Reporting from palm beach county, florida. Myself and sections of my city got power at about midnight last night. I still don't have internet, hence the blackberry. Many thousands of people chasing the rumor of fuel, and those few stations that have the supply, electric, and facilities to pump it. I witnessed a line perhaps 2 miles long at 5:00 am at a station which was able to pump off generator.
To my knowledge, the early govt response was only slightly better than katrina. Its mitigated by the fact that there's not 10 feet of standing water, but there's talk of not enough fema pods, not enough in the right locations, not enough supplies - 1 bag ice and 3 liters water per family - some pods have water only, some water, ice, no food, and finally plenty of finger pointing between agencies. To someone's credit though, the word today is that the lines are moving smoothly and wait times are only 30 mins.
I've peorsonally driven 40 miles to and from work on tuesday and wednesday - we've been doing magnificently at setting up a money-making operation and keeping the business alive off our generator. As a result, I'm past point of no return on gas so I must stay home and venture out only to find a gas station where one is lucky enough to be served. It's like a yakov smirnoff joke about soviet russia - if you see a line, you get on it because there must be something good at the end. I spent 2 hours on a line to be told at 5:30 pm by an officer that the station was being closed due to curfew - which is 9pm. In other words, officers are telling useful lies and flexing authority. Some are polite, some are fat and sassy and really couldn't give a shit if and when you get gas/etc, as long as you do not question their authori-TIE.
Many got caught with their pants down because one does not expect any of this from a weakening late-season cat 2-3 approaching from overland. I actually debated the night before as to whether to close the shutters on my east side. My property is fine, actually pretty great. Most of my neighborhood appears to be minor to medium roof damage, fences down, although I saw a collapsed porch (lanai) just a few hundred yards away across the street. Most of those I know with pool screen enclosures - they're trashed. Palm trees are tilted, deciduous trees are stripped or uprooted. I heard of a few west-facing garage doors collapsing in, or nearly. The vast majorty of damage occurred with the second half of the storm, after the eye. We came out and chatted with the neighbors during the eye for about 20 minutes - even though you're not supposed to do that.
Another tidbit - one of the causes of power problems - a
huge transmission line - one of the 100+ ft tall towers - came down on southern blvd in west palm beach and arc-welded itself into the pavement, bloxking 5 lanes of a 6 lane highway.
Short story - I'm going to implement most of the things that alphageek put out a while back - that I had basically filed under "when I get around to it" - and possibly think about getting out of florida after 20 years. I can't imagine that the housing market will take this well, I have already heard from one peer who is getting out asap. I want to remain positive about this place, but I'm not sure if business prospects will stick around.