Jeanne damage updates from FL
Posted on Sun, Sep. 26, 2004
Hurricane Jeanne damage updates from Florida
MIAMI HERALD STAFF
STUART - `Everybody is tired'
Updated 11:20 p.m.
At the Ramada Inn Stuart Hotel, they're doing the happy dance. The power came back on about two hours ago and outside, the weather looks like a ''regular night,'' said Nat Lane, front desk manager.
``It was rough but we got through it. We were already weakened by [Frances'> but this time the power came back more quickly at least.''The fatigue has set in for storm-weary Stuart residents.
''Everybody is tired,'' Lane said. ``We're going to bed.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Sick child whisked away between hits of the storm
Updated 9:18 p.m. Sunday
STUART -- Jeanne's wide eye proved fortunate for one Stuart child.
The 10-year-old boy, who was in a shelter with his mother, began suffering the severe abdominal pain that comes from acute appendicitis as the hurricane descended on the city. 911 was called, but emergency vehicles couldn't respond until the first eyewall passed over.
''As soon as the eye hit, the emergency personnel took off and got him and his mother and brought them back,'' said Dr. Mark Beatty, a general surgeon at Martin Memorial Medical Center.
Beatty and his medical team whisked the boy into the operating room, performing an emergency appendectomy. Power had been out for hours, and only the generator kept the lights on.
''The only danger was if the generator went out, wewould have been operating by flashlight,'' Beatty said. ``Which I did once, in a hurricane 20 years ago.''
They finished the half-hour operation just as thesecond eyewall hit.
The boy is recovering, and will likely go home onMonday, Beatty said.
`It's not safe yet'
Updated 8 p.m. Sunday
MELBOURNE -- In the Suntree area of Melbourne, residents Rosemary and Fred Roeper are nursing a leaky ceiling from when Jeanne pummeled through Saturday evening.
''We've had some roof damage and our door screen was ripped clear away,'' said Rosemary, who believed the winds to be at about 110 mph at their worst.
By Sunday evening, the winds had died down, but she still hadn't gone outside.
``It's not safe yet. We can't collect the roof shingles until the [threat] is over.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Frightened elderly at trailer park
Updated at 7:45 p.m. Sunday
AUBURNDALE -- ''We got through it,'' said Cindy Whitt, a resident and manger of the Fish Haven Mobile Park, who reported a lot of minor damage throughout the 70-trailer complex.
''I've got roofs off. I've got trees down. I've got wires down. I've got carports down. I've got quite a lot to deal with,'' Whitt, 51, said. ``But it could have been worse. A lot of people have it worse than we have it.''
Only about 10 residents stayed, despite the mandatory evacuation order.
``They had a bad night. Especially the elderly. They were really scared hearing the trees cracking and the wind howling. They wished they left but, by the time they were convinced, they were already stuck.''
Not Whitt. ''I'm not stupid sitting here.'' She stayed with family -- and was thinking at 7 p.m. that maybe she went home too early.
''It's pretty damn windy still,'' she said in a telephone interview and a Herald reporter could hear a crashing sound in the background.
''I just heard something go, like part of a carport or something. Whatever it was, it was pretty loud,'' Whitt said. ``It's [the storm] still going pretty good.''
-- ELAINE de VALLE
Communities' image taking a hit?
Updated at 7:30 p.m. Sunday
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Representatives of the fast-growing coastal towns are sharing the tourism industry's concerns about the damage the these rapid-fire hurricanes are doing to the state's image as a paradise.
''According to data just released by the Census Department, we're the second-fastest growing community in the country,'' said Ed Cunningham, spokesman for Port St. Lucie. ``We have 5,000 building permits outstanding, then this happens. We are hoping it doesn't discourage the building process.''
Frances passed right over the city, which then suffered through a remnant of Ivan that dumped more rain than Francis' direct hit, Cunningham said.
''This has been unbelievable,'' Cunningham said.
Preliminary estimates of the damage caused by Jeanne indicate that it will equal or exceed the $144 million caused by Francis, Cunningham said.
''Our people are driving around, making rough visual assessments, but the problem is when we see damage, we can't tell if it's new, or old stuff made a little bit worse by this storm,'' he said.
The city's 122,000 residents all lost power during the storm, and an estimated 98 percent are still without electricity on Sunday night.
The Hampton Inn, at 155 SW Peacock Blvd., lost part of its roof and was declared uninhabitable by the city's building department, Cunningham said.
-- CASEY WOODS
Prayers in the darkness
Updated at 7:24 p.m. Sunday
FORT PIERCE -- Ten congregants at Jesus Christ Prayer Band at 521 North US-1 in Fort Pierce spent Sunday afternoon praying in the dark.
Co-pastor Valerie Wright said although they did not have power, the church fared pretty well.
''It was so scary last night,'' she said. ``All we heard was boom, boom, boom in the church.''
The church was shelter to those congregants who were evacuated from their homes. Some slept sporadically throughout the night, others prayed on and off all night, said Wright.
During the night, Wright said she saw debris flying around everywhere, and the church's air condition unit even blew off the roof.
''From the sound of things, I thought it would be a lot worse,'' she said.
While they waited out the storm the congregants found solace in praying, reading the bible and ministering to each other.
''We were blessed,'' she said. ``We have a lot to be thankful for.''
This morning the group ventured outside and saw boats at shop across the street overturned, trees on cars and steel debris all around.
Wright said that from what they saw this storm was worse than Hurricane Frances.
-- CARLI TEPROFF
On the night shift, then relief
Updated at 7 p.m. Sunday
LAKELAND -- Tim Franks, a veterinary technician, had just gotten home from a hectic day at the Cleveland Heights Animal Hospital in Lakeland about midnight Saturday when he got a call from the woman who took over his shift.
''One of the girls was frightened about her kids at home with her husband,'' Franks said. ``She has a brand new baby, and asked me to cover her shift.''
He was back at the clinic at 3 a.m. ``It was just starting to blow then.''
The animal hospital lost power about two hours later.
Luckily, there weren't many patients at the clinic. Most people made sure to pick up their pets Saturday if they could.
When Franks ventured outside later Sunday afternoon to check out the damage, he said the clinic fared pretty well. ``Some trees fell around us. A few tile slates off the roof. We were lucky.''
Second stroke of luck came about 6:30 p.m. when the power returned.
He said he expects to find very little damage at his home in the Grove Park neighborhood when gets off about 10 p.m.
``A friend went by and said I only lost a privacy fence so I'm lucky. There was no other damage that he could see.''
The friend told him he saw lots of trees and power lines and street lights down along the way, but nothing worse than that.
-- ELAINE de VALLE
At Fort Meade third time's almost a charm
Updated at 7:05 p.m. Sunday
FORT MEADE -- The Salinas family spent the night waiting out the hurricane at their business, the La Frontera Mexican Restaurant in Fort Meade, Polk County.
They didn't open for business because there was no power -- in fact, the only place with power was the Value King grocery store -- but they were there because they felt the building was safer than their home, said Javier Salinas, the eatery's owner.
''Even so, it sounded like a train was passing over the roof. It was very frightening,'' Salinas said.
He and his wife, his daughter and son-in-law, five grandchildren -- ages 2 to 13 -- and six friends cowered in fear at the height of the hurricane Sunday morning.
''Nobody could sleep because everyone was so scared,'' Salinas said. 'We were all very nervous. The kids would say, `I feel like I want to cry,' and the adults would say, 'Well, you know what? So do we.' ''
Early Saturday afternoon, Salinas and his son-in-law took went to their homes to ensure that they had withstood the force of the storm and were happy to find little or no structural damage. The drive was fraught with worry as they passed roofs on the road that had been blown from someone else's home, Salinas said.
''There are some roofs that were lifted and blown away and some trees laying across power lines, but I didn't see any more damage than that,'' he said.
At 6:30 p.m., it was still raining and the winds had picked up enough so that the family didn't feel it was safe yet to return home.
Salinas said nobody at his restaurant drank during the storm, ''so that we would all be of sound mind if something happened,'' he explained.
''The bottles of tequila are going to be opened tomorrow to celebrate that nothing happened,'' he said.
-- ELAINE de VALLE
Flooding, trees down in Polk County cities
Updated at 7:02 p.m. Sunday
POLK COUNTY -- Polk County residents in cities like Bartow, Winterhaven and Auburndale reported fallen trees and utility poles as well as flooding Sunday afternoon. There were no reports of deaths or injuries.
John Smith, 26, of Bartow said most of the trees in his neighborhood were already weak thanks to previous storms. Many trees around his neighborhood are half bent, he said, but none damaged the homes on his block.
''The power went out for about 30 seconds in the middle of the night,'' he said. ``So really we haven't seen anything bad because we live in a fairly new neighborhood where all the houses are up to code.''
Smith, however, wasn't so sure how his parents might have fared in their Winterhaven home. He said he hadn't been able to reach his parents since Friday.
'When I try to use our Nextel cellphone I get an `all circuits are busy' message,'' Smith said. ''And they only had portable phones in their house, which I don't think are working either.'' Unlike Smith in Bartow, 62-year-old Edna Smith of Winterhaven has been without power since 7 a.m. In addition the vinyl siding on her home was ripped off, she said, and neighbors have complained of flooding.
Afraid remnants of the storm might still be lurking, she hasn't ventured outside much she said. Instead she's been listening to the radio and doing crossword puzzles.
''I have a lot of anxiety,'' Smith said. ``But it could have been worse.''
D.B. Ballinger, 83, of Auburndale said his home had been spared by Jeanne too. The most damage he has seen around his neighborhood have been broken tree limbs, he said.
''This storm brought a lot of wind and rain,'' Ballinger said. ``We got some limbs blown off, a lot of leaves blown off, but no major damage.''
-- IDY FERNANDEZ
Bush asks for standalone aid for hurricane relief
Updated at 6:58 p.m. Sunday
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush, along with U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, called on federal officials to keep a federal aid package for Florida separate from any other legislation. The state already has started with a $2.5 billion
This week, Congress will consider $3.5 billion for beach renourishment, rebuilding at NASA and FEMA assistance money. They expect to add more money for Ivan and Jeanne, as much as $10 billion. But there is some concern that Florida's aid package, just a month before the election, will become a catch-all bill for pork projects from other parts of the nation.
''This is so dramatic, this impact on the state,'' Bush said in Stuart, as he visited the Martin County emergency operations center. ``Make it be standalone, make it be bipartisan.''
Bush started his day at a shelter in Pensacola, where he attended church services and then flew to West Palm Beach. From there, he drove north and made stops at the emergency operations centers in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties. The governor was ending his day at home in Miami.
Bush said it was hard to gauge the worst damage from Jeanne, partly because winds were too heavy to go up in a helicopter and he spent much of the afternoon driving from place to place on the interstate. But Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River were clearly hardest hit in this storm, round four of the historic hurricane season.
No deaths have been reported as a result of Jeanne.
''All took more than they wanted, and all the damage in the three counties is significant,'' Bush said. ``It's like saying, which child do you love the most?''
Bush thanked emergency workers and promised quick relief aid in the form of FEMA disaster recover ice and water today. Crews with supplies were already on their way north from Homestead, Bush said.
Bush experienced the full effect of the storm in Vero Beach, clearly the hardest hit of the three counties. During his remarks at a news conference in the emergency operations center, the generator failed and the lights went out. Bush rolled up his sleeves and continued in the dark. He also touched on the short-term impact to tourism, but suggested that the post-hurricane building boom would be a boon to Florida.
''In the long term, this state will not only survive, it will rebound. It's a resilient place full of incredibly talented people,'' Bush said. ``A year from now, in spite of what's happened in the last six weeks, we will be stronger and better because of what we've been through.''
-- ERIKA BOLSTAD
`I don't know if I could rebuild again'
Updated at 6:45 p.m. Sunday
VERO BEACH -- Just about midnight, John and Sharon Jarvis heard sound audible even above the howl of Hurricane Jeanne.
The tarps and plastic they'd so carefully put on the roof after Hurricane Frances three weeks ago suddenly let go.
''It sounded like the house was ripping apart,'' said John Jarvis, a car painter who stepped out into a protected porch to see what had happened. ``I saw it flopping in the tree there until it shredded.''
Immediately, water poured between the walls and dripped into nearly every room in the house, damaging furniture and clothes that had been spared by Frances as well as a new bed given to one of the Jarvis three children just this week.
Sunday afternoon, a light rain fell as they climbed down from the roof wondering what to do next. Today they'll hunt down more tarps and plastic and dry out the house.
''You feel like you're being punished,'' Sharon Jarvis, a part-time church nursery manager said of the double whammy slap by Frances and Jeanne.
''It is devastating,'' she said.
''It held up. It kept us alive,'' Sharon Jarvis said of the house.
Of the situation: ``It's just aggravating.''
Indian River County officials say thousands of homes and business throughout the Treasure Coast were further damaged Saturday and Sunday by Jeanne that lashed to city with 120-mph winds and torrential rain.
Mobile homes were also very hard hit, said Nathan McCollum, emergency services coordinator for Indian River County.
Nancy Scholz' was one of them.
Gusts of wind nosily moved ten-foot strips of aluminum along the road as Scholz carefully stepped over debris en route to her heavily damaged mobile home in Fairlane Harbor.
She stepped over piece of siding covering a large Maryland Blue Crab washed in from the Indian River that flooded the street. A yellow pair of kids swimming goggles floated in the scummy water.
''I'm 73. I can't go through this any more,'' she said. Saturday night she stayed at WalMart where she works part-time. Sunday she wasn't sure where she'd sleep.
Like many, Scholz saw Jeanne finished what Frances started. Her mobile home was damaged, but not heavily by Frances. But Jeanne may have put it under.
''I am just sick to see it,'' she said of the caved-in mirrored walls living room when she returned Sunday to pick up her check book and clothing. Water poured in during the storm.
''I don't know if I could rebuild again,'' she said.
PHIL LONG
For medical center, a kinder, gentler storm
Updated at 5:50 p.m. Sunday
STUART -- Hurricane Jeanne was kinder to Stuart's Martin Memorial Medical Center than its sister Frances was -- leaving hospital administrators grateful and relieved, considering the institution's operations are still crippled by the damage caused by Frances.
''Our medical center fared much better through Jeanne than through Frances,'' said hospital spokeswoman Lisa McCluskey. ``We had some minor water damage from the spots on the roof on areas that were not yet water-proofed after the rebuilding, but not nearly as bad.''
The medical center, which is located at 300 SE Hospital Ave., lost the use of four elevators during Frances when the hurricane blew away the penthouse that housed the machinery. The damage prevented the hospital from using floors 2 to 6, which cut their available beds from 236 to 52, McCluskey said.
The center rebuilt the penthouse and on Friday had received approval to bring one of the elevators back into use, but delayed it because Jeanne was on its way.
''We hope to open it on Tuesday, because the longer it takes us to get back the heavier the losses,'' McCluskey said. ``These storms have had a significant financial impact and a complete disruption of many of our operations.''
About 40 patients rode out Jeanne in the hospital, including one 10-year-old boy suffering from appendicitis who was brought in an ambulance from shelter.
''One of our surgeons had to perform an appendectomy in the middle of the storm,'' McCluskey said.
-- CASEY WOODS
Damage limited by Frances' wrath
Updated at 4 p.m. Sunday
FORT PIERCE -- Tim Allen returned to his restaurant, Allen's Diner, in Fort Pierce at 1:30 p.m. today and was pleasantly surprised.
''We thought it was going to be much worse,'' said Allen, who rode out the storm at his daughter's house in Vero Beach. ``But there really wasn't much else to be knocked down because of Frances.''
Allen, who took the 30-minute trip from Vero Beach to Fort Pierce with his son-in-law, said that they saw a lot of flooding, roof damage and at least eight streetlights down on there way.
''After seeing all the damage, I was scared,'' he confessed.
The diner, located across the street from the ocean, had some minimal structural damage, but all things considered, he said, it wasn't bad. They did not have power or water as of Sunday afternoon.
Allen said that this time they were in better shape than after Frances, which shattered two windows, blew down signs and ruined about $10,000 worth of food and now has refrigerators and coolers fully stocked with at least five days' worth of food.
''We are trying to get a generator so that we can save the food, but there aren't any,'' he said. ``We have tried everywhere in Florida. Now, I am hoping someone I know in Biloxi can get me one and bring it down here.''
CARLI TEPROFF
Longwood Medical Center fares well
Updated at 2:55 p.m. Sunday
Longwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute, at 1700 S. 23rd St. in Fort Pierce, has a lot to be thankful for, said Public Relations Director Beth Williams.
''This was definitely a significant storm event, but luckily we are in fantastic shape,'' said Williams.
The 345-bed hospital had 1,000 people and 86 caged pets riding out the storm.
''It was definitely a full house,'' she said. ``Everyone was happy that this was a lot faster than Frances though.''
Williams said they lost power about about 8 p.m. Saturday and lost water at 4 a.m. this morning.
''We are well prepared with water that has been stored and generators,'' she said. ``We have no intention of having to transfer patients.''
Outside she said, it is nice and breezy and hard to believe that a category 3 hurricane just passed.
She said that the hospital suffered more structural and tree damage from Francis and Jeanne's fury only brought a few trees down and leaky spots in the roof.
-- CARLI TEPROFF
Lake Worth restaurant owner's business intact but home damaged
Updated at 2:35 p.m. Sunday
LAKE WORTH -- Nature's Corner in Lake Worth will be open tomorrow for business, the restaurant's owner was happy to report. A brief power outage and the loss of an awning, were all the damage the building sustained, said owner Carol, who declined to give her last name.
Her home did not fare as well, however, when a tornado touched down and ripped off the screen enclosure around her pool, she said.
She was on her way home to pick up some clothes and assess the damage.
-- ALEXANDRA ALTER
Pembroke Pines residents feel relief
Updated at 2 p.m. Sunday
PEMBROKE PINES -- Pembroke Pines resident Kim LaFauci is relieved Hurricane Jeanne has passed her by. At about 10 p.m. Saturday, she was getting nervous.'We had a lot of palm tree branches hitting our windows; my daughter yelled, `Hurricane Jeanne is knocking on my window!' ''
But overall, LaFauci said it wasn't bad.
``I was here for Andrew, the devastation. It could have been a lot worse.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Not going anywhere in Melbourne
Updated at 1:30 p.m. Sunday
INDIAN HARBOR BEACH -- Resident Darlene Powell said conditions now in Indian Harbor Beach are ``very, very windy and misting [over].''
She said her apartment complex took a beating at about 10:30 Saturday evening. The damage: an aluminum carport was destroyed, ceiling tiles were torn off her house and many roofs are gone.
There's not much Powell can do at the moment. A curfew until 6 a.m. Monday has been imposed because of the downed power lines.
``We can't drive, we can't go anywhere.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Vero Beach residents wonder if home is intact
Updated at 1:15 p.m. Sunday
VERO BEACH -- Don and Claudine Ryce spent the night huddled in the master bathroom of their friends' condo in Indian River County, just outside of Vero Beach, listening toradio reports.
''The storm sounded like in a war movie when you hear the big guns shooting,'' said Claudine, director for the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction. ``It was like a rumble of canons.''
Water spilled in under the doors, and for several hours, they wondered if the doors would hold, she said. Power went out at 9 p.m.
When they emerged from the shuttered condo Sunday morning, they saw a neighborhood littered with shattered tiles and mangled, uprooted trees.
The couple will likely have to wait a week before they are able to return to their home on Vero Beach's Barrier Island. It's a block from the ocean and 13 feet above sea level.
''Apparently, the island suffered the worst flooding it's ever experienced,'' Ryce said. ``It's horrible waiting and not knowing.''
-- ALEXANDRA ALTER
St. Petersburg residents: `We're just over it already'
Updated at 1 p.m. Sunday
ST. PETERSBURG -- At the fully booked New Plaza Motel in St. Petersburg, manager Janet Chamberlain reports that the winds are increasing by the minute. Chamberlain is bracing for the hurricane to hit by 2 p.m. and said everyone is ``just trying to ride [Jeanne] out.''
''There's not much more we can do,'' she said. ``We're just over it already.''
Along Tampa Bay, resident John Wallace reports ``a bad, windy day.''
''The winds are blowing, with gusts up to about 65 mph,'' Wallace said. ``It's raining, pretty much horizontal.''
Although Wallace hadn't seen any damage to his home, his next door neighbor wasn't as lucky.
''They lost their whole sunroom enclosure; it was made of aluminum,'' he said. ``The wind took it up over the top of the house and deposited it in the front of the street.``It's now wrapped around a pole in the front yard.''-- MADELEINE MARR
Downtown WPB restaurants take hit
Updated 12:40 a.m. Sunday
WEST PALM BEACH -- Most restaurants in West Palm Beach remained closed early Sunday afternoon as managers and owners came in to survey the damage.
Il Ballagio, an Italian restaurant on Rosemary Avenue, will likely open up tomorrow, a friend of the owner said. Other restaurants have to deal with damage first.
We're just checking out the damage now,'' said one of the managers at Angelo and Maxie's Steak House in West Palm Beach. During the night, the restaurant suffered water damage.
-- Alexandra Alter
Jacksonville airport closing
Updated at 11:30 a.m. Sunday
JACKSONVILLE -- Jacksonville International Airport was scheduled to shut down at noon Sunday, mayor John Peyton said.
Northeast Florida is cautiously optimisitic as Jeanne tracks farther west, but still expects wind gusts up to 50 mph. Flights will likely resume Monday.
-- MATT PINZUR
Some power in Melbourne
Updated at 11 a.m. Sunday
MELBOURNE -- A resident of West Melbourne was happy to still have power in her home Sunday morning but was struggling to keep up with the latest information.
''We have power but no TV,'' said former north Miami-Dade resident Wendy Dietz. ``Our satellite dish probably ended up in Miami somewhere. It appears that all the local radio stations are off the air because the only thing I can find is a simulcast of the ABC TV affiliate.''
-- DAVE WILSON
Palm Beach mostly powerless, but digging out
Updated 10:35 a.m.
PALM BEACH COUNTY -- Several Palm Beach County residents who weathered the storm at home said Jeanne seemed stronger than Frances, and wetter.
But Jeanne also moved faster and had fewer weak tree limbs and structures to feast on.
''I thought it was going to be a lot worse,'' said West Palm Beach resident K.K. Marmon as she raked leaves from a flooded storm drain.
''It's like Frances clipped the trees for us,'' said family friend John Irrgang.
Emergency managers said they hoped to begin delivering emergency supplies -- ice, water, food -- by Monday afternoon. County offices and courts, schools, and the Port of Palm Beach were closed through Monday.
Though the damage wasn't as bad as expected, the one-two hurricane punch likely will make life in Palm Beach County more difficult in the coming days.
''It looks like the power situation is going to be extra bad because FPL is stretched too thin,'' said Bob Weisman, county administrator.
Officials said FPL, which sent crews to the Panhandle after hurricane Ivan, will send some back to South Florida.
-- SAMUEL P. NITZE AND MARC CAPUTO
Notorious intersection weathers storm
Updated 10:25 a.m. Sunday
PEMBROKE PINES -- The troublesome intersection of Pines Boulevard and Flamingo Road was functioning normally Sunday.
The heavily traveled intersection, which has been cited in studies as the most dangerous in South Florida because of the volume of accidents, was out of action for several days after Frances because a tractor-trailer knocked down the traffic signals. It weathered Jeanne without incident.
-- ASHLEY FANTZ
Broward interstates clear
Updated 10:10 a.m. Sunday
BROWARD COUNTY -- As winds died down and squalls became less frequent through Broward County on Sunday morning, traffic on I-595 and I-75 was flowing freely with no signs of standing water or debris.
There appeared to be much less tree debris overall than on the morning after Hurricane Frances.
-- DAVE WILSON
Vero Beach is a mess
Updated 9:50 a.m.
VERO BEACH -- Throughout Indian River County, trees draped over roadways and utility poles leaned at 60 degree angles with wires strung across roadways.
On house after house in Southern Vero Beach, the angry wind ripped away the tarps and roofing paper that people installed so carefully to begin repairing the damage from Hurricane Frances.
Throughout the city, Hurricane Jeanne hurled piles of debris left by Frances, inflicting new damage to houses and businesses.
There is widespread flooding near the Indian River, which runs parallel to U.S. 1, said David Shapiro, the count emergency management spokesman.
-- PHIL LONG
North Florida calm but bracing
Updated 9:45 a.m. Sunday
As the forecast pulled Jeanne farther and farther west, cautious relief spread through Jacksonville. City leaders kept their emergency operations center on 24-hour alert and still warned residents to expect heavy rain and gusty wind, but expected little long-term misery from a storm that dumped plenty of it elsewhere.
''We still expect storm bands to come through this area,'' Mayor John Peyton said at a Sunday morning news conference. ``We are hoping for business as usual on Tuesday.''
Jeanne's raggedy east side was expected to reach North Florida on Sunday evening, and Peyton said the city could expect winds around 40 mph, three to six inches of rain, tornado-friendly conditions and widespread power outages
-- MATT PINZUR
A bit of light in Broward, Palm Beach
Updated 7 a.m. Sunday
At the height of Hurricane Jeanne, 137,200 Broward residents lost electricity. Of that number, 79,800 customers had their power restored as of this morning, leaving 57,400 residents without power.
Palm Beach County reports 559,200 FP&L customers lost power. There are still, as if 4 a.m., 515,900 customers still without electricity.
-- WANDA DEMARZO
Lights out at Lauderdale Lakes shelter
Updated at 12:20 a.m.
LAUDERDALE LAKES -- Lights went out and televisions shut off around 10 p.m. Saturday at Park Lakes Elementary School in Lauderdale Lakes.
The shelter doors were secured and Broward Sheriff's Office deputies sat by the door. Children fidgeted on the blankets, as BSO Sgt. Dallas Crew passed out more blankets.
The place quieted down like a cabin after a summer camp curfew.
''Parents, I am asking you to take your children to the rest room for their safety,'' Crew said.
A few minutes after midnight, the dark cafeteria sounded like a chorus of snores.
-- DARRAN SIMON
Damage slight as Jeanne wind whips northern Broward
Updated at 11:30 p.m. Saturday
While Jeanne was pounding southern Palm Beach County late Saturday night, western Pompano Beach seemed spared by the high winds. While traffic lights were out at a number of major intersections -- including U.S. 441 and Atlantic Boulevard as well as a number of lights on Dixie Highway -- the damage seemed to be slight.
There were downed trees, street signs and a marquee sign at a Burger King on Powerline Road. But that didn't seem to matter.
On Saturday night, most of Broward County was a ghost town.
''We could have closed at 8 p.m.,'' said Carlos Abreu, a waiter at the Spring Garden Chinese restaurant in Coral Springs. ``We had power, but no one was on the roads. No one was coming in. It was a mixture of Yom Kippur and the hurricane. It was just very slow.''
James Rodriguez, owner of the Circus Sports Bar and Grill in western Pompano Beach, was one of the lucky business owners in his neighborhood. Rodriguez's establishment did not lose power during Hurricane Frances or Jeanne. The day after Frances landed, Rodriguez's bar was standing room only.
''No one else around had electricity,'' said Rodriguez, who plans on doing a benefit for Haitian hurricane relief this week.
``It was like New Year's Eve and it's starting to look like that again. We feel bad for the businesses around here who don't have power anymore, but until things go totally wrong, we're staying open. We're having a hurricane party. If the police came in and said we had to close, we would. But that hasn't happened.''
There were a number of power outages in Pompano, with many side streets dark and flooded. Off of I-95 and Cypress Creek Road, a number of businesses were suffering from power outages -- including the Westin Hotel on the east side of the highway. Businesses and homes on the west side of I-95 for the most part were spared.
With some exceptions.
''I live in Palm Aire and my house is dark, but my business is still going with power,'' said Rob Grotz, who manages Anglesea Pub in eastern Pompano. ``I think everyone is getting tired of dealing with these hurricanes.''
-- GEORGE RICHARDS
Thousands lose power in Deerfield
Updated at 11:35 p.m. Saturday
Hurricane Jeanne was causing huge problems in parts of Deerfield Beach. The northwestquadrant of the city is experiencing major power outages, 8,500 homes late Saturday.
''We were on the phone with Florida Power & Light all morning trying to make sure that they would be able to restore power quickly,'' said City Manager Larry Deetjean. ``The area of the city being hit the hardest is the same area hit by Frances, it's deja vu. Our situation is serious.''
Four lift stations are down due to outages. Power lines are down and sparking on Goolsby Boulevard next to the city's public works department, which will hamper clean-up efforts, city officials said.
Two of city's fire stations are running auxilary power, including the Deerfield Beach's main fire station at 920 E. Hillsboro Blvd. One of the county's special needs shelters is, as well.
Downed trees line both sides of Hillsboro Boulevard. Power lines snake across roads.
Pompano Beach deputies have been pulled off the road.
There are reports that a large tree toppled over onto a home in Pompano Beach and the city is reporting gusts up to 67 mph in Pompano Beach with sustained winds of 46 mph.
-- WANDA DE MARZO
At Deerfield Beach Motel: `So far so good'
Updated at 11:35 p.m. Saturday
Ten guests at the Deerfield Beach Motel on A1A were waiting out the storm at the hotel, which still had power but no cable TV by 11 p.m. Saturday, said owner Bolek Kaminski.
''So far, so good,'' Kaminski told the Herald in a telephone interview. ``We lost Cable TV but we have power. Once in a while the lights blink on and off but we still have power.
''Seems like it's quieting down. A half-hour ago it was terrible. Very windy. Whoooooooo,'' he said, mimicking the sound. ``We moved here from New York 10 years ago and we have never heard anything like that.''
But so far, he was faring pretty well, he said late Saturday.
``We're lucky. The wind is coming from the west and our motel faces east.''
Kaminski said he had taken a look around outside and didn't notice any significant damage anywhere. But it was early still. Though Frances didn't really damage his property, this storm is different, he said. ``This wind is worse.''
He said the guests that remained in four of his property's 15 rooms refused to go -- even after a police officer came by earlier in the afternoon.
'A police officer was here and told them, ``You have to leave.' But they don't want to go nowhere,'' Kaminski said.
-- ELAINE DE VALLE
Most of Broward a ghost county
Updated at 11:30 p.m. Saturday
While Jeanne was pounding southern Palm Beach County late Saturday night, western Pompano Beach seemed spared by the high winds. While traffic lights were out at a number of major intersections -- including U.S. 441 and Atlantic Boulevard as well as a number of lights on Dixie Highway -- the damage seemed to be slight.
There were downed trees, street signs, and a marquee sign at a Burger King on Powerline Road. But that didn't seem to matter.
On Saturday night, most of Broward County was a ghost town.
''We could have closed at 8 p.m.,'' said Carlos Abreu, a waiter at the Spring Garden Chinese restaurant in Coral Springs. ``We had power, but no one was on the roads. No one was coming in. It was a mixture of Yom Kippur and the hurricane. It was just very slow.''
James Rodriguez, owner of the Circus Sports Bar and Grill in western Pompano Beach, was one of the lucky business owners in his neighborhood. Rodriguez's establishment did not lose power during Hurricane Frances and the same held true during Jeanne. The day after Frances landed, Rodriguez's bar was standing room only.
''No one else around had electricity,'' said Rodriguez, who plans on doing a benefit for Haitian hurricane relief this week.
``It was like New Year's Eve and it's starting to look like that again. We feel bad for the businesses around here who don't have power anymore, but until things go totally wrong, we're staying open. We're having a hurricane party. If the police came in and said we had to close, we would. But that hasn't happened.''
There were a number of power outages in Pompano, with many side streets dark and flooded. Off of I-95 and Cypress Creek Road, a number of businesses were suffering from power outages -- including the Westin hotel on the east side of the highway. Businesses and homes on the west side of I-95 for the most part were spared.
With some exceptions.
''I live in Palm Aire and my house is dark but my business is still going with power,'' said Rob Grotz, who manages Anglesea Pub in eastern Pompano. ``I think everyone is getting tired of dealing with these hurricanes.''
-- GEORGE RICHARDS
Palm Beach policeman: `It is ripping here, dude'
Updated at 10:35 p.m. Saturday
PALM BEACH -- Shortly after 10 p.m., Palm Beach police Officer Kevin Morine stepped outside to take a look.
''It is ripping here, dude,'' he said. ``I'm outside right now. I mean the winds are howling, the trees are bent over. . . . A chair flew by us earlier.''
Morine said he and other members of the Special Operations Unit were at the station playing cards, watching the news, and looking forward to shift change. Come morning, they'd have a chance to check on their homes and families.
''I'm sick of this,'' Morine said. ``It's just so taxing on you emotionally and mentally and physically. I've lost at least 10 pounds since the beginning of Frances.''
-- SAM NITZE
He's not crazy. He just wants to measure Jeanne's wind speeds
Updated at 10 p.m. Saturday
VERO BEACH -- Forrest Masters stood in the path of Hurricane Jeanne Saturday night. He wanted to.
''Wow. I better get into the shelter,'' said the hurricane chaser, who was driving around in mobile unit. ``It's pretty wet and windy and the transformers are starting to go.''
Masters is not crazy; he's an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University who is conducting a project to measure the ground level wind speeds of powerful hurricanes like Jeanne.
Days ago, Masters and his team set up four towers near the likely path of Jeanne. Saturday he spent the night monitoring the one in Vero Beach, keeping it fueled and functioning.
''This is the one that will likely experience the pressure of the eyewall - at least that's what I think as of 9:44 p.m.'' he said. ``This thing can still shift.''
The other towers are at Satellite Beach, Titusville and Orlando.
''They will help determine how gusty hurricane winds are,'' he said. Pressure measuring gadgets have also been places in several homes in the area to gage the uplift of homes.
''If there is major damage, we'll be out in the morning to inspect and those instruments can tell us a lot,'' he said.
Masters is affiliated with the International Hurricane Research Center at FIU, not to be confused with the National Hurricane Center.
A project website will give hourly updates of the data being gathered.
Those interested can go to: http://www.ce.ufl.edu/~fcmp
Masters is spending the night out of the storm in a shelter at the Vero Beach airport.
''I hope the tower is OK in the morning,'' he said.
-- LUISA YANEZ
So far, so good: Power is on
Updated at 10:02 p.m. Saturday
WEST PALM BEACH -- Margarita Valencic was riding out the advance of the storm in her Australian Avenue house with her 90-year-old father, some friends from Germany, three dogs, a bottle of Pinot Grigio and -- miraculously, she says -- power.
Though the lights have flickered on and off a lot of times, the power had stayed on in this Frances-battered woman's house so far, as of 9 p.m. Saturday. This makes her hopeful.
''With the last one, we lost electricity so soon. And we have still have it, so maybe ...'' she says.
But, having lost power for a week after Frances, she is better prepared this time. Valencic's ex-husband brought over a generator she can use with enough juice to run the refrigerator, freezer, the phone and one light. Her oven and stove runs on gas.
Still, having learned -- thanks, Frances -- of the difficulties that come after the storm, the threat of Jeanne caused her to cancel a much-anticipated surprise birthday party for her father this Friday.
``When the last storm came through we were without power for a week. And there's no way to get things organized with no power. And the grocery stores didn't have anything.''
At 9:15 p.m., the weather outside was ``very windy, very rainy. The winds are strong out there.''
Still, not too strong that one of her German friends couldn't be outside smoking a cigarette.
-- ELAINE de VALLE
Fighting boredom at the shelter
Updated at 9:45 p.m. Saturday
DAVIE -- Seeking to pass the time away, people at the Fox Trail Elementary School shelter in Davie put together their own little talent show.
Participants played guitar and piano. They did comedy routines. And they danced.
Elder Graham, 21, played a duet of Amazing Grace with Luis Guerrero.
''We chose that song because we wanted to give these people some hope,'' Guerrero said as the lights flickered on and off due to the hurricane.
Tennison Washington, 23, an evacuee from Vero Beach, played Scott Joplin songs and some classical music on the piano, prompting a standing ovation.
''I stopped playing for many years, but this gave me a chance to do something good and have a little fun,'' he said.
-- KEVIN DEUTSCH
In Daytona Beach, watching and waiting
Updated at 9:28 p.m. Saturday
DAYTONA BEACH -- At the fully booked Raintree Motel and Apartments, the roof had already blown away, courtesy of Hurricane Frances.
The staff has no idea how much more damage Jeanne could possibly do.
''Right now we have a temporary roof, it's rainy and leaking,'' said Sheila Patel, manager. ``The hurricane is supposed to come at noon tomorrow. It will be bad. ''
Patel estimated that the winds were up to 75 mph.
''It's dripping. We can't do anything,'' she said. ``We're just waiting and praying that everyone will be OK.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
In Pompano, watching and waiting
Updated at 9:05 p.m. Saturday
POMPANO BEACH -- The Beach Comber Hotel and Villa still had power at 9 p.m., but members of its staff (who stayed behind after 50 guests were evacuated this morning) were watching Jeanne's approach with due caution.
''We are just waiting to see what is going to happen tonight,'' said Dario Vasquez, a front desk agent. ``We're going to get a lot of winds here, no doubt about that.''
Luckily, the staff left the shutters up after Frances.
-- ALEXANDRA ALTER
'Scary' winds in Stuart
Updated at 9 p.m. Saturday
STUART -- At the Southwind Motel, along South Federal Highway in Stuart, things are ''scary'' for manager Mike Parikh, who is waiting out the storm with his wife and two kids.
The motel is without power. Parikh broke out the candles for his 50-some guests.
Although he can't see outside, due to the shuttered windows, he can hear Jeanne raging outside.
''It sounds very scary. The whistling, the hard rain, it's very strong,'' say Parikh, who estimated gusts at more than 100 mph.
''It gets quiet,'' he said, ``but that is when you know more is coming.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Andrew, Frances -- deja vu all over again
Updated at 9 p.m. Saturday
POMPANO BEACH -- Don and Claudine Ryce live in an oak- and palm-tree-lined neighborhood on a barrier island off the mainland in Pompano Beach. They hope the trees will still be there when they return.
''You can never replace them, not in our lifetime,'' said Claudine, who runs the Center for Victims of Predatory Abuse. She and her husband lost an acre and a half of avocado trees when Hurricane Andrew tore through their property in The Redland.
Shuttered into a friends' house on the mainland, the couple reported the first hurricane gusts were rattling the windows at 8:45 p.m.
But experience breeds confidence in hurricane survivors.
''We've been through this before. We'll be all right,'' said Don, an attorney. By living through several hurricanes, they picked up a couple of tips: One is to make sure you have a manual can opener, because the electric one won't work when the power goes out.
''What's hard about this is that it's coming so soon after Frances,'' he said. ``It's hard for us, like everyone around here, to pick ourselves off the ground.''
-- ALEXANDRA ALTER
Street vendors cash in
Updated at 8:50 p.m. Saturday
LITTLE HAVANA -- Like restaurants, bars, and grocery stores that stayed open despite the threat of Jeanne for the boon of desperate customers, street vendors in Little Havana also saw a chance to cash in on the threat of heavy rain and wind.
Maria Carbajalo ducked out of the rain into Yambo Nicaraguan restaurant. Still wearing a plastic poncho she bought earlier in the day from the dollar store, she was having a bite to eat before hitting the street to sell her last four bouquets of flowers and a few more teddy bears. ''The people who went out during Frances made a killing. They were brave.'' Carbajalo said. '' This time I said, `I'm working.''' Jeanne wasn't as generous with customers. ''People aren't buying, I've only sold $50. ``I'll sell what I can until nine or ten and then go home,'' she said.
-- MONICA HATCHER
Power line blocks entrance to hospital
Updated at 8:35 p.m. Saturday
High winds knocked down a power line in Hollywood blocking the entrances to Hollywood Medical Center in Hollywood.
Hollywood fire prevention officer Rob Hazen said the power line snapped around 8 p.m. and slid across Washington Street blocking the entrances to the emergency and main entrance of the hospital.
Patients are being directed to Memorial Regional Hospital while Fire Rescue stands sentry at the site of the charged wire. Florida Power & Light is expected to remove the power line within an hour, Hazen said.
-- WANDA J. DE MARZO
Bail bondsman bemoans the loss of business
Updated at 8:31 p.m. Saturday
Davit Letts, a bail bondsman in Vero Beach, is riding out Hurricane Jeanne in his office on U.S. 1. That's because his house has a hole in the roof, the handiwork of Frances, which bruised the area earlier this month.
``The winds are howling, and it's terrible weather outside, but we're lucky. We still have power and cable. My son and grandson already lost their electricity. I've got a feeling we're really gonna get it tonight.''
Saturday night, Letts lamented the loss of business from people who got in trouble and wanted out of the county jail.
''I've gotten calls this afternoon from people who needed a bail bondsman, but I told them there's a curfew in place. I can't go out and get arrested myself, you know? They're gonna have to wait until morning and we'll see then,'' Letts said.
Letts said this hurricane season has all but killed his bail bond business, which he runs with his son, Daniel.
''It's one-fifth of what it used to be,'' he said. ``With all this destruction, deputies are just not arresting people like they used to.''
-- LUISA YANEZ
Spared, Miami Beach begins to wake up again
Updated at 8:30 p.m. Saturday
After escaping even tropical storm conditions, South Beach wasted no time in restarting the party for Saturday night. Party promoter Michael Capponi from Mansion nightclub, at 1235 Washington Ave., emailed his contact list that the club would be open tonight, as did the Forge restaurant on 41st Street.
-- KENDALL HAMERSLY
Hollywood institutes curfew for barrier islands
Updated at 8:25 p.m. Saturday
The City of Hollywood instituted a curfew as of 8 tonight for the barrier islands. The curfew will remain in effect until 8 a.m. Sunday.
Alcohol sales will not be permitted in beach areas during the curfew hours.
For the safety and security of all Hollywood residents and businesses, all residents are urged to stay inside until the effects of Hurricane Jeanne has cleared the area, which is expected to be later Sunday morning.
Residents with questions or concerns can call Broward County's hurricane hotline at 954-831-4000 or the City of Hollywood's Rumor Control Hotline at 954-967-4467.
Residents also can log onto the city's website at www.hollywoodfl.org or tune in to the city's government access channel, Comcast Channel 33.
-- PATRICIA ANDREWS
Stretch of Vero's Ocean Drive crumbles
Updated at 8:15 p.m. Saturday
A stretch of Vero Beach's oceanfront street was crumbling into the sea late Saturday and debris leftover from Hurricane Frances that hit three weeks ago was sailing in several places.
''Water is washing over the dune and washing over Ocean Drive,'' Vero Beach Police Chief Jim Gabbard said late Saturday following a brief, after-dark tour of the beach area. ``A lot more of the road has gone.
''I saw aluminum flying around,'' Gabbard said. ``It is pretty hazardous out there.''
Piles of Hurricane Frances debris lying at the roadside for days are taking to the air, he said.
''Stuff that has been in piles is flying around,'' Gabbard said.
Siding is peeling off a beachfront condo complex heavily damaged by Frances, he said.
-- PHIL LONG
Boat apparently a goner
Updated at 7:30 p.m. Saturday
FORT PIERCE -- For Vinny Ignico, 55, the storms approach was especially wrenching.
Three years ago, Ignico realized his boyhood dream and moved into a 36-foot fishing boat moored in Fort Pierce's city marina. The boat survived Frances, but Ignico dared not hope that it withstands the far more powerful Jeanne.
As Jeanne's relentless rain kept hammering Fort Pierce, Ignico spent a few last moments gazing wistfully at his treasure, his dog Chloe by his side.
''I'm probably going to lose my boat,'' he said.
Ragged mounds of plywood, fiberglass, and roofing torn off by Frances still litter the city's curbsides and emergency crews braced for a doubly exhausting cleanup after Jeanne passed through.
-- CARA BUCKLEY
We need a `go-away pill'
Updated at 7:30 p.m. Saturday
STUART -- Just as night fell, Dottie Reyes, her 88-year-old mother, Louise Colburn, and their friend, Joe Webb, were playing the card game ''31'' in the dark at the Stuart Holiday Inn.
The three hoped the game would distract them from worrying about their homes in Tropical Acres, a mobile park in Jensen Beach. That and jokes about the whitecaps that Jeanne was begining to stir up in the swimming pool outside their first-floor room.
All three were too worried to sleep.
''It would be nice to take a pill and wake up and have it be gone,'' said Reyes, 59.
''A go-away pill,'' added Webb.
The three were among the few evacuees at the hotel. Most rooms were filled by relief workers, construction crews and insurance adjusters who had been sent to help mop up after Frances. It was far different during Frances, Reyes said, when more than a dozen of their neighbors were staying at the hotel, too. Most went to shelters this time, she said.
As the power went out, people congregated outside of their rooms on the hotel's breezeway, shouting with surprise when they saw sparks down the street from a blown transformer.
-- ERIKA BOLSTAD
Scenes from Palm Beach
Updated at 7:30 p.m. Saturday
PALM BEACH -- Two students from Palm Beach Atlantic University waded into the ocean Saturday evening, looking for bragging rights and a cold jolt of adrenaline.
''Now we can tell our friends we were out in the ocean during a hurricane,'' said a grinning Dalton Freed, 21. ``Knee deep and you could feel the tug.''
Former iron worker Phil Kearney vowed to spend the night in a pickup parked at the Palm Beach gas station where he works maintenance. The owners wanted him there to watch out for looters, he said, and besides, what's a little wind?
''If you can walk a steel beam 425 feet in the air, you going to be afraid of a hurricane?'' he said. ``Why would it bother me?''
Police cruised the coastal neighborhoods, urging stragglers to head a mandatory evacuation order. And by sundown Palm Beach looked like a ghost town, the streets mostly empty, the shops boarded up, a few stragglers here and there making their exit or heading indoors for a stormy night.
-- SAM NITZE
Coast Guard searches for surfer
Updated at 7:45 p.m. Saturday
MIAMI BEACH -- The Coast Guard searched into the night Saturday for a surfer reported missing off Miami Beach at 71st Street. The Miami Beach Coast Guard station sent one truck and an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter to scan the waters. All Coast Guard beach stations closed for the storm, so no boats joined the search.
Witnesses on the beach around 5:30 Saturday afternoon saw a lone man in the water calling for help and alerted authorities, said Petty Officer Ken Cholak.
The helicopter search extends six nautical miles along the beach and 1 ½ miles into the ocean. Officials said they would continue looking until winds grew too fierce to manage the helicopter.
Several groups of surfers were in the water, and Coast Guard officers tried to discern whether the missing man may have joined them.
-- NIKKI WALLER
Lights out at the Fort Pierce Jai-alai Fronton
Updated 7:15 p.m. Saturday
FORT PIERCE -- ''Oh, oh, the lights are starting to go out; we're feeling it,'' said the security guard on the telephone from the Jai-alai fronton in Fort Pierce, which was expected to feel the brunt of Hurricane Jeanne. ``This phone will probably go dead.''
Jonathan Garate and other employees were getting ready for a long night of protecting the closed fronton, just west of downtown Fort Pierce.
During Hurricane Frances, some 50 people -- workers and their relatives -- took refuge in the sturdy old building, but things did not go well and on Saturday only employees were present.
''The building is made of reinforced concrete and can stand the winds, but the last time water started accumulating on the ceiling and coming down the light fixtures,'' Garate said of France's damage.
In a panic, the storm refugees had to run to a secure area. ``It was a little scary.''
And that wasn't all.
Looters were spotted casing the place. Garate and other guards scared them away.
''It's gonna be a long night,'' Garate said.
-- LUISA YANEZ
Relief supplies ready to move in Homestead
Updated at 7:15 p.m. Saturday
Major Larry Chauncey, the deputy logistics chief for Florida's emergency management staff, said that there were 12 trucks of ice, 25 trucks of water and 10 trucks of ready-to-eat meals in Homestead. Each ice truck holds 44,000 pounds of ice, 4,750 gallons of water and 22,000 meals.
State officials made the decision to place supplies in South Florida so they can move supplies rapidly into affected areas. During Hurricane Frances, relief efforts were hampered because trucks were located north of the storm and had to wait until it cleared completely through the state before they could move.
'Now we're in the south and can move north, and it works a lot better,' said Chauncey, who said that trucks from Homestead will begin moving out to West Palm Beach on Sunday.
Chauncey said that a total of 400 trucks of ice, 291 trucks of water and 101 of ready-to-eat meals would be used in relief efforts for Hurricane Jeanne. He also said that they were planning on flying another 60 truckloads worth of water and meals from Atlanta to Miami to ship to West Palm Beach.
-- LARRY LEBOWITZ
Neither rain, nor snow, nor Jeanne ...
Updated 7:12 p.m. Saturday
COCOA BEACH -- Good to know you can still get pizza delivered in the midst of a major storm. Papa Vito's pizza parlor, on North Atlantic Avenue, didn't close during Frances and they don't plan on closing for Jeanne.
''We're gonna feed everybody we possibly can,'' said owner Billy Graham.
Everybody who orders their slices by 8:30 p.m, that is. That's Cocoa Beach's curfew.
Papa Vito's cooks the pies in gas ovens and the refrigerator runs by generator. During Frances, he said the kitchens got up to 120 degrees and it was extremely ``hectic.''
-- MADELEINE MARR
Wary restaurant personnel keep watch
Updated at 7 p.m. Saturday
OKEECHOBEE -- Dee Mitchell, the bookkeeper at Barracudas Sports Grillery in Okeechobee, planned to ride out Jeanne watching over the boarded up restaurant and planned to be there all night. The last customers were ushered out at 6:30, she said, when the restaurant closed in anticipation of bad weather.
''It's just drizzling rain now, but that's subject to change at any time, they tell us,'' she said over a TV blaring weather reports in the background. ``It's supposed to get bad. I hope it doesn't because I don't like hurricanes.''
-- ALEXANDRA ALTER
Neighbors helping each other out
Updated at 7 p.m. Saturday
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Vikki Galasso has noticed ``the camaradarie of the neighbors. People really helping people, board up and all the other stuff. I think there is more of a unity, a coming together, of people. Everybody is just beat, hanging in there, and everybody feels the same way about hunkering down in their own homes, not wanting to leave.''
''Businesswise, I can't even imagine. There was $7 million in damage to my [law] office in Stuart. We had to relocate,'' Galasso said.
-- KENDALL HAMERSLY
In Cocoa, a stormy night approaches
Updated at 6:54 p.m. Saturday
COCOA -- In ever darkening Cocoa, reports of serious wind, with sheets of heavy rain. ``We have the house boarded up, said resident Darla Lane. ``We are well supplied and have a generator ready to go.''
Lane said they suffered minor damage during Frances but are expecting something more serious with Jeanne.
''We are ready to ride this thing out,'' Lane said.
-- MADELEINE MARR
Sense of complacency in Vero Beach
Updated at 6:45 Saturday
VERO BEACH -- Saturday evening, this town was holding a bull's eye for Jeanne, and emergency coordinator Nathan McCollum is worried sick. ''There are nowhere near the number of people in shelter that should be there,'' McCollum said of the evacuation order, which affected some 40,000 residents. ``We think we'll have a bigger search and rescue problem after this storm than after Frances. All day today we tried to tell people that this one would be worse.''
Vero Beach came into play as possible landfall for Jeanne at around 3 p.m. -- too late for any major mobilization, he said.
''There's nothing we can do now,'' McCollum said. Heavy rains and winds up to 40 mph were already sweeping into the area. ''We're all hunkered down where we're going to sit out the storm,'' he said from the emergency center. ``All we can do is hope for the best.''
-- LUISA YANEZ
West Palm Beach awaits 10 p.m. curfew
Updated at 6:32 p.m. Saturday
WEST PALM BEACH -- Roxy's restaurant on Clematis Street was shuttered, but chef Wallace Simon was still there, battening down the rest of the hatches.
''The wind is starting to pick up and I just saw an awning blow off across the street,'' said Simon.
Down the street at O'Shea's Irish Pub, at least 50 bar-goers were still throwing back a few as they awaited 10 p.m. curfew to
