Murphy is alive and well and living in Palm Beach County. We had power restored at the shop after four days and one hour after we bought a generator for the shop. We use UPS battery-filters on all or workstations so variations in the power was not a major concern.
The power being off at home for twelve days was a serious expense at gas prices these days. We made two trips to Vero Beach, ninety miles to the north to find stations that were offering unlimited gas. Each trip we fetched sixty gallons of gas plus filling the tank of the pickup.
My understanding is that FEMA will pay for the generator, and consider claims for the roughly $200 worth of worth of electrical cords we purchased, our fuel consumed and the lost five days of business. We heard on the news tonight that FEMA is spending just under $42 billion for Katrina victims which equals about $9000 for every man, woman and child in the area hit by that storm.
It's been quite a year for property loss to hurricanes. Katrina broke all records and Wilma is now ranked number 3 behind Hurricane Andrew.