With a span the size of Texas and the pace of an afternoon stroll, Frances seemed likely to leave its footprints over virtually the entire state during its multiday trek. Frances was expected to sweep into the Panhandle today, and although it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, the prospect was enough to spur evacuations in four counties there.

Now spinning tropical storm-force winds over a 200-mile swath, Frances is expected to emerge as a low-grade hurricane in the Panhandle, south of Tallahassee, this afternoon. It is expected to dump between 8 and 15 inches of rain in the capital, which has already lost power in some areas because of tree debris from wind gusts.

In Palm Beach County, the storm left knee-high water in parts of West Palm Beach, snapped off the Lake Worth Pier, swamped part of Interstate 95 near North Palm Beach and sucked a West Palm Beach portion of the highway into a sinkhole. It scattered debris, swamped some streets and caused extensive outages in Broward County.

Meanwhile, weary and waterlogged Floridians began to emerge from shuttered houses and hurricane shelters, which were still housing more than 400,000 statewide on Sunday night. Some in South Florida had spent as many as three nights on gym floors and in school hallways, hiding out from a storm that took its time arriving.

And so now the cleanup begins. As we now return to the station to survey the damage and cleanup the aftermath of this powerful storm, we have you in mind. We will do our best to be up and ready for broadcast by this comming weekend but we do not know the extent of the damage yet. And it looks like hurricane Ivan is now on the way for yet another hurricane party in Florida. This MUST be kind of like spring break for hurricanes and we are the IN destination! Keep checking back for more news as this story continues to develop.