DUNEDIN - Two days after the wind peeled the roof away from the Scottish Towers, residents are still wondering how a roof that was only 18 months old ripped off so easily.
Frances blew the $90,000 roof off the waterfront wing, exposing close to 40 condominiums to pelting rain. On Tuesday, chunks of roof the color of sweet potatoes lay in the courtyard.
"That one area is a real high velocity wind area," said Rich Martin, the roofing contractor. "I don't know why that particular section came up."
On Tuesday, workers sprayed an orange polyurethane foam on the broken roof - a temporary patch to stop the ceiling leaks. But the roof, at least on that section, will have to be replaced.
It could be two to three months before residents can move back into their homes, said Curt Mariani, president of the Scottish Towers owners association.
Residents heard the roof come off at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. They came outside to survey the damage, but then went back into their homes. The following morning, water began rushing into the units.
Laurie Tylicki heard the pelting of rain about 5 a.m. The ceiling began to drip and then water began coming out of the walls. She emptied a trash container of water more than a dozen times and placed every towel she owned around the condo in an attempt to stop the leaks.
"It was so frustrating because you couldn't keep up with the water," said Tylicki, who rents her unit. "We tried for four hours to sop up the water. Then we gave up."
The damage to the condo is extensive. The stucco ceiling has turned to paste. The carpet smells like mildew. And bubbles have appeared in the walls.
"There is much, much moisture. It is nasty," she said. "The paint's coming off. The moisture is starting to get to the dresser. And it smells."
Residents in the water-damaged condos have moved into undamaged units. About 70 percent of the people in the condos are seasonal residents and gave Mariani permission to use their condos as temporary housing.
Insurance should pay for the roof repairs, Mariani said. The condominium owners association has $5-million in insurance. But damage to the individual units are left to the homeowners.
That could pose a problem for some residents.
Eddie and Pauline Palmateer, for example, were unable to secure insurance because their condo is on the waterfront and the unit is not their primary residence. The couple live in Orange City most of the time.
"Thank God for tile," said Pauline Palmateer, as she sat in a wet chair and looked around. "The TV is soaked in the back. Everything is soaked."
The Palmateers were waiting on a U-haul truck.
"We're getting all the stuff out, so we can demolish it and start again," Eddie Palmateer said. "We'll probably start ripping the dry wall tomorrow."
Pauline Palmateer questioned the decision to put a new roof over an old one, rather than removing the old roof first.
Removing the old roof would have driven the cost up 50 to 100 percent, Martin said. And it was not necessary.
"When it has more than two layers of roofing, we remove the entire system down to the concrete," Martin said. "We just re-roofed over one existing roof and that's permissible. I never make recommendations to remove an old roof if it doesn't need to be removed."
The power in the waterlogged condos remained off Tuesday. Residents spent the day transporting their belongings to the dry units. They draped rugs over the railings and packed their cars with photos, paintings and clothes. There was no charge to do laundry.
At least one resident didn't let the missing roof change his plans. He was moving into a unit Tuesday.
"What a welcome we got," he said. "The roof wasn't torn off this building. We were very fortunate. We weren't affected."
