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For pizzerias that opened, very busy day

Phones went unanswered at many pizzerias Sunday.

But at a downtown Tampa Domino's, manager Rob Mobley and his crew served deep dishes until the dough ran out. Drivers with boxes stacked to their chins fought winds topping 40 mph to get to delivery cars.

Guests who packed the downtown hotels blew in between gusts. The phones rang nonstop.

Sales, Mobley said, were as good as a football game Sunday.

In Orlando, Gino's Pizza & Brew also pumped out pies at a breakneck pace. Music blared as people streamed into the joint. Bob Messinger, 24, and Jackie McCown, 22, spotted a man carrying a Gino's pizza box and walked about a mile in the rain for some slices.

"You can eat pizza when it goes cold," said McCown.

Two St. Petersburg men went toward the hurricane, instead of away from it. They were arrested Saturday in Pahokee, a small town in Palm Beach County, accused of casing homes abandoned while residents sought safer ground, police said.

Darrell Walker, 38, and Darrell Claredy, 34, were charged with violating curfew, loitering and prowling. An officer saw two men walking through yards and peeking in shuttered homes, Pahokee police Chief Rafael Duran said. The men tried to escape, but their pickup truck got stuck.

Business was down about 90 percent at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, general manager John Fontana said. But at least the 250-room hotel was full. That's due in part to the owners - the Seminole nation. As Frances approached Florida on a course that put the tribe's Brighton Reservation in potential peril, 40 elders made haste for the resort.

The hotel and casino are more "dry and comfortable," Fontana said.

CLEARWATER - As shelter from the storm goes, the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key was pretty luxurious.

Not long after an 80 mph gust was reported in the area, Lori Davis of Vero Beach enjoyed a drink at the hotel's lounge. Her husband, Jim, worked out in the gym, and her 6-year-old son, James, enjoyed movies at the Hurricane Kids Camp.

Davis didn't seem overly worried about their 44-year-old house, which is on a barrier island. "We're assuming the back porch is gone," she said.

Sitting nearby, Mary Kay and Steve Blankestyn said the driving rain reminded them of whiteouts back home in Illinois. "Drop the temperature 60 degrees, and it would look just like a blizzard," said Mr. Blankestyn, an IT manager for a steel manufacturing company.

Pinellas sheriff's officials released 163 nonviolent inmates from the jail during Hurricane Charley, but did not let anyone out this time. Last time, about 25 inmates did not report back to the jail after Charley passed, and one inmate was arrested on a battery charge while out. Hurricane Frances did not pose the same threat of flooding at the jail as Charley did, sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

Hillsborough sheriff's officials did not release inmates. During Charley, they sent inmates at a release work center home.

Palm Beach County county officials reported two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning after people improperly used generators. Each incident involved six people, and there were no deaths. One involved people in a large building; the other involved six people inside a mobile home that was stored inside a warehouse for shelter.

PORT CHARLOTTE - While some ministers included Florida's double hurricane strike - first Charley, then Frances - in their sermons Sunday, Rob Combs did not mention it.

Like many churches in southwest Florida, Combs' church held services despite leaky roofs and other damage from Hurricane Charley, which pounded this area Aug. 13. The passing of Hurricane Frances to the north Sunday brought some light rain and winds to the region.

"We're trying to return to some sense of normalcy," said Combs, minister at the local Church of Christ.

Times staff writer Josh Zimmer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.