I just returned from Gulf Breeze this afternoon. John, Agata and Isabella MacDonald came up and stayed with us near Montgomery and weathered the storm just fine. John and I left for Gulf Breeze Friday. It took us ~5 hours to get there after waiting in line for 45 min for gas. Hwy 41 was mostly one lane due to the HUGE number of trees and powerlines down. The damage that we saw in the panhandle was very spotty. You could see one house missing a few shingles while another would be decimated. No power, spotty lan lines, spotty cell coverage, and most people had water. John and Agata were lucky, there was very little damage to their house, however they lost all but two or three trees.

We heard from Mark Smith and know that Capt Kirk and John Williams are "ok", however cell reception was so spotty it was hard to contact any of them. We do know they went out to the beach on Saturday via boat, but have not heard a report from them.

We broke curfue on Friday night to go to Ft. Walton Beach to see Brian Lambert. He and his family were fine, but were also w/o power. The drive between Gulf Breeze and Mary Ester showed a lot of damage. In some areas the water was well over Hwy 98 with plenty of debris scattered about. There were a few boats on the shoulder with pleny of downed powerlines and bilboards.

We spent Saturday cutting down trees and helping the neighborhood clean up. Later in the day we went to see if we could locate another cat sailing friend on the south side of 98. His house was ~2-3 blocks from the sound and there was SIGNIFICANT damage in the area. The quantity of debris was amazing. We did not see them, however we hope that they are all ok.

After seeing the devistation that some people are dealing with first hand, I can not imagine going through it personally. I feel very sad for all of those dealing with such a great loss and hope them all the best during the recovery. It will be quite some time before life returns to normal as all the bridges in the area were heavily damaged and several sections of 98 were washed out. Both the Bob Sikes and 3 mile bridges lost sections of the approaches and I'm sure will take weeks/months to repair. From reports of people in the area it looks like the island was breached in ~4 locations. I cannot be for sure, but this is what people I know have seen.

The Red Cross, National Guard and many other organizations were giving out ice water and food with a smile. I know their efforts are greatly appreciated by all those whom they have helped. Here in Montgomery we just got power back ~4 hours ago, however even if we didn't have power for another week I would feel fortunate compared to some of the people I saw in Gulf Breeze and southern Alabama.

Will R