FRANCES RAIN & WIND DAMAGE MINIMAL IN WIREGRASS

Frances made its way into the Panhandle of Florida Monday, but by the time it reached the area it was downgraded to a tropical storm.The E. M. A. office director, Shelby Womack said they were ready with more than 45 people representing area agencies attending meetings through the weekend. Womack said it was amazing how everyone pulled together. Dothan fared well with a minimal amount of wind and rain. Wind gusts blew as hard as 35-40 mph and the area was to receive two to four inches of rain. Womack said he felt like we had "dodged a bullet" as the storm weakened and shifted to the east of us. It just made it better for us, he said. Emergency crews responded to calls, but mostly had some traffic lights out. Power outages were sporadic, but they were able to get this restored quickly. For the most part, most residents stayed inside and off the roadways. Traffic was light for a Labor Day Holiday. There were some local business owners who felt the brunt of the storm just as it began to effect the wiregrass. Power was knocked out in certain areas near downtown as the storm approached around one o`clock yesterday. The Porter Square Shell station at West Main and Montana was without power for quite a while during the early afternoon. The store clerk said the outage was not only a major inconvenience to customers, but obviously bad for business as well. The store did have power back on by evening. Another storm Ivan, is looming in the Atlantic Ocean. Womack said it`s too early to know what will happen with that storm.