Just came back from outside. It's a light rain so far. Some wind.
Haven't heard anything new on the tire fire. I would think the rain would douse it :-) ... (Funny, when I first heard of the tire fire, I thought of "The Simpsons" and how they've had a tire fire that's lasted for years.)
Every TV and radio is on in this building. Everyone has cell phones. It is noisy here. It's worse than election nights.
The folks in our Charlotte County bureau were told to drive back to Sarasota, to get out of Charley's path. They pleaded to stay. Their building is an old bank building, and they said they could stay in the bank vault. Bad, dumb, stupid idea ... fortunately, they were talked out of it.
I feel like I'm writing a blog. There's nothing to do right now; we can't put the paper out yet, so we're just sitting around. Writing this is keeping me busy. Thank you for tolerating my ramblings.
One of my co-workers is visibly upset. His girlfriend is visiting, and he didn't want her to be alone in his apartment. I offered him our house for refuge; his girlfriend was very thankful for the offer, but my co-worker decided to drive her down last night to his friend's house in Fort Myers. He thought she'd be safer there. Now he's seriously regretting it. He can't beat himself about that; nobody - not even the best metereologist in the world - can truly know what these storms will do.
Damn, now they say Charley's moving a little north and tracking toward Venice. Now THAT's much closer to us. It's literally changing by the minute. Charley's so unpredictable.
Hey, your an editor, save these posts as fodder for a follow-on story/editorial......
Thanks for enduring. There's no way for me to help you other than to be here hanging on your every posting.
I wish there was some other way for me to serve you.
Several of my coworkers and employees have family in Ft. Myers and Tampa. I'm keeping them abreast via your "on the ground" and nwctwx's monitoring.
Make sure that you've got a plan and that supplies are inventoried and distributed BEFOREHAND. It's too late when TSHTF.
You go ahead and keep rambling.
We'll go ahead and keep praying for you all.