Thank God they're ok -

Hurricane Ivan came ashore near Gulf Shores, AL and beat the crap out of Pensacola. Stats currently being released state "About 364,969 of Gulf Power's 405,000 electric customers were without electricity Thursday." They are estimating a solid 3 wks before power is totally restored.

Everyone is alive and so far uninjured. My grandparents home had the roof caved in by their tree. It sounds like it is non-repairable. The end of an era, I suppose. It's hard to believe.

I look at the pictures on http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com in their picture gallery and the devastation is nearly unbelievable. I can't imagine how much work is going to have to be done just to restore the infrastructure. Water, sewage, electricity, clear roadways - all those things we take for granted have to be cleared, restored or rebuilt.

Ivan is now headed here to Chattanooga - we have 4100 homes without power currently, but it seems like a normal rainstorm to me. Not much else going on so far. I'll head to the basement soon and make sure the sump pump is still working before I head to bed. I guarantee I'll sleep better than I did yesterday!