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MARCO ISLAND — Helen Drummond wasted no time cleaning up the debris in her yard this morning.

She took the dog out for a walk around 7 a.m., taking the opportunity to assess the damage in her Marco Island neighborhood while she was out.

"I looked around and said, 'This isn't that bad - it's time to get to work,'" she said.

So Drummond, 79, grabbed a small hacksaw and set to work taking down damaged palm fronds. Her yard was in far better shape than after Hurricane Wilma lumbered through in 2005, she said, but one casualty was particularly upsetting: a palm tree whose fronds reached the ground had uprooted completely.

"We put these trees in 19 years ago," she said as she hacked a few final limbs off the forlorn tree. "In Wilma, it came down and we cut it, and had it braced here."

She pointed to a rope that supported the tree against another, more hearty palm. The fallen tree reached toward the ground, as if in defeat.

"Once they come low on the ground, the roots have been damaged," she said with a shake of her head. "After Wilma, it took three years to get the fronds to grow down."

It was upsetting, she said, but she had to do something productive while she waited for her power to come back on. Drummond's home is one of about 800 houses and businesses without power on Marco Island this morning.