After the storm:
Yesterday we drove the length of the Florida Turnpike and up I-75. About 35 miles south of Orlando we began seeing hurricane damage, which continued through the city area, but not much past it.
This whole Charley thing has been incredibly depressing, bringing back memories of Andrew. I heard a couple complaining in the Turnpike service area because they didn't have any ice. I wanted to say: Try living without ice, electricity, phone for two weeks -- or more.
There are housing developments on one side of the Turnpike with terrible roof and porch damage, while developments on the other side have little or no damage. Goes to show how erratic building is in Florida.
We passed lots of convoys of bucket trucks from all over (just as Jeb said there would be). Made us remember those crews from Raleigh that finally got our electricity turned on 11 days after Andrew. And the tree service trucks heading south reminded us of the crews from Ohio that helped us get the mess out of our neighborhood. Thanks again, guys.
We also saw lots of campers heading south: people looking for construction/roofing jobs? And truckloads of huge generators, as well as several Army convoys.
Amazing to see Americans mobilizing in a disaster. Let's hope those poor folks in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda get through this quickly.