Some evacuation orders were being lifted on Monday, causing an exodus from public shelters; all but 1,800 of the 18,000 people who slept in Palm Beach County shelters were on their way home. But many, especially those who live on barrier islands, were returning home with an ominous caveat from emergency officials, who warned homeowners about crossing over to the islands "at their own risk."
A few blocks from the roadblock keeping people off the beachside neighborhoods of Hutchinson Island, near Stuart, Mark Kates peered into the window of a hospice thrift store next to a salon that said "Bad Hair Day" on its plywood. Kates's local hospice organization had moved extra beds into a sturdy facility for terminally ill people who could not stay in their homes during the storm.
Three weeks after Hurricane Charley struck the Gift Store in Daytona Beach, owner Fady Awadaloa surveys damage done by Hurricane Frances. The damage estimate for Frances could reach $7 billion.
(Dudley M. Brooks -- The Washington Post)
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_____Florida Recovers_____
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AP Video Report: Trucks bearing ice, water and food began rolling south from Jacksonville Monday, heading for storm-ravaged areas on the east coast and in central Florida.
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_____Frances Crosses Florida_____
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Map: After moving slowly across Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Frances made a second landfall in the Panhandle.
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_____Photo Gallery_____
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Frances Pounds Florida: Reduced for the moment from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Frances headed for the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Panhandle late Sunday afternoon.
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_____A Stormy Season_____
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Most Learn to Cope, but Some Talk of Leaving (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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Floods Mean Some Must Keep Waiting for Power (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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St. Cloud, Staggering On After a One-Two Punch (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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Frances Weakens, but Drenches Fla. (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Shelter From the Storm (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Slow-Moving Frances Keeping Relief at Bay (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Region's Workers Bound for Florida To Aid in Recovery (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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A Driving Desire To Be in Cars Despite Curfews (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Frances Pummels Florida (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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After Facing Charley, Floridians Gird for Round 2 (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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Waiting For the Eye, And Ready To Blink (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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2 Storms In Florida Not Seen As Trend (The Washington Post, Sep 3, 2004)
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Hurricane Paths of 2004 Season
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"It's very, very difficult for the ill people and their families -- they're already under tremendous stress," he said.
Skeletal forms of road signs stripped to their metal frames littered the roads connecting Stuart with the dozens of small communities dotting Florida's east coast. A toppled canopy at an Exxon station off Interstate 95 draped limply over the gas pumps. The message on the boarded-up station's plywood was a sentiment felt by almost everyone: Pray for Us.
The damage followed a fairly consistent pattern: Frances was tough on roof tiles, traffic lights, billboards and mobile homes. But most concrete structures seemed to weather the storm.
For all the worries about flooding, large parts of the state appeared to fare better than expected. The Kissimmee Valley area of central Florida had received almost twice its average rainfall in August and was saturated even before Frances. But even though three major lakes in the region swelled above flood stage Monday, massive flooding did not occur.
"It looks like we've dodged a bullet," said Osceola County Chairman Ken Shipley.
There was no surer sign that life would go on than the doors opening at the landmark Florida tourist attractions, Walt Disney World and SeaWorld, which escaped with minimal damage. Two other parks -- Disney-MGM Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom -- remained closed so staff members could tend to storm-damaged homes.
While Disney's roller coasters whooshed, volunteers at the Port St. Lucie County Civic Center in Fort Pierce were occupied with more elemental concerns. The shelter's staff was struggling to care for about 270 residents with special needs. Many of them were in wheelchairs, on walkers, or were attached to oxygen tanks.
"We've got no running water. We just got electricity. And our roof is leaking," said Maureen Louise Dohoney, a nurse at the shelter.
At the height of the storm's fury, the shelter's personnel used buckets to capture water from the leaking roof, then used the precious collected drops to flush the center's balky toilets. The storm's passage did not end their woes. Dohoney had one plea on Monday, but it was an urgent one: "Send potties!"
Grunwald reported from Fort Pierce. Staff writers Josh White and Justin Blum in Washington contributed to this report.
