I just heard from my aunt who lives in Ft. Pierce. After Frances blew out her windows and destroyed the screen porch, she boarded up for Jeanne. This saved the house from further damage and possibly from roof failure. Anyone who lives in a hurricane-prone area should at the very least have 3/4" plywood shutters.

I learned one very interesting piece of information. The other side of the street in my aunt's neighborhood fared much worse. One house is destroyed...the roof failed and one of the walls caved in. This is a concrete block house! Although I am sure they did not use shutters.

While I have not seen any of the damage firsthand, this seems to suggest a common pattern in major hurricanes--that the worst damage occurs from meso-vortices or "mini-swirls" (originally theorized by Ted Fujita) in the eye wall of hurricanes. This is the only explanation for the narrow "streaks" of considerably worse damage that we see in major hurricanes.

Just thought I'd share that information! I am praying that everyone will come out of this ok.

God Bless,
Ronn