I am writing this on one computer and then loading it to another.  We do
not have power but I can stand in line and get 15 minutes to send e-mail.
 
I am Chere McCoy Shelter Mom of Ferret Friends of Indian River County
Ferret Shelter.  We evacuated the Ferrets from the shelter on the morning
of Friday Sept 3rd, 2004; to the home of Cookie Haviland - they are still
there at this time.  Myself, 2 dogs and a bird went to the Vero Beach
Resort Hotel.  Larry and two volunteer pilots took three of the aircraft
and flew to South Caroline on Thursday the 2nd of September.
 
Days seem to tumble in on themselves so excuse if I ramble.  The shelter
(which is our home) has been damaged badly but is inhabitable.  The roof
leaks, we had to nail up a panel to protect electrical wires, the play
porch has to be fixed before the kids can go out to play (but they only
play there in the winter only).  We have other damage but it would take
to long to talk about maybe later.
 
We have had NO power, NO sewer, NO water, NO electric since Friday,
September 3rd, we had phone for three day and it went off again this
morning.  Florida power and light tells us we will not have power until
September 19th.  We get ice from the National Guard, food from our
Disaster supplies ran out yesterday -- the stores were open but we didn't
have anymore cash.  Larry came back last night with the airplane and we
got hot-dogs, charcoal & water.  Also, a really great ferret person sent
$25.00 to our paypal account so that is in the bank.  Insurance people
will not be here for 10 days (bummer).
 
Ferret's have food and some litter.  A donation of Ferret Food, Heartworm
protection and various other things should arrive today by UPS.
 
If you can donate even a dollar to assist us it would be marvelous you
can do it at paypal.com account is Agedog1
 
The Storm - it was down right bloody awful.  The side of the hotel we
were on got all the rain.  By Saturday at 5:00am our hotel room carpet
was flooded with water.  The night the storm hit part of the roof above
our room flew off and that was really scary.  The drain pipe right
outside I room disintegrated about 2:00 in the morning and went crashing
into a car on the lower level.  The light outside the room was ripped
from it's mooring and began to bang and continued to bang for 7 hours.
The sounds were erie to say the very least.  After the storm subsided I
took the dogs out to go to the bathroom; one of the other hotel guest
didn't have her dog leashed.  Unfortunately it went running by my dogs
and I was pulled to the ground, and I mean flat out!  I skidded several
feet and just lay there holding on to the dogs.  Everyone was running
and yelling at me.  I still had hold of the leash of my dogs and the
other lady was trying to grab hers -- it was a mess.  I guess the
stress just let go.  I got up all bloody and dirty and started laughing
uncontrollably!  Stress all gone.  The people though I was a lunatic
(those of you who have met me know I am).  Picture this.  A tall skinny
woman in hugh boots, shorts & tank top holding this dog leash in the
pouring rain blood and dirt washing everywhere -- she's laughing so hard
she is crying and saying "I'm O.K." laugh, laugh, laugh, (to other I
imagine this was quite upsetting).
 
From what I can understand from the radio (battery powered) the national
new just kind of forgot about us here in Indian River County.  80% of
Vero Beach (city of) only 17% of Indian River County (we are in the
county).  have power.
 
Checking the Fuzzy's daily.  We have to pick them up tomorrow because
Cookie has to go out of town.  We have small fan's that run on AA
batteries to help keep them cool.  We are devising plans on best ways to
keep them cool till the power gets back on.
 
Hope this didn't ramble.  If you would like to contribute and help us you
can.  Again, through paypal.  Com we are Agedog1 Doesn't have to be
anything big.
 
Also, we understand from the radio that we may take a hit from another
storm coming this way.
 
Thank you for any help you can give
 
Chere McCoy
Ferret Friends of Indian River County
8775 20th Street, Lot 614
Vero Beach, FL   32966-3065
 
A "NO KILL" shelter since January  1991
[Posted in FML issue 4632]