Heard from some people in the St. Cloud and Kissimmee area...not good there either.

St. Cloud Hospital's front windows blew in, flooding their lobby and first floor offices and rooms. The second floor windows - their ICU area - almost blew in, forcing evacuations. They moved everyone to the back of the hospital, with patients in the hallways away from windows. They are currently operating on generator power, as the main power is down there as well.

The residential areas of St. Cloud did not fare so well, either. Also without power, trees came down onto houses, cars, and carports across the region. One person noted that their house was alright, but their back porch blew in and trees were down across their yard. Their neighbor had a tree on the garage and house with significant damage. Another tree had split in two and was in danger of falling.

A report in Kissimmee from my parents said that power was out there too as well, with one house being blown into another. The Kissimmee area and between there and St. Cloud has many mobile homes, so there is likely significant damage there. Lake Toho and surrounding regions probably saw some flooding; 6" of rain were reported in east Orlando, with similar totals observed across the swath of the storm by Doppler-estimated precipitation. A tornado report came from Harmony, just east of St. Cloud and the site of some explosive growth; I hope everything is alright there. More reports will filter in with time from those areas, and I expect there to be some significant damage in the region, if only due to the construction in the region.

Another friend reported traffic on John Young Pkwy in south Orlando had started to return to normal, which is folly...where are people going? Power is still out across the southern part of the city as well as downtown. Power is on in the Ocoee area, where one of my best friends reported it only flickered on and off. His place received some minor structural damage from the hurricane, with their back porch currently sitting under a couple of inches of water. Seems as though places along and east of I-4 in the Orlando area were hardest hit. I await reports from downtown Orlando, which is heavily treed, particularly in the older sections of town. I feel there will be a good number of homes destroyed there, unfortunately.

My parents were thinking about driving down US 17 (Orange Blossom Trail) to survey things, as they seemed to come out relatively unscathed (as previously mentioned), but probably will not due to the danger of fallen power lines. I haven't heard many reports of fallen lines, but there have been some and I imagine there are many more across the region. The whole southern part of the town, as noted above, is dark. My family reported that it was eerily quiet and very dark - they could hear no sounds from US 17, no sounds from people usually playing their music late at night, and no humming of electricity about.

That's probably all of the reports I'll have for tonight. Here's hoping for minimal loss of life and property elsewhere.