Florida residents in disbelief as Ivan threatens

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- First Hurricane Charley rammed Florida's Gulf Coast a month ago. Then Frances plowed into the Atlantic shore. Now Ivan is threatening to wallop the state again -- and Floridians have had enough.

"I think everybody is in shock," said Christie Brown, helping customers grab supplies at a hardware store where storm-shattered windows are still covered in plywood.

"I lost my whole house in Charley," Brown said, her eyes growing moist. "I have nothing left to lose to Ivan."

Ivan lashed Jamaica Saturday with deadly force and headed for the smaller of the Cayman islands and western Cuba. The storm's course was erratic but it still had the potential to strike the Florida Keys by late Monday and the state's mainland by Tuesday.

Charley and Frances, which hit just last Sunday, together had been blamed for the deaths of at least 50 people and about $20 billion in damage.

For many, the approach of Ivan was almost too much to comprehend.

"Nobody wants to talk about it," Brown said. "Everybody just says they want to get ready for the storm, but nobody wants to say its name."

Some talked of sending their families away to another state, while others who never boarded up their homes in the previous two storms waited all night at home supply stores to buy plywood to cover their windows.

All over the state, lines for gasoline were long as false rumors spread that the governor had ordered rationing, and there was a rush for bread and milk, which have been scarce since Frances.

"This is the time to prepare, not panic," Gov. Jeb Bush reiterated. "It is also a time for people of faith to pray."

Residents of the state's east coast who were trying to clean up the damage caused by Frances had little time to take notice of Hurricane Ivan.

"Not now. Not now," said Rosemary Senatus, a mother of four whose West Palm Beach home was flooded by Frances. She lined up soggy clothes, shoes, papers and furniture on her lawn to try to salvage something.

Senatus said she didn't know what the family would do to prepare for Ivan but she knew they couldn't stay in their flood-prone home. They have been fighting mosquitoes at night while trying to sleep on the mildewed mattress the whole family shares.

"I don't know. I don't know," she said.

Punta Gorda still has high piles of debris from Charley's rampage. Broken glass litters downtown sidewalks and small mounds of ruined insulation, aluminum awnings and broken tree limbs dot the landscape.

Associated Press writers Jill Barton in West Palm Beach and Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.

Philip Blum came to Punta Gorda from a summer home in Oregon to check on damage to the mobile home where he and his wife spend their winters. The couple planned to ride out Ivan in the mobile home and to keep an eye on their neighbors, who probably won't evacuate.

"They are scared," he said of his neighbors. "A lot of people stayed for the first one and are thinking 'Oh no, here we go again.' But where are they going to go? A lot of people can't afford the extra expense (of evacuating). They've got nothing left from their Social Security checks."

At Sports City Billiards in nearby Port Charlotte, owner Sean Mullen had hoped to reopen Sunday, the first weekend of the NFL season, but instead his roof was being replaced and he was running his ice machines to churn out supplies for family and friends preparing for Ivan.

"There are so many people who are so stressed out that they are panicking," he said. "All you can do is just get through it. I feel it in my heart and my soul that Ivan is not going to be as bad as Charley."

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Associated Press Writers Jill Barton in West Palm Beach and Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.