I'm in Orlando. I'm not stocking up yet, though. Even though the most likely path has it coming thru us, all that means is that it's the path that's more likely than any other. It's still not a more likely than not situation, though. The storm is still 4 days away, and that's a long way.
With Charley, they told us that it was going to hit Tampa all the way up to the day before it hit. They missed by almost 200 miles.
OK, I still find this astonishing that people think that Tampa is some insanely huge distance from Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda. They're close to each other.
The actual distance from Punta Gorda to the NHC forecast landfall position in Tampa Bay the night before the day of landfall, was only a little over 50 miles, not "200 miles." Tropical prediction wise, that's right next door.
And given the angle of approach from the SW even the precise NHC forecast track was going to go right by Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte.
It seems to be both media imbeciles, and local residents of Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte that want to blame their lack of preparation on anyone but themselves that seem to have moved nearby Tampa Bay to the far side of the moon, distance-wise.
That's also what happened when Andrew hit. Reports kepts saying it was going N and it didn't. Nobody really knows where it will hit until the day before or the day of impact.
Because of this, my area (Homestead) is getting ready for the potential of landfall near us or the most likely senario, that we will get a good portion of the storm over us.