We had about three hours of calm because the hurricane was moving so slow and was downgrading to a tropical storm just as it hit Tampa. My son thought it was over....boy was he wrong! Once the eye passed we got about another 8 hours of absolute pounding from the opposite direction.
We're fine in the grand scheme of things. We lost power for 36 hours, my tangerine and lemon trees are laying on the ground, and I've got some broken oak branches. No structural damage.
We really can't afford a hit by Hurricane Ivan right now anywhere in the state. I work with electric utilities including many in Florida and the crews are stretched way beyond capacity....even with the thousands of crews that have come in from out of state. The damage covers pretty much the whole state. TV doesn't do it justice.
