Wouldn't want to alert the country that the place is falling apart as W scoots out the door.
"Fla. commences cleanup as flood waters recede" by Brendan Farrington, Associated Press | August 23, 2008
STEINHATCHEE, Fla. - As Tropical Storm Fay finally got on track yesterday to make its way out of Florida, flood-stricken homeowners got an encouraging sign: Muddy brown water lines began appearing on the sides of homes, a clue that flood waters were receding.
The storm's death toll rose to six in Florida and nearly 30 overall since Fay first struck in the Caribbean. Florida officials said four people died in traffic accidents in the heavy rain and two others drowned in surf kicked up by the storm. Before the storm blew through the state, a man testing generators as a precaution also was killed.
The fickle storm that stuck around for five days and carved a dizzying path that included three landfalls dumped more than 2 feet of rain in some places. But to the relief of Floridians, it was expected to veer west over the Panhandle before leaving for good later this weekend.
Tens of thousands of people from Melbourne to Jacksonville to Gainesville were still without electricity, and residents of Florida's storm-stricken Atlantic coast faced a weekend of cleanup after chest-high flooding.
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You know, that seems pretty serious; then why did the BG ignore it all week?
If they hadn't, I'd have written about it!
"
MIAMI — It is the storm that just won’t quit. On the fifth day since hitting Key West, Tropical Storm Fay continued to pound Florida with rain and wind Friday, having caused at least seven deaths in the state along with damage totaling tens of millions of dollars.
Officials said the storm, which has slowly zigzagged across the state, could make a fourth landfall overnight, a record for Florida. After wandering this week from Cape Romano to Jacksonville, it was headed west Friday toward the Gulf of Mexico and the western Panhandle.
“We’d really like it just to get out of here,” said Blair Heusdens, deputy public information officer for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “It’s a very unique storm in that it has been sitting here for so long.”
By the time it leaves this weekend, the storm will most likely have affected all 67 Florida counties. Rain has been its signature: in some parts of the state, officials said, it has brought 26 inches of water.
Since Monday, more than 200,000 customers have lost power temporarily. Sewers have overflowed, while alligators, snakes and fish have been driven from swamps into suburban developments, sometimes stunning the hundreds of National Guard troops who have been brought in to help.
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