Oh boy; not a good sign...

It is 7:30am and I was in my mother's room talking to her. As she was smack dab in the middle of repeating what the news said this morning, the power went out (7:25). We both looked at each other like "what just happened? The TV go out again?". 

No, the power went out. 

Crap.

Luckily, it came back on two minutes later, so I ran around the house fixing the clocks. However, if this is going to happen for a while, it's not going to be fun. 

I guess we shouldn't be on edge or on guard for quick outages, but we should be on edge or on guard for outages. At least for the next few days of local clean up. 

My mother was telling me that there is still a curfew in places like Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Captiva and Matlacha, and the tolls are open for those residents and emergency services to get in and out, but as of midnight tonight, the tolls go back to being paid. 

So even though residents are not formally allowed back on the island - they're allowed during day light hours only to clean up - as of midnight, they have to start paying to get back to their homes tomorrow. 

That's wrong on so many levels. Here, these people have had another damaging storm come through their community, and they aren't allowed to be there (also because there's no power or water), and when they are given the "all clear" to return to clean up only, they're having to pay like the rest of us starting tomorrow. 

Why can't the bridges be open at least for another week or two, to allow those poor folks the opportunity to get things done? It's six dollars every single time you want to go to Sanibel. It's two dollars every time you want to go to Cape Coral. If you're driving back and forth with a full car of trash from the very end of Captiva, that's $6 every trip you make in one day and I'm not even going to try to imagine what that cost will be by the end of the day, let alone the week! 

We take for granted the one or two trips a day over the bridge and think "oh, our transponder will get the money taken out once today" and there's your two bucks. But to make a dozen trips because you're cleaning your house out after a storm? Not right.

People have lost everything all over again, and I'm sure they don't have the income as it is to be able to get dinged with tolls now. Then again, there are million dollar homes in Sanibel and Captiva, so they might have the money... chump change and what have you...

But still... if you're a modest person, living within your means, and happen to own property there... wow. Just wow. 

Allegedly there's still no gas in a lot of stations across the west coast. The governor had made an announcement during one of his updates on either Monday or Tuesday that he was going to get gas tanks in en force to fill up as many stations as possible. Millions of gallons of gas were at the ready and there was going to be a police escort for those trucks so it can be safely delivered, but as of some point yesterday (I don't know when), a cousin posted to Facebook that stations were empty. She is somewhere north of me in Florida, and she went to Facebook to call the governor out and say "Where's the gas you promised?". When my mother told me this, she said "she might be out of power if she's out of gas". I said "I don't know". My mother said that this woman's sister also lives in the state and must be gearing up to start her driving with her husband. The couple have a vehicle hauling service and they primarily deal with motorcycles, but do transport cars as well, and they are all over the state and country bringing people their beloved rides. If they can't get gas for their own truck, they certainly can't do business right now. I don't know where the live in the Sunshine State, but I know they are very active with their business. Always posting pictures of locations they're going to, fun smiles on the road. It's a big business for them and if they can't move, they can't generate income. 

News said the Sarasota Bradenton Airport got damaged in the storm. There's structural problems across the building. I saw pictures of the stadium where the Tampa Bay Rays play (Tropicana Field), and their their entire domed roof was damaged, to the point that half the roof is completely missing. The stadium was being used as a shelter for emergency services and this damage exposed everyone in there to all the elements and harm because, from the look of the pictures, the roof pretty much imploded on itself. Pieces of ceiling and stuff are everywhere on the ground. So scary! (By the way, we're playing catch up after not having news. So things might have been reported yesterday)

I don't have anything else at the moment to write about. Except maybe I should make my coffee. I haven't done that yet. And my bedroom window is open because it's 70°. It won't start getting humid and gross for a couple more hours today. Woohoo! 

Cheers;