Lorene Essbach was happy to have a safe shelter from the storm, but was looking forward Monday to returning home.
She stared out the window at Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill about 10:15 a.m. with her High Point neighbor, Elsie Affolter. They were among about 60 people who remained long enough for the Red Cross' morning count.
Most of the 131 people who were at the shelter during the worst of the storm Sunday left overnight or piled into sport utility vehicles at daybreak. Others, including some evacuated from Hernando Beach and the Weeki Wachee area, came to Fox Chapel, but did not stay long.
"People began packing up around 4 or 5 o'clock," Essbach said. "I asked one of the Red Cross guys, "Hey, did I miss the announcement?' I did not. I can't believe that people left. It is still bad out there."
But as bad as it looked outdoors through the school's window, nothing could compare to her difficulty sleeping.
"Well, it is mildly inconvenient compared to being at home," Essbach said as Affolter walked down the hallway. "You can replace my things, but not me. I am more important. I am going home when they tell me."
Restaurateur recognizes opportunity knocking
Perhaps there was no better place Monday to get food with soul than MC Chefs in Brooksville.
While many other restaurants kept their doors closed for either Hurricane Frances or Labor Day, Chris Stephens opened his joint on W Jefferson Street at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
"I was going to play it by ear, but then I found out I had power here," he said.
So Stephens drove around Brooksville to check out the competition. When he found most places closed, he decided there was no better way to corner the market than to fry up some shrimp and pork chops.
"The wings have been the fastest to go," Stephens said as he prepared an order for takeout. "I am seeing the overflow from the other vendors. I checked them out. You have got to know how to play the game. I'll tell you that."
Two customers sat in lawn chairs out front. The men ignored the rain.
"It is just like a regular day," Stephens said. "It is better than sitting on the couch and doing nothing."
Trouble finding gas adds to stress for motorists
At the Chevron service station at State Road 50 and Interstate 75 in Ridge Manor West, cars and pickups angled for a spot at the pumps Monday.
At pump No. 4, Lora Hogue's Volkswagen Beetle was dwarfed by the recreational vehicle parked beside her. The rain was still spitting. She and her friend, Alison Frazier, 23, had begun their journey south from the Panhandle back home to Tampa early Monday, and Hogue, 22, said she would drive just about any distance for a bite to eat.
Now, she had other worries: Her tire pressure was low.
"I stopped at IHOP in Wildwood and waited 45 minutes," Hogue said, fiddling with the dials on an electric air pump. "Then, we went to a gas station and waited for an hour before we left. We decided to come here, and now my tire is low. This is a real pain in my butt."
Many motorists dealt with similar situations: stalled engines, blown tires and little gasoline.
Minutes after Hogue complained that the gas was taking too long to pump, a couple with a Hillsborough County license tag pulled in front of the station's entrance. They were having engine trouble.
Hogue pointed to the pump, which squeezed $8.94 of gas into her Beetle.
"See, that is what I am talking about," Hogue said, explaining how long the fill-up took. "It has been a great trip, and now we are sick."
Simple pleasures can mean a lot after storm
A half-mile past a tree branch hanging over Lingle Road and the Istachatta General Store, which stood behind fallen power lines, Larry Stevens walked over to the Istachatta Mobile Home Park to chat with four people standing in an alley.
When he learned that Frances had done nothing more than loosen the trim on some of the mobile homes, he headed back to his home across the road, his hand in his pocket.
It was 12:32 p.m. Monday, and Stevens walked around his house at Lingle Road and Freewalt Street three or four times. There was no television - nothing else to do.
There were some small trees down, but none of the bigger ones behind his home. He picked up a small branch, but decided that the heavy lifting, if any, would have to wait.
"We're just staying put," Stevens said as his wife, Shirley, walked around their Ford F-150 and trailer parked in front of their mobile home. "Hopefully, we could get electricity later on."
The couple were hoping to get their lives back to normal soon. They said they would even settle for the radio.
"Just the radio," Larry Stevens said.
Silver lining: Man's car crushed, but home's okay
For a man whose Saturn sedan was crushed by two trees, Ken Edwards, 44, was oddly upbeat Monday.
"You need to see this," Edwards said, hopping over a tree and tugging an electrical line from the tree's branches. "They are not live. The line was pulled from a transformer. It is dead. . . . Hey, you got a camera?"
A photographer would likely see the damage and have a field day. Edwards' home on U.S. 41 and the mobile home parks up and down the roadway looked more like swamps than places to live. The water hovered near the top of one picnic table. Fallen trees left car-size holes in the loose soil.
Residents had been looking for insurance adjusters all morning.
"How could you tell (the damage) under all of this," Edwards said, extending his hands about 2 feet. "Thank God, the trees did some sheering on the house, but they stopped this far from the master bedroom."
His landlord dropped by, and they tried to figure out what to do about the tree that blocked a path leading to U.S. 41.
"I am just about to take inventory on firewood," Edwards said jokingly.
He turned toward his fence and introduced himself to one of his neighbors, who asked if he had a camera to take some photos.
"Hi, I am Ken."
Funny, Edwards said later, how people seem to come together in hard times.
