Ugh! Good luck OO, Tandoori, and all others in the path! And Godspeed to all the disaster responders, police, firemen, and ambulance workers.

Been busy getting the kids off to school. Accuweather says 75 mph, glanced at the news this morning, and it said 85 mph.
Does anyone know if the plane has been out since this morning and we've received an updated forecast?

Good luck to Olive Oyl and Tandoori Girl, and all our friends affected by this weather!!! Please do what you must to stay safe and sound! We lived through Hurricane Fran here in Raleigh (turned at the last minute - so unexpected!) a few years ago............ NOT fun to experience. STAY SAFE, all!

From an interview with a holidaymaker in a news report about the hurricanes:

"I've never been in a hurricane before," a US visitor from Las Vegas told the news agency. "I'm kind of excited."

I hope the cameras are still on him/her when Bonnie/Charley get to wherever they are. Their excitement may fade away fairly quickly!

A day or two after a blizzard in 1989, I went to get groceries when the streets were cleared. I couldn't figure out the big gaping section on one of the shelves until I read the tiny tag underneath. All the prune juice was sold out!!

After that same storm, one of my co-workers said, "There wasn't a nacho chip to be found!"

As a labor and delivery nurse, we all heave a collected sigh when a large storm is approaching. We know in 9 months time that we will be working overtime to keep up with the storm babies.

To everyone in the path of the storm(s)... be safe, dry, and warm.

I have a great little Italian deli near me with loads of great gourmet goodies. The owner commiserates every hurricane when everyone goes to Publix and buys out all the pork n' beans. Jeezo, I'd hate to be eating those beans for a couple of days. What's everyone thinking?!? Go for the gourmet stuff!

I've got so much work to do, I'm wrapping up a budget that was due last week. So I'm going to settle in. I was in my house last time (1985) and didn't evacuate. I'm four blocks from the bay and the water got high two blocks away but it was fine where I am (C zone -- so I don't have flood insurance, gulp).

My La Quinta reservation is for Friday -- and yes, I knew when I booked it that it was the 13th, the clerk and I both laughed at that.

At my Sunset Beach rental (TI), we've not had any flooding since we bought the house. I can only pray that this is not our time.

Everyone be safe. Know your evacuation routes. Know the safe spots in your house (small bathrooms are good). Fill your tubs with water. Stay clear of fallen power wires. Charge your cell phones.

Most important -- have your pets close at hand if you need to evacuate. NEVER leave them behind.

Now -- back to the budget.

We're charging up our two way radio's as well. Taking one to my parent's home and keeping one with us, as we'll be staying nearby at my brother's home.
If the phone lines go down, I'm hoping we'll be able to check on our parents using the radio's.

So much for my plan to settle in with my budget. I'm off to the beach to sandbag the door. The tenant says the word is that TI and the barrier islands will be forced to evacuate. I plan to pile the furniture on the beds and tables and counters and hope for the best.

OO, landfall's not expected until 2P tomorrow. You'll surely have time to take care of the boats.

Be safe, all.

Those of us in HurricaneLand a little farther up the eastern seaboard are keeping fingers crossed for y'all. Stay safe!

A couple of last minute tips:

Have your car filled with gas.

Have plenty of food and bottled water for your pets.

Keep your important papers close by in a waterproof container.

I would go ahead and throw a couple of blankets and/or sleeping bags in the car in case you need to evacuate quickly.

Good luck to y'all and hope you know we are thinking about you. Stay safe and dry!

Update from Sunset Beach (Treasure Island):
Well, Tandoori and Blacktie, there is practically zero beach on our Gulffront to hold any surge back. We are scheduled for renourishment, but it hasn't arrived yet. Meanwhile, Bonnie has whipped up the Gulf to surfer frenzy level, so there's no wiggle room on our beaches. I'm trying not to worry. Just heard that it's been 80 years since Pinellas has had an actual direct hit. Is that good or bad? I've lived here (3 houses from the Gulf) for 21 years and have only been evacuated once, in the 80's, for Elena. Lots of near-misses but no actual evacs. Hope our luck holds out again. Irony: my kid was supposed to camp on Ft DeSoto all weekend. I have a Priceline res at the Hyatt downtown Tampa for Sunday night HA! should have made it Friday and Saturday, eh?

The shelters here are a joke - only as a last resort. We will take our pets, our daughter, our parents, and go to our seafood restaurant inside the city - at least we won't starve right?

Stay safe everyone! God Bless.

One more, get some cash. ATM's won't work if the power is out.

TG, the SS Beach folks are a tough lot, as noted, so they will survive quite nicely. I trust the more risk averse managed to get some sleep, we're only just into the H season, four months to go. Too soon for H burnout. BTW, is Jeb still in state, or has he gone right to higher ground?

Joan, they just rebuilt that beach less than two years ago. Yes, you are scheduled for more rebuilidng. Good luck, and don't wait too long to head inland. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the SSB luck will hold. Take care.

TG...The only thing we should have done that we didn't was get the sails off and they are way too much for me to manage alone. They are lashed but that's it. DH isn't even thinking about the boat now I'm sure--the least of his worries. Aside from buttoning this place up, unless things change we'll have to move our guests elsewhere. I am happy to say our palms got their hurricane haircuts yesterday. We've got some that tower over our casita and had been flinging fronds and berries everywhere recently.

Still hoping that if it moved west during the night last night, it'll keep moving further west now and it won't be so bad. I don't know when high tide will be around the beaches...it's at 1 PM on the bay, an hour or two before Charley is scheduled to pass, and to make surge matters worse, we are alomst at a new moon so tides will be extremely high under the best (non-hurricane) circumstances.

Was thinking about you Joan. I hope you and your home are safe! Birder too with her new home, and Hibiscushouse.

OO, posted a boat message for you.

joan, if you haven't had a direct hit in over 80 years, you still aren't due. Every 100 years is the average.

If max sustained winds are over 70mph for a direct hit, I would evacuate.

I was in Hugo.

First, you hear the trees start to snap. Then you wonder if they'll fall on your house. Then you lose power.

It's not fun and it is the worst thing I've ever lived through. No way jose.

I feel sorry for all those residents in the keys not leaving. Especially Key West. They are four feet above sea level with zero protection from storm surge.

Hate to sound like doom and gloom but this is serious.

I think this will make or break any of us Florida Newbies...the Yankee is watching the weather channel or some such, I am thinking of what to pack in a water proof box, how much dog food to pack and where is all my jewelry that I hid ????
OO...we are 4 hours away if you need to come in this direction.
Thank you everyone for all your kind responses, for your encouragement, for your advice based on having Been There!
Some people experience through life, some through reading about it...I wish I were just reading about this one, but I will endeavor to be as cool and strong as the rest of you AND you know who you are!!
Stay safe and I do hope that we all show up here in a couple of days, laughing about how those Two Storms Blew Right Past Us ~~~
love and be safe!!!
Scarlett

Ugh, sounds like they expect it to be a nighttime storm. :( I hate those!

Joan
Just remembering the month we stayed on TI and daily walking Sunset Beach and buying fresh seafood at your restaurant to take back to our condo and cook. Hate to think of all that beauty being damaged but mostly just pray for your, Tandoori Girl and everyone's safety, especially with the double wallop of Charley being close behind and a definite hurricane.
Olive:
How do you prepare your lines for a 10' surge? No way! Good Luck!

I'm thinking about all of you in the Hurricane's path and praying you'll all be safe. Has anyone heard from Patrick? He's traveling, isn't he?

Don't forget prescription meds if you have to evacuate.

I arrived in the US from Britain at the beginning of September, 1977, a couple of days before Hurricane Babe hit Louisiana, right where I was. What a welcome, and that was barely a hurricane!

Good luck.

Thinking of all of you in the path of both of these storms.
One of my closest friends, who is also a much-valued colleague, was in a horrendous car accident on Monday. Miraculously, after being hit by 3 transport trucks (one of which caused the accident and then fled the scene) and 2 cars, she is alive and well other than some scratches and bruises. So are all of the other people that were hit. While it was going on, she says, she was convinced she would die. I'm so grateful that she didn't, and I feel truly hopeful that the rest of you will escape disaster as well. Keep us posted!

I haven't read all 100 replies, but my heart goes out to all of those in the storm's path. Went without power for 4 days after Fran in 1996. Don't want to do that again.

I wouldn't stock up on ice because it will melt. Just learn to drink room temperature drinks. Stock up on water because the town's water/sewer system could go out (did so in Chapel Hill where I was living at the time) making the tap water unsafe for drinking.

Fill up the car with gas because gas pumps work on electricity. Get cash from bank/ATM because the bank might not open and the ATM needs electricity to run.

Do you laundry. After the storm you will work up a sweat cleaning up and if you don't have power (therefore no AC or laundry facilities) .

Bring in all outdoor stuff that can move. Strong winds can blow around the outdoor furniture and make it indoor furniture (maybe in a neighbor's house).

Be strong and let us know you're okay afterwards.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the storms and thinking of all you Floridians over the next couple of days. Especially my good friends Scarlett and OO.

Thus far our little rock has managed to steer clear of any the storms this season, so I hope that it stays that way for the duration (knock on wood). When we do get hit, however, there certainly isn't much land here to even begin to slow them down, so our preparations deal more with salvage than stocking up on things.

My main concern is always protecting my irreplaceable belongings in case we lose our roof, which can be common during category fours and above in this area. I box up and store all my photographs and anything else that could never be replaced by insurance and put them in our concrete shelter.
I then move everything from the patio into the house, try to make things as comfortable as possible for the long night/day ahead, and stock up on good wine and plenty of snacks.

If it gets too bad in the house, we ride the hurricane out in our shelter, and hope the roof is still intact when we come out. There is nothing worse than hearing swirling zinc from a darkened room and having no idea if it's your roof or someone elses you hear tearing thru the streets.

You Floridians be sure to check in when you can and let us know how you're doing up there! Batten down, stay high, stay dry, and be safe.

Hope all of you stay safe. Will be thinking of you.

Here in Orlando the grocery stores are really crowded also.
I am just hoping to get off work Friday because the storm is supposed to pass near or over us as it crosses the state.
But so far we are being told to come in to work....

Level C mandatory evacuation orders were just issued for Pinellas County (St. Pete/Clearwater etc) starting at 6 PM tonight. Am going back down to the boat (St Pete) while I can to rethink lines. :( DH thinks Hillsborough (Tampa) will pull the same trigger--they were waiting on an update.

Thanks for all good wishes...Statia you've been so lucky so far since I've "known" you. Knock hard on that wood. You have a good point about those things that can't be replaced.

One sort of amusing incident imbedded in this--I ran this morning and stopped off at my husbandd's office on my way back home. It's humid as can be and I was dripping wet from my run. I walked into the office and his sec'y exclaimed nervously on looking at me, "What, it's raining already?!" Heehee...we take our laughs where we can.

OO, yes we've been very, very lucky since Lefthanded Lenny a couple of years ago. Before that, however, the island was completely devastated by the likes of Luis, Marilyn and Georges over two separate seasons.

Therefore, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can make it through yet another year without a major hurricane. I could certainly deal with that!

The only thing that I could think of to help resist a large wave surge would be to use two or three rubber extenders on each of your mooring lines. With your lines wrapped around the rubber extender, when the lines need to extend they will stretch the rubber extender and will return to normal size when the surge ends. Being a fresh water boater, I have not had the need to experience what you are facing, other than an occasional bad storm crossing the lake. I wish you good luck and safety in this trying time. (OO from my husband. cd)

GoTravel--the tip about filling the bathtub with water for the toilet is very cool! I do not live in hurricane country so most of these tips I have never heard but the bathtub one is very, very cool!

Stay safe.

Statia,

I was on St Lucia for Karen, Luis and Marilyn, and those were bad ones. We had frogs, birds, turtles, bugs, etc., in the bedroom with us. Wouldn't want to go through THAT again!

Here in NC, we've been through so many that we have a pretty good plan in place. We are just supposed to get wind and rain this aft. thru Sun.

Good luck to all my FL buddies, and we'll be thinking of you. %%-

Freaky Friday should sure be an interesting thread this week! Good luck everyone!

Usually I'd be in Europe now, but I returned late last night to face these hurricanes (Charley's the one for us to look out for). Here in Naples there is mass confusion. A while ago, on TV they were saying my area is in a "Mandatory" evacution, while at the same exact time the crawl on the screen said we were in a "Suggested" evacuation. Then I turned to another channel where they said the latest report suggests the storm will hit further north of us and that they just lifted the evacuation for Naples west of US 41.
Friends with a house high above the flood plain have offered us shelter for the night tonight, but nothing should happen until tomorrow. Well, fiddle-dee-dee. Guess we'll think about that tomorrow.

Not to make light of the issue, it is serious, and we are making necessary precautions.

Propane, propane, propane. We don't get hurricanes very often, but last year we were hit with a Cat.2. People didn't take it seriously enough, and the power and water were out for most for 5 days.
I will never be caught again without a full propane tank for the BBQ. Never ate so much meat in my life, but DH and I didn't want to see it go to waste ! Good luck and stay safe, those things are scary.

Patrick, "Fiddle dee dee " ... Exactly what I say :D

Statia, I am happy that these storms have skipped the islands, I hope this continues for you all year :)

We are under Tornado watches right now. Everything is calm and quiet. Although I am noticing the gekkos are very busy doing push ups on the patio..hmmm..a storm preparedness exercise?

I hope we continue to check in with news as long as this goes on..I will be thinking of all of you, hoping the whole thing just fizzles out ( no harm in wishful thinking!)
((L)) Scarlett

Yes, Scarlet, that "fiddle-dee-dee" was for your benefit.

In reading my response, I realize it sounds like I cut short my Europe trip to come home and face the hurricanes. Sorry, that's not what I meant, just that usually this time of year, that's where I am. Actually we came home to Florida from Europe on July 18, spent four days at home, then have been in Oregon, California, and Las Vegas since then until last night. Just wanted to clarify that.

Patrick, did you post a trip report on the Ca/Or/LV trip?

The latest from friends in the newsroom is that the eye is expected to hit Clearwater. This is a worst case scenario for Tampa as that pushes the water to the back of the bay. Surges of 10 feet likely. Yowza.

Folks in Tampa, forget the beaches. We are in the line of fire. Take this one seriously.

Just got back from TI -- Joan, was looking for you. I tried my best to minimize any damage from flooding but what can you do?!? Wrapped the door with plastic for what that was worth.

OK. For the first time ever, I'm a little scared.

But that could pass with a margarita or two! If only I could finish this budget that I'm working on. I have yet to pack up my business to take it to La Quinta. Taxes, computers, printer, dog, cat, jeeeeeez.

And...it is now a Category 3.