Shelter From The Storm

Monday morning was a perfect beach day along Florida's white sand coastline on the Gulf of Mexico: cloudless skies, warm temperatures and gentle surf.

You would never know, reports The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, that a dangerous hurricane had roared through the region just hours before.

Smith weathered this storm with some brave residents who had decided to ride it out in Navarre, Fla. He figured he was in the right place when he found the hurricane researchers setting up a portable weather station in town.

Smith and four other families were hunkered down in the Navarre Presbyterian Church. Nearby Navarre Beach, a barrier island, had been evacuated and was almost entirely covered by waves.

With Smith was Peggy and Gordy Humbert who have a house on the sound. They've endured Opal, Ivan and now Dennis. How many do they have in them?

"Not many more," says Gordy. "I'm telling you. I might have some very cheap for-sale waterfront property."

As the winds gathered strength outside, Mike Scott said the church was the best place to be: "We're all family here."

Just to be safe, the group moved into the hallway. The ceiling had come down in the fellowship room.

Before too long, the storm was gone. Across the street, Bob Davidson had sat through it alone.

"It'll be my last hurricane I ride out, trust me," he says.

One family - Don and Beth Butler and their children, Kayla and Kaitlin - had been through plenty in the last nine or ten months. They barely survived Ivan, escaping through rising water as the storm was coming through.

With Dennis on the way this weekend, they thought we were going to lose yet another house.

"We decided to pack up everything we had in the house because I didn't want to come home to all our belongings being waterlogged again," Don said. "We didn't want to start over one more time."

They packed up all of their belongings, put it in a rented truck and drove it five or six miles inland. When they went to check on it Sunday, there was a tree on top of their U-Haul.

They plan to stay in the area but they are thinking of moving inland a little bit to get away from the water. "We really don't feel -- we feel like we're being chased by the water," said Don. "And we're being kicked out of our place every time one of these things come through."

The Humberts also found good news when they returned home. Their house was still standing with very little damage. A 200-foot-dock, just replaced after it was taken out by Hurricane Ivan, was destroyed again, but their home was not.

"I am very happy," said Gordy with a big grin. "And I hope everybody else is happy too, and that people in this area survived it with minimal damage."