often nerves of steel.

With the lifting of the clouds have also come a rising of the temperatures, and a rising of the tempers. Some of those who are still waiting are beginning to loose their cool, both figuratively and literally.

I've heard of a number of instances where desperate folks trying to get information or convince of their need found themselves knee deep in anger, butting heads with the very people they need to help them. I understand the frustration; anger will not hurry the situation to a conclusion.

There's been about 800 homes in Marion county damaged or destroyed by the winds and while many of the counties surrounding us have already received FEMA disaster declarations, we have not, yet. I'm sure it's coming, and so are those heading the disaster teams here, it's just a matter of time.

I drove down a street today where several nice, older homes were situated on large, beautifully treed acreages. On every lot at least one, and more often several of these 100 plus year old trees had fallen to the constant beating of the wind.

Most landed only on the grass or driveways, one squarely hit the end of a house causing severe damage. Another came down, landing on the longitudinal center of a compact car. The effect was as though a guillotine had hit it, driving the center of the roof to the floorboard.

These massive trees had be as matchsticks in the face of these relatively mild winds, as hurricanes go. Makes you realize the awesome force of nature, and the puny arrogance of men who would try to harness it. Also makes you realize how powerful God is. So powerful that He spoke it all into existence.

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We finally saw sunshine this afternoon. What a great sight! Many of the employees at work are without power, some experienced damage, but most are committed to getting the mail out.

As one carrier put it, "I'd rather be here working now with air conditioning than at home without it."

I visited our old neighborhood and they are all without power and have been told it will be at least Friday before it's turned back on. They are working together to share generators, neighbors getting out and being neighborly. Adversity has a way of bringing us together.

We got just over another inch and a half of rain since yesterday afternoon and the ground saturation is showing. A retention pond near us that was already over capacity is now overflowing into the adjacent street.

An area that was already under 18 inches to 2 feet of water is now under about 4 feet. We need a period with no rain for the ground to reabsorb the water. Hopefully that will now begin.

Ivan looks, at least for now, to be headed south of the Florida peninsula and into the Gulf. That certainly doesn't put us in the clear; at this early stage it could still go anywhere. But it gives us hope that we'll get a breather with the next one.

At least 2 of the in-law families have power back and the nieces and nephew have returned home. I'm sure that if not the kids, at least mom and dad are glad to regain some semblance of normality.

There's still a huge task ahead of cleanup in the aftermath of Frances here in this area, but we can certainly be thankful that our damage was limited to the degree it was. There are many other areas of Florida where the toll was much, much greater and it will be weeks, for some months, and for a few the rest of their lives trying to find that place we call "normal."

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I'm headed for work and things are calm here now. Yesterday we received about 2 and a half inches of rain and folks started to get out and survey the damage. While our neighborhood was spared for the most part, many were not.

Several reports of trees through buildings, across streets and so on. The retention ponds are full and overflowing into the streets. Power in many areas is expected to be out up to 14 days.

Many of the stores remained closed, and those who opened were running out of stock. Publix and K-mart were open but without resupply trucks were nearly out of stock and refrigerated stock had to be pulled from shelves since they had lost power for a while to the freezers and refrigerators.

The open resturants were jammed, most doing a limited business such as take out only, until they, too, ran out of stock.

The curfew is still in place, 8pm to 6am, to keep the streets clear, which is a good thing because there has been some limited looting of empty stores.

Some of our family without power came here yesterday afternoon and took showers, got a meal, caught up on the news, and shared their own news. Then the kids stayed overnight while their parents headed back home.

As I'm finishing up to leave for work the rain has again started. Here we go again.

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Overnight the rain continued to come down while the winds have slowly relented. Our rain gauge indicates just over 1 and three fourth's inches since I reset it yesterday evening. That makes for a total of about 6 inches for Frances.

Overnight we heard one electrical transformer "pop" with the associated intermittent loss of power. It immediately came back and we rolled over and went back to sleep.

This morning Karen mentioned that she had heard something go "plop" in the back yard and after steady looking we finally found parts of a couple shingles lying on the ground. At this time I don't know if they are ours or someone else's. My guess is they belong to some other home and ours, if we lost any, are downwind in someone else's yard.

In the front yard the rain soaking is taking it's toll. Our Drake elm, planted when we built the house 2 years ago, is listing heavily to the west, away from the prevailing winds. The picture above was taken after I shored up the tree, moving it about 30 degrees closer to vertical from its original position.

The ground is so soaked the stakes pulled up and the roots on the young, top-heavy tree are too shallow to hold it. I tried to set another stake and it just pulled up from the wet, weakened ground so I ended up tying it off the to bumper hitch of the Jeep for now. Later this evening, after the winds die down, I'll make another attempt.

Right now Frances, or what's left of her, is out in the gulf about 90 miles from us and we're experiencing winds locally of about 15 mph with gusts up to about 35 mph.

Closer to the storm, Cedar Key is logging 45 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph. With her forward pace at 11.5 mph is suspect we will continue to see rain through the day (the rain shield is enormous) while the winds slowly die down.

After that the damage assessment teams will head out, like they have already in the areas Frances' influence has left or all but. Then we'll know the real toll this storm has taken.

From my own brief observation, I suspect there will be lots of trees down, the victims of the soaking rains weakening the ground, like our own small tree. Of course with the downed trees will come power lines and loss of power.

Listening to the radio yesterday, there were many people in the area calling in reporting no power. According to the Ocala Star Banner there were 120,000 with out power in the area. Since then I've no doubt the numbers have increased. For more information locally, check the "Banner's" site.

As I finish this, another heavy shower is coming through to add to the rainfall totals, and ultimately the damage from this storm.

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Frances is now officially downgraded to a tropical storm with sustained wind speeds of 70 mph. Of course that doesn't mean we can all breath a sigh of relief and go on.

I went out this afternoon for a few minutes and drove a circuit of several miles to survey the damage so far. I was amazed at the damage inflicted by the relatively mild winds we've had.

Downed trees mostly, billboards (doesn't make me too sad) and I saw roof damage to an older mobile home. There's lots of debris on the streets and of course the retention ponds and storm drains are full.

There's especially a lot of water on the streets where the tree debris has clogged the storm drains preventing them from taking the water.

Seems like all the businesses are closed and there's little traffic on the streets. The police and sheriff are patrolling, mostly watching for damage and idiots (like me?) gawking.

I quickly put together a short flash montage of some of the damage I saw so you can get an idea of what can happen with tropical force winds. Images of Frances will open in a new window so you can easily return to this blog.

Our rain gauge is about full now at 5 inches so I'm headed out to clear and reset it for the evening. I'm sure we'll get plenty more before this is over.

As mentioned earlier, while Monday is a holiday, the Postal Service still works in some areas. I got a call earlier this morning and was going to have to go in and replace another individual who couldn't make it. Then this afternoon I got a call from my manager to say our plant in Gainesville was closing down due to the weather and probably wouldn't open until Monday evening.

So I won't be going to work tomorrow after all. I did hear on the news that many of the people in the area of the branch I work in are without power so most likely the Branch office is also with out. If that's the case, our division offices are sending generators down to provide minimal power for Tuesday if the grid isn't up by then.

Of course running on generator power will reduce our operational capacity, but one thing we've learned from Charlie is that when folks see that blue and white postal vehicle coming down the street it gives them a sense of continuity and well being. It's as if they feel if the Postal Service is out there, they, too, will be ok eventually.

All for now.

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2:00 pm update. We’ve seen some winds here at about 35 mph with gusts up to 55mph. The rain comes and goes with the rain bands. The electricity continues to pop in and out, but nothing that lasts more than a moment.

In the picture you can see the wind whipping the rain over the roof of the house on the street behind us. It looks like surf as if sheets up the east side then curls over the peak.

Our rainfall here is now just over 3 inches, a long ways from the predicted 10 to 20. I’m not complaining though, but I did think it a good idea to delay the irrigation this morning.

My brother-in-law across town lost power this morning and as far as we know is still out. My in-laws a couple miles away are currently ok. It’s been kinda interesting watching the weather radar and anticipating when the next squall is going to arrive.

I do know that proximity to the storm is important to the amount of weather one sees. We have a friend living where we used to in south Ocala and they are experiencing somewhat stronger weather than we are. The winds at The Villages, about 25 miles south of us and 17 miles south of our friends, are currently blowing at 32 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.

I know that’s a little spooky for some folks, but while it can cause some tree and power line damage, or some structural damage in weaker housing like mobiles, it’s generally not that significant. Usually the sounds of those winds cause more angst than actual damage. I took some sound recordings of the noise the wind makes (485 KB mp3) as it whips around our home and uploaded a brief mp3 file. I know, I know, but I’m just a bit bored here so I keep looking for things to do.

I keep a watch out doors with camera in hand just to see if there will be any events to photograph. I did miss the limb falling in the empty lot behind us this morning. It’s about 15-20 feet long and about 2 inches at the base. It's barely visible in the picture above just to the left of the large tree. Other than small bits of foliage and leaves, that’s all the tree damage I’ve seen here so far.

I’ve learned that one way to allay fear is to educate ones self. While I don’t claim to be any thing close to an expert, I’ve taught myself a fair amount about the weather and, like in any other area, knowledge is power.

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We're starting to see more of the wind and rain from Frances now at 10 am. Current winds are about 20+ mph with gusts to 37 mph. Our rain guage is registering just under 2 and a half inches, most of that this morning.

This picture was taken out our front door and while still images can't show the wind to well, it's shaking the tree tops pretty good. The wind's whipping through the trees and howling around the house while the rain pounds the sky lights like a drummer.

We've just started hearing electrical transformers popping in the distance, 3 or 4, as the wind and rain have picked up. We just had a brief interruption in the power and lost the internet connection briefly while writing this.

My guess is that will go on through out the rest of the day, these intermittent outages and potentially, as the winds increase, we could lose power for an extended time.

With that in mind, I'll keep the updates coming from time to time as circumstances allow.


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Saturday was a fairly quiet day here. It was a bit breezy and partly cloudy and for the most part the streets were much less busy than you would expect on a holiday weekend.

We got word from local law enforcement that despite the curfew, 8 pm to 6 am through Monday, we (postal workers) could be out as long as we had our ID and were in progress either to or from work. I guess even the law knows the mail must go through.

We'll be closely monitoring things through the weekend as this long weather event continues to unfold. Fortunately, for the PO, this is a holiday weekend so no delivery is scheduled for Monday, but our plant operations continue processing mail 24 hours a day and some offices, like ours, have a minimal crew on duty to facilitate incoming mail and lessen the impact on Tuesday morning.

Depending on Frances, some of those operations will be curtailed or shut down temporarily.

Last night it was quiet here with only a very brief shower mid evening, and little if anything overnight until 5 am. By then some rain squalls started in and the wind picked up. Local weather shows winds of 17 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. We anticipate things to deteriorate through the day.

About 6:20 am the weather service issued a tornado warning for our county when Doppler radar indicated one north of us about 15 miles headed southwest at 20 mph. That has now expired.

Currently, folks south and east of us are seeing much more weather from Frances as it moves across the state. While it's expected to weaken, as it moves northwest it will come closer to us and I expect we will see stronger winds and showers here. Still, we shouldn't see anything like the coastal areas have been experiencing.

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