Aftermath of Frances

Chief Ronnie Snowberger (left) and Lt. John Riley of the Mount Dora Fire Department check to make sure residents of a McDonald Street home are safe after strong winds from Hurricane Frances knocked down a large tree. The house suffered heavy damage.  (TOM BENITEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Robon Boeham paddles a canoe along South Brighton Drive in Port Orange on Tuesday after flooding from Hurricane Frances swamped the neighborhood south of Daytona Beach. Water creeps up the driveways of the houses in the background.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Bob Cameron, the caretaker for a beach house on Bethune Beach, south of New Smyrna Beach, surveys the damage Wednesday as he salvages some personal items.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Joe Mattews, 48, of DeLand stands on his fence Wednesday as he uses a chain saw to cut limbs from a tree. He said he lost many oak trees to Hurricane Frances.  (BARBARA V. PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Miguel Calderon (from left) Ron Zarajczyk and David Barger form a modified bucket brigade Friday as they move residents’ belongings from a nursing-home facility at Good Samaritan Village in Kissimmee. The rising waters of Shingle Creek have inundated the retirement community, causing sewage backups and forcing hundreds of elderly residents to evacuate. Many were taken to a shelter at Horizon Middle School.  (ED SACKETT/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Jerry Hackney helps rescue his mother, Louise, and her belongings Friday from the post-hurricane floodwaters of Shingle Creek in Kissimmee after driving all night from Cleveland. Hundreds of elderly residents of Good Samaritan Village were forced to leave their homes and flee to the homes of family members or area shelters.  (ED SACKETT/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Bolo Ruiz gets ready to restock shelves Thursday in a Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse in Orlando. Lowe’s is trucking 300 loads of plywood into Florida.  (GARY W. GREEN/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Homeowner Lisa Johanes rests after bringing 40 sandbags to the rear of her Oviedo home with the help of a friend and a child’s wagon. She hopes to stem possible flooding from the Econlockhatchee River.  (GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Jim Atwell (left) and brother Paul (center) hold sheets of plastic Thursday as Tim Burnett navigates a dirt-moving machine through floodwaters in the submerged back yard at Jim Atwell’s home on Lake Harney near Geneva. The men were building a berm of dirt in an attempt to save the house on Whitcomb Road.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Postal carrier Eileen Sotet (center) talks to volunteers Tammie Pope (right) and Kathleen Fitzgerald on Wednesday about picking up some bottled water from the hurricane emergency distribution center in New Smyrna Beach. Sotet stopped by to get the water for a 94-year-old resident on her mail route.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

FEMA’s Disaster Medical Assistance Team members work on a patient with a leg injury in a mobile unit Wednesday.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

This FEMA mobile unit in operation Wednesday at Holmes Regional Medical Center can provide 24-hour-a-day care inside tents  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Joseph W. ‘Bill’ Yates Jr. checks the refrigeration unit running on a generator Tuesday at the Yates Funeral Home in Fort Pierce. Hurricane Frances was the most disruptive storm to hit his 70-year-old business, he said.  (HILDA M. PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Kathy and Scott Lee picked up debris Tuesday outside their weekend home on Mink Road in Astor. The Lees, both engineers who live in west Orlando, couldn’t do anything about the rising water in the yard, located where a creek intersects the St. Johns River.  (LAUREN RITCHIE/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Dorothy and Vicky McGinnis keep a wary eye on television storm reports at their east Orlando home. It was their first hurricane.  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Dorothy McGinnis (left) and her daughter Vicky, a UCF student, talk about painting the house as Hurricane Frances makes its way through Central Florida last weekend.  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Mother and daughter embrace at Orlando International Airport Tuesday before Dorothy departs for her home in West Des Moines, Iowa.  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

At Kennedy Space Center, a front-end loader sits atop debris Tuesday that was ripped from the Vehicle Assembly Building (in back) by Hurricane Frances. KSC Director Jim Kennedy said the large panels became ‘shrapnel’ in the winds and cracked windshields of vehicles left in a nearby parking lot. About 52,000 square feet of the building’s exterior was damaged.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Home Depot worker Vincenzo Andolfo (left) helps Bill Jones load shingles Monday at Home Depot west of Orlando. Phones and computers were down. ‘Doing it the old way: Hand receipts and calculators,’ human-resources manager Peggy Kuhle said.  (RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Residents of Fort Pierce who are still without power and water line up to receive baby supplies, cleaning supplies and water from the American Red Cross Disaster Relief at the Kmart Plaza off South U.S. Highway 1 on Tuesday. St. Lucie County administrator Doug Anderson reminded residents: ‘We are all in this together.’  (HILDA M. PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Hal Acosta (left) and Kary Kingsland distribute ice Tuesday morning to residents of Fort Pierce. ‘If I can’t work, then at least I can be helping someone else,’ said Acosta, an auto mechanic whose shop was damaged by Frances.  (HILDA M. PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Om Chand, owner of Seaview Manor Oceanfront Motel near Main Street in Daytona Beach, makes his way Tuesday through the wreckage from Hurricane Frances. The storm severely damaged dozens of motels and shops on the beach side of Daytona.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

This neighborhood in Astor, on the St. Johns River in Lake County, was among the places that already were seeing flooding Tuesday. With the river expected to crest Friday, emergency officials were bracing for more floodwaters. They said some neighborhoods may be evacuated.  (STEPHEN M. DOWELL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Progress Energy customers on Lakeshore Road in Eustis placed a sign in their front yard to alert busy workers to a downed line. Progress predicted Tuesday that power would be restored in Eustis by midnight Monday. Power companies with smaller customer bases struggled after Hurricane Charley, but are having an easier time restoring service cut off by Hurricane Frances.  (TOM BENITEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Abisai Troche pumps 9,200 gallons of gas into a Chevron on Americana Boulevard in Orlando on Monday. Tanker trucks received escorts from Florida Highway Patrol troopers after Troche and other truckers were being followed by drivers hunting for gas in the wake of Frances. State officials said Tuesday that gas distribution had increased.  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Boards remain on a Cocoa Beach storefront after Hurricane Frances came ashore over the weekend.  (TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Fady Awadalla sweeps up broken glass at The Gift Center on State Road A1A in Daytona Beach on Tuesday. The shop’s huge plate windows were shattered by Hurricane Frances.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

An oceanfront home in New Smyrna Beach on Monday took the brunt of Frances’ fury. Some buildings were wrecked, and erosion was severe all along Florida’s coast.  (TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Newly planted palm trees litter the Sanford RiverWalk on Monday in the wake of Hurricane Frances. One traffic death was reported Monday.  (DENNIS WALL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Rene Gutierrez looks out a plexiglass window he mad in plywood Monday. The window held, but his home was damaged by flooding.  (JOHN RAOUX/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Beth Jackson (left) and her daughter, Marian Price, 12, read a hymn book with the aid of a flashlight Monday at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Orlando.  (RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Del Whitmere (from left) talks with his neighbor, Travis Munnerlyn and his daughter while they look at the flood waters along Ronnie Circle in Pine Hills. Retention ponds couldn’t keep pace with the flooding and in places water was more than two feet deep.  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Rene and Nancy Gutierrez climb out of a window of their New Smyrna Beach home that was damaged by flooding from Hurricane Frances. The couple is staying with friends as their home in under several inches of water.  (JOHN RAOUX/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Fabrice Guiterrez (left) and friend friend Kyle Blair skip stones in flood waters caused by Hurricane Frances. The Guiterrez family adopted the pictured dog after the last hurricane and named him ‘Charley’.  (JOHN RAOUX/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Tidal surge from Huricane Frances took away part of this Melbourne Beach home.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Trudy David, an elderly widow, stands in her kitchen severely damaged by Hurricane Frances on the beachside of Brevard County.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

South Beaches Volunteer firefighter Robert Ayres looks for possible victims in an overturned trailer at Melbourne Beach Mobile Home Park. No one was found inside the trailer.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Melbourne Police open the Melbourne Causeway for residents on the barrier islands.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Trudy David (right) of Melbourne Beach returns home after being evacuated from her beachside home and gets a hug from neighbor Wendy Edmunds. David’s home received major damage.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Tom Shaw, 54, of Indialantic stands in 2 feet of seaweed that came over his seawall during Hurricane Frances.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A portion of a manufactured home at the A1A Condo Park in Melborne Beach received damage from Hurricane Frances.  (RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A supervisor with the St. Lucie County Nuclear Power Plant surveys where Hurricane Frances took out the Big Mud Creek Bridge along A1A in South Hutchinson Island.  (HILDA M PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Lt Col Pete Kaye with the Florida National Guard patrols South Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County Monday morning on sand-filled A1A from Hurricane Frances.  (HILDA M PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Hundreds of crabs have made their way to the debris filled streets on South Hutchinson Island after Hurricane Frances hit the southeast coast of Florida.  (HILDA M PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Patty McGee,59, rode out Hurricane Frances under a pool table in her beach bar Archie’s on South Hutchinson Island. Her home, adjacent to the bar, sustained major damage.  (HILDA M PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A sign that lays on debris in a home on South Hutchinson Island is an ironic twist from Hurricane Frances.  (HILDA M PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

John Roberts looks in at the damage to the living room of his neighbor’s house in Eustis. The home was damaged when a large tree fell during Hurricane Frances.  (STEPHEN M. DOWELL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Moorie Loude Nicolas sweeps water from her driveway as her 6 year old daughter, Obenta Nicolas watches. Moorie’s family discovered the flooding at their home near Orange Center Blvd, after returning from 3 days at a Disney hotel where they waited out Hurricane Frances.  (JIM CARCHIDI/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A bicycle belonging to 6 year old Obenta Nicolas sits in her family’s flooded back yard on Monday.  (JIM CARCHIDI/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Norman Gagnon walks out of friend Brian Theodor’s home in Vero Beach after the storm Sunday. Flooding could worsen throughout the state. At the National Weather Service in Melbourne, meteorologist Peggy Glitto said, ‘The flooding is our main concern now.”  (BOBBY COKER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Christy Sanford is angry because Brevard deputies won’t let her go back across the bridge to Cocoa Beach on Sunday. Sanford, who had ridden out the storm at Cocoa Beach but returned to the mainland to check on some property, had left her daughter and granddaughter on the island.  (TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Pam Vordeburg steps out to the front of her house to inspect a rotten tree that broke and fell onto Concord Street in Orlando on Sunday. ‘I was sitting with my candle meditating, when it bent twice before ti came down.’  (ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A traffic light at Colonial Drive and Magnolia Avenue in downtown Orlando was no match Sunday for the storm. Throughout Central Florida, utilities dispatched repair crews as soon as weather permitted.  (JULIE FLETCHER/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Bernardo Pichardo rakes debris off of Reeves Court in Orlando, in front of his Orlando Housing Authority apartment on Sunday. He started working as soon as heavy rain from Hurricane Frances ended. ‘If I waited for the city, it would be here until next Tuesday,’ he said.  (JOE KALIETA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A railroad-crossing signal is seen knocked to the tracks near the intersection of U.S. Highway 1 and State Road 44 in New Smryrna Beach on Sunday.  (RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

At the Eckerd Drugs outlet at U.S. Highway 17-92 and Lake Mary Boulevard in Sanford, a long line formed quickly when word spread Sunday that the store was open. With only one cash register open, Sanford police had to be called in to control the crowd.  (DENNIS WALL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

The First Baptist Church in Coach Beach had its steeple torn off by Hurricane Frances and driven through the roof of the church.  (TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Winds from Hurricane Frances took the steeple of the First Baptist Church of Cocoa Beach off and pierced the roof with it, landing in the choir loft.  (TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Doug Lane, of White City, surveys damage to his mother’s mobile home on Sunday.  (CHRIS HONDROS/GETTY IMAGES)

A line forms at the entrance to a convenience store on Parramore Avenue in Orlando. The clerk operating the store allowed only three customers in at a time. The store was the only one open in that area of Parramore following Hurricane Frances.  (JOE KALEITA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Knightcaps co-owner Travis Anstett (left) and his cousin, Keith Anstett, walk back to the store after hanging a sign near Dean Road. The store resumed selling beer and other items Sunday night.  (JOE KALEITA/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

A hanging lantern blows in the wind at the Shell’s Restaurant on Semoran Boulevard in Winter Park after the restaurant caught fire and sustained serious damage earlier in the day during Hurricane Frances.  (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Word spread quickly that the Eckerd’s drug store at Lake Mary Boulevard and Highway 17-92 was open in Sanford following Hurricane Frances. The checkout line ran through the store and Sanford Police were called in to help manage the crowd flow in and out of the store.  (DENNIS WALL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

The storefront of drycleaning store off Broadway Avenue in Oviedo still has the plywood in place following Hurricane Frances’ trek through Central Florida.  (DENNIS WALL/ORLANDO SENTINEL)