Hurricane/Family Update

As I've mentioned before, my family now lives in Florida (the parental units near the Palm Beach area, my sister and her family north of Vero Beach and my nephew in the Tampa area). Well, as everyone knows by now (unless one's been living in a cave with no outside contact) Hurricane Jeanne went near Vero Beach yesterday.

I finally spoke to my parents a couple of hours ago and unfortunately, no one has heard from my sister, her partner and the two youngest kids since yesterday afternoon. They had evacuated to a house they own on the main land and everything was fine there. She told my mother she would call and check in later that day (last night) but so far nothing.

There's no land phone line there but my sister had her cell phone but nobody has been able to get through other than getting her voice mail. My mother tried to drive up there but with the roads closed, it was impossible to get to the house. Both my parents and I have left messages on her voice mail, we both contacted the Red Cross to get her and each other on a contact list, and my mother has my nephew driving in to the house very early tomorrow morning.

It could be that the cell signal is out in the area. The power's out and there could be cellphone tower damage which may have shut down the cell signal in the area. I called my cell company and they said that they've had signal problems in the area so it shouldn't be surprizing if other companies did as well.

I dunno...I hope they're okay and just prevented from calling out but I'm a bit scared. My mother is beside herself with worry to the point of barely being able to talk much and there's nothing to do to calm her, or anyone else's, worries. i guess it's justg a waiting game and keeping our fingers crossed.