LIVE THREAD-WAITING FOR CHARLEY

8-13-04 | vanity

[LBelle]

report from Islamorada, Florida Keys...

We got REALLLLLLY lucky.

It's very breezy right now, but the worst weather we've had was around midnight when the first band of weather passed through.

It's hot and muggy and windy, but my hubby went to work only an hour late so life is normal here (it's our own business, don't everyone start telling me my husband's employer is a slave driver!).

We are very lucky and very grateful, especially since we have a 16 week old little girl and didn't want to have to evacuate with her and her thousands of pounds of baby essentials.

My prayers are with anyone on the west coast. Take Care!

[AZHSer]

The sure do. All we lost in Alicia was tthe back of our fence and the tv blew when the power came back on. My most vivid memory is watching a seagull trying to fly down the big ditch in back of our house. It would get going and swoop into the ditch to try to get away from the wind. The wind was too much for it and it literally ended up flying backwards. LOL

[MIKEinGA]

My Father-in-Law lives on Siesta Key, 200yds from the ocean and about 200yds from the intercoastal ww. His place cant be more than 3-4ft above sea level. Fron the looks of the tracking Charlie will rake the coastline/barrier islands tween port charlotte and sarasota....If they are correct on the surge(lets hope not) this thing is gonna be a mess for the barrier islands.......

[TXBSAFH]

Like I said I do respect these gulf storms, you are a fool if you don't

[hemogoblin]

Right smack in the path in Sarasota, where it's very muggy and gray and a little breezy at the moment. I'm at work at the newspaper, and hope to get home (out in east county) some time tomorrow. We're a quarter mile from the bay and no one knows what will happen at this building.

[Dick Vomer]

looks like a direct hit going for Ft. Myers.. just turned to the northeast.... about 2-3 hours out. I'm just plinking here on the computer while it's available. all of us here just amusing ourselves....breeze coming from the east-northeast.... canal starting to chop up.

[Dick Vomer]

125 mph now in the storm eye wall

[Dick Vomer]

54 mile wide storm wall... about 2-2.5 hours out from Sanibel.

[TXBSAFH]

Batten down the hatces and try to keep dry, it is all you can do now. Good luck, God Bless.

[Vision]

Godspeed

[LBelle]

where are you, exactly? If you are on the water I hope your house is on stilts!

[Melpomene]

Tampa is too far inland for him to worry about a storm surge.

[SheLion]

She has a cell and I have been calling that too. She has family in MS so maybe she went there.
Being a native of the Gulf Coast I am all too familiar with hurricanes...been through Camille, Betsy, etc.
Be thankful this storm is coming in during the day cause there is nothing worse then one coming on shore in the dark. For some reason not being able to see what's coming makes it worse.

Yes, she probably headed out to MS.  Hurricanes can be powerful, but they give a lot of warnings, which is great.  We aren't so lucky with tornados.

Hope you hear from her soon.  I am sure she knows your worried about her.

She has a cell and I have been calling that too. She has family in MS so maybe she went there.
Being a native of the Gulf Coast I am all too familiar with hurricanes...been through Camille, Betsy, etc.
Be thankful this storm is coming in during the day cause there is nothing worse then one coming on shore in the dark. For some reason not being able to see what's coming makes it worse.

Yes, she probably headed out to MS.  Hurricanes can be powerful, but they give a lot of warnings, which is great.  We aren't so lucky with tornados.

Hope you hear from her soon.  I am sure she knows your worried about her.

[Dick Vomer]

I'm in Punta Gorda on a canal but at 10 feet above high water.... well here comes some sprinkles.

[Dick Vomer]

that's kinda neat... wind now from the east at about 9-10 mph.

[oceanview]

its coming right into charlotte harbor:

[dfwgator]

Prayers out for all my Gators down there in FLA (and I'll even through in a prayer for you Noles and Canes) ;)

[Conservative4Ever]

Bath tub is a good spot. If you can still read this...might think of covering you and animals with a mattress from the bed. Good protection from flying debris. God bless you...prayers are on the way. We in SoCal are getting flash flood warnings and it is raining hard now. Yippee water.

Red

[Dick Vomer]

yep, I think maybe south of us... by the way, throw a prayer out for us Aggies here in Florida..hahahhahahaha

[jpsb]

This is starting to look very bad to tampa(sp) area, worst case for them. Strom is going to puch a lot of water ahead of it, filling up the bays before it even gets there, then comes a big storm surge. I don;t think the west coast of Fla has had a big hurincane in many many years. Who knows how well the new towns a villages have been built? How well the drains and creeks will handle the huge flood waters.

Hmmmm, hopely this huricane is not as strong as claimed, but if it goes ashore at 120+ near tampa, it will not be pretty.

Stong side of storm pushing water all along the coast will make it bad for what even part of the coast the huricane decides to make land fall at.

Very bad news for fla.