Posted on 08/13/2004 7:24:06 AM PDT by STARWISE
ALL FLORIDIANS, PLEASE COMMENT ON CONDITIONS, ESPECIALLY THOSE ON SOUTHERN WEST COAST
I'm inland from Tampa Bay about 25 miles. Dear God, I'm scared. I lost it all in Andrew in '92 and left South Florida after a year and a half to come to this area.
Please keep me and all those going through this storm in your prayers. I'm alone here, and this storm's probably going to be very damaging and destructive. I'm picking up branches, objects lying about. I've filled the tub with water, I'll bringing in my dog and my birds, I haven't taped the windows as I've heard that can cause worse problems when the windows are broken. I pulled the car right up close to the house on the south side. I've draped the windows with fabric to stop debris or glass .. but in high winds, it probably won't be much help.
I've got old, tall oak trees overhead .. and I don't know how the roof or house or I will fare. There is no inner room without a window, so my location will probably be my shower stall on the south side of the house. It has one typical bathroom window. There is no other place where my dog and I could at least be surrounded with some strengthened walls.
I'm not in an evacuation area, and I wouldn't be able to take my pets in anyway.
Even if I have to get offline because I need to move the computer, there may be some insight and help offered until then and many thousands of us in this area may be helped by some tip.
PLEASE pray Charley away from here .. please pray for my and our safety on the West Central Florida coast. God Bless Us All.
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!
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
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.......
Like I said I do respect these gulf storms, you are a fool if you don't
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.
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.
125 mph now in the storm eye wall
54 mile wide storm wall... about 2-2.5 hours out from Sanibel.
Batten down the hatces and try to keep dry, it is all you can do now. Good luck, God Bless.
Godspeed
where are you, exactly? If you are on the water I hope your house is on stilts!
Tampa is too far inland for him to worry about a storm surge.
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.
I'm in Punta Gorda on a canal but at 10 feet above high water.... well here comes some sprinkles.
that's kinda neat... wind now from the east at about 9-10 mph.
Prayers out for all my Gators down there in FLA (and I'll even through in a prayer for you Noles and Canes) ;)
Red
yep, I think maybe south of us... by the way, throw a prayer out for us Aggies here in Florida..hahahhahahaha
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.