Snowbirds flying here early to escape Sandy

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - Hurricane Sandy isn't just changing the northeast. It's changing South Florida.

Rose Franzi is from New York, and her south shore town in Long Island was hammered by Sandy.

"I could not even take my poor dog outside for the walk," said Franzi.

But Franzi and her husband Peter are Floridians, at least for this week.

Still without power, they drove down after suffering through Sandy's damage for a week.

"We just saw, Delray, I figure by the beach, how bad could it be?" said Franzi.

It's a sliver of benefit to a situation everyone wishes never happened.

"I had about eight the other evening, a couple nights ago I had ten or twelve people," said Chris Ferrel, the GM of Prime Delray, a restaurant on Atlantic Avenue.

The owner of Forms Art Gallery says a half dozen have stopped in, with stories of Sandy's destruction.

"It was a lot of exposure even though we've been here for twenty years," said Carole Lynn.

But the impact might not be temporary.

Deborah Trevett moved to South Florida from Connecticut after spending twelve days without power.

"I'm going for interviews tomorrow," she said. "To get a seasonal job."

Even the Franzis are thinking about sticking around after their first Delray Beach exposure.

"Matter of fact, my husband just got a newspaper, looking for some condos," she said.

The Palm Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau says they don't have any firm numbers yet.