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]