I have never been through a worse tropical storm, or experienced a slower one. A good 25% of Brevard must have been underwater, most especially Melbourne, where 26 inches (that's above two feet!!!) of rain has fallen. This rainfall total ranks fourth among historical storms. In Satellite Beach, the flood waters are mixed with sewage, which has been coming up in showers and flooding bathrooms. The National Guard has actually been rescuing people from their homes in a mobile home community in Melbourne called Lamplighter Village. Six hundred homes are being flooded there with five feet of water. You could, if you pleased, boat down the entire length of Wickham Road. We are quite certain, from news reports, that our old house must have flooded. We toured our town this afternoon, and found evidence of extensive street flooding which has subsided today, although a few homes still appear to have water in them. Last night (3:00 am), Mom and Greg ventured out and found our whole street covered over with water. The governor toured the areas worst hit and called this a "catastrophic flooding event." The worst hit cities are: Palm Bay, Melbourne, Satellite Beach, Suntree, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, and North Merritt Island.

We have been incredibly bored because everything has been cancelled. I had my first college class on Monday, but then three classes were cancelled on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and three on Thursday. Greg's classes at co-op were cancelled Thursday, and our small group, and his guitar lessons, and Mom's doctor's appointment, and Dad's work was closed on Wednesday.

We only lost power once, last night. It flickered on and off for about fifteen minutes, and then went out for an hour. We were amazed, though, that the power crews came out and got it back on at 1:00 in the morning!

Stacey