I just received this from a friend in Orlando. I thought I'd pass it along. It does make me worry about Blackcatter who hasn't checked in yet by post,pm, or e-mail to my knowledge. If someone has heard from him, please let us know...xx..e

Hi!

We are both okay, though still without power -- and possibly no power until Saturday or longer.

The three big oaks in our front yard did not fall, but a very large
section of one of them is virtually covering our whole front lawn, and a smaller section is balanced precariously on the wires leading from the street to the house, so we have not ventured near either said limb.

On our street and the two streets on either side of us there must be
30 big oaks down -- about 5 or 6 of them resting on corners of houses, on garages or cars. Also, on same 3 streets there are 3 or 4 snapped power poles with huge transformers laying on the curbs. We drove around, as best we could, other nearby streets where the situation is the same. Basically you have to just back up and turn around because of trees across the residential streets. Now we just go out onto the major streets.

Couldn't find an open gas station for several days, nor ice. They
closed Harcourt Friday so I was able to stock up on water and ice right before it hit. We blew up the air mattress and jammed it into that tiny hallway between the bathroom and bedrooms, and the four of us cowered in there with flashlights and the radio as it went over us. It was hellacious -- 110 mile an hour winds. We could hear things clanking, crashing, thumping above the unbelievable ROAR of the wind.

Winter Park has a boil-water order for drinking water, but we have
plenty of that in bottles. It's been 90 degrees every day and with no A.C. the heat is the worst thing to contend with. I had bought a big mosquito net --the kind you hang over a bed -- to keep the dust off oil paintings I'm making -- so tonight we intend to take the air mattress out onto the back patio and hang the mosquito net over us and sleep out there.

Have been boiling water for coffee on the charcoal grill -- go out
periodically on the great ice hunt to repack the coolers. They have big semi trucks coming into neighborhoods handing out free ice. Harcourt was also closed Monday, so this is the first chance I've had to e-mail.

Winter Park was one of the hardest-hit suburbs of Orlando, and many
co-workers here got their power on in the last day or so. I think we'll begetting a generator tomorrow. The power company that services Winter Park had more than 300 of their big transmission towers knocked down, so we haven't even seen one of their trucks anywhere near our neighborhood yet. We fear that they mean the main power grid will be back up by Saturday, but once they come into our neighborhood it might be even longer...?

Well, we will think positive and hope for the best. We are fine and our house is fine and aside from some major tree expenses (which of course are not covered by homeowners insurance -- only if they hit your house) we will be back to normal before too long.

We thought we would rely on our cell phones, but too many cell towers were knocked down, so they didn't work after the storm and are still working only sporadically. We had only cordless phones in the house which, of course, plug into electrical outlets -- that was one thing I could have thought about before the storm but it didn't dawn on me. So when the stores opened up we went looking for regular phones that just plug into the jacks-- and of course there were none left on the shelves. We finally found one that a sales lady had stuck under the check-out desk. Even with it plugged in I've heard that people are having trouble getting through by phone.

It's hard to find hotel rooms that let you bring your dogs, and hard to find any vacancies, period. Some friends with power have offered to let us stay with them, but it's really less disruptive to stay in your own space as much as possible. And those cold showers feel pretty good in this heat!

We'll let you know how things go.
Love you guys!
S& L