All my rels are ok. Don't know how much damage as cell service was spotty. Sister in law lost power at 9:30 yesterday morning, but has a generator. Just glad they're safe and hope to hear more today. My daughter's observation was somewhat keen. She said "I'd just love to tell them that we wouldn't have had to worry so much if they'd just left when they were told." Tru dat.

Sis's house in Melbourne has no water and no power. The wind blew rain under their front door and they spent all night putting towels down to soak it all up. So now lots of wet towels to dry and no dryer.

My Dad and his lady friend each have condos in Sarasota. Her's is beach front on Siesta Key. Fortunately, they summer in North Carolina and haven't headed to Florida yet. My aunt, however is in a first floor condo in Sarasota. Also have relatives and a good friend in the Tampa area that decided to ride it out. :fingerscrossed:

I believe I saw that no access is being allowed to Siesta Key right now. Looks like the water plant in Venice had a breakdown, so no water there. That's where my friend's mother lives. She came up here with her other daughter last week to get away from Irma.

We like St Augustine; been there many times. Heck, its just down the road from my daughter's place - they are fine. No power but otherwise no issues.

Grant has posted that both his house and business came through fine. He's very lucky!

My brother's trailer in LaBelle came thru reasonably well. Some minor damage but an outbuilding flooded. My sister still doesn't know how her house faired. The streets are flooded and police are not letting anyone into her community yet.

I'm getting concerned about my sis and her hubby. The talk of power loss for weeks is not good. It has to take a long time to restore 7+ million people!! I have to check on the water situation, also. I believe priority is being given to restoring water before power. They have one of those power packs to charge their cell phones, but I don't know how long it will last.

EDIT - Florida Power says east coast will take a week or more. West coast involves rebuilding large portions of the grid and will be much longer. Now that I think about it, they need electricity to pump water, right? So how can they do the water first? :thinker: You can tell I'm not a utilities expert.

^ Found this:

All Melbourne Water Customers Urged to Conserve Water

Thankfully my family came through this with very little damage and still have power.