AAFrequentFlyer

Yeay- Wow- My dad will be thrilled that he's getting it straight from the weatherman!

Thanks so much. Please keep us infomed (he sure he's never going to get to sit in his new little screened in area).

Asking a favor...When you post, please include the area you are in. Many of us have family and friends in a "lot" of areas and are following and depending on these personal updates. Some are not familiar with all of the regular posters, including me, and do not know where they are from. Thanks!

I can tell you that there is no gas in the Miami-Dade and Broward county areas. With 3-5 expections in both counties, the MIAMI HERALD reports it could be 3-10 days before gas consumption and refueling is back to normal. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Central Florida and those of us in South Florida, including West Palm Beach.

In St Petersburg.....Off & on rain, gusty winds staying pretty constant for last few hours, probably 30-40 mph. Several instances of power dimming for a few seconds but so far haven't lost it completely. My cats seem to know when something is up and luckily, so far, they haven't strayed from their usual sleep/eat/sleep routine.

In Tampa, 40,000 are without power due to downed power lines. So if you haven't heard from your loved ones don't be alarmed. It is blustery here, mostly in spurts and gusts, same with the rain, this due to feeder bands. There have been few reports of twisters, last night some were spotted on doplar (or whatever spots twisters) but I've not heard of any damage due to twisters.

There are trees down, lots of debris blowing, drizzling rain, but the slow movement of this hurricane is keeping us all just waiting and watching. Hopefully, this one will continue to downgrade and die out before passing Tampa.

Everytime I pass by my glass doors and see my antique wrought iron patio furniture rusting away in the pool, I cringe. Everybody -- stay safe!

Thank you all for giving us live updates. I tried calling my parents in Naples just now, and got a recorded message telling me that all circuit lines are busy. I can't get through and I bet a lot of you can't call your loved ones, either.

We live just south of Jacksonville, and it's been very rainy and windy, and we've had a few power outages this morning, but other than that, we're ok.
Thanks for checking.

The winds are getting stronger here on <b>Siesta Key(Sarasota)</b>, but no heavy rain just yet.

Power went out twice for just a second or 2, but everything else is fine.

Just got off the phone with my SIL who reports that family in <b> Stuart </b> are so far okay. They waited too long to evacuate so are riding the storm out. Fortunately, they are a couple of miles inland. So far they have only lost the screening around their porch. Let's hope that's the worst of it. Everyone stay safe....Peace.

Robyn

The few feet of some of our tree tips
are snapping off (I live in Indian Rocks Beach b/t Clw. and St. Pete bch) and my ligustrum is slowly falling over. Two houses across the bay are losing some shingles.
The bay is choppy with waves and the water is bumping into each other as well.

From Leesburg, about 45 minutes north of Orlando:
Just talked to my parents. Winds are pretty gusty but not too bad. No loss of power or phone services yet, no significant damage to anything. My parents said they've gotten about 3.5 inches of rain...on top of the 4 inches they got last week. They could get up to 10 inches more of rain in the next day or so. Very glad they're not living next to a river or lake!

Tampa....wind is getting stronger and lots of vegetation debris flying around, but rain has been less than I expected. Maybe because it can't fall out of the sky but only move sideways??? LOL

Tampa Bay, which we sit on, is experiencing an interesting storm phenomenon. The wind has been coming steadily out of the north so strongly it's blowing water out of the bay and not allowing it to return wiht the tide. I could walk from our hotel across to Rocky Point (for those familiar with this area), a nice expanse of water normally, without getting my feet wet.

We brought our piano player in to play in the lobby bar area to entertain (soothe) guests milling around downstairs. The one caveat: he is not allowed to play the theme from the Titanic!

Talked with a friend in Sunrise (Broward County, Fort Lauderdale area) and they've been without electricity since yesterday afternoon. Do have phone service.

However another family member living in Tamarac has neither power nor phone (land-line). And she's not getting cell phone service; presume that cell towers in her area were affected.

Forgot to mention another item. When I spoke w/ friend in Sunrise (about 35 minutes ago) she said that Miami Airport is open.

Very rainy now and very gusty here in Cape Coral(SW Fla)...WHITE CAPS in our canal, YIKES!!!!! OO, What's going to happen to all that captured water? This is just awful, just imagine waht it was likeon the other side!!!

My niece is in St. Petersburg.... any word from there?

Pictures from Indian Rocks Beach, Florida:
Boat anchored off a dock across the street:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...9-1967_IMG.jpg

Windy palm tree next door:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...9-1966_IMG.jpg

Roof shingles starting to come off:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...9-1968_IMG.jpg

Middle of the channel, facing northeast:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/hibiscushouse

Hibiscushouse...thanks for the pictures. It's a dark and stormy day that's for sure, as your pictures show. Your last one isn't showing...looks like it's missing part of the end of the url?

Wind gusts to 65mph in Tampa and our lights are beginning to flicker. It looks like some very very ugly stuff is just about to hit according to channel 8 radar. The <i>eyewall</i> is on the eastern side of Tampa now. Yuck. Max Mayfield is saying this is still a cat 1 storm. My DH is in the hotel so...it's just me and Hobie Cat, who is soundly asleep: part of her 23 hr sleep cycle. :)

Bradenton,

Jeez--we just had our first light &quot;flicker&quot;; a sign of things to come I'm afraid. I had to sleep in our sunroom last night because my 15-year-old was sleeping in my bed--big baby!!! I woke up at 7:58 with the west-facing sliding glass doors vibrating in about a 50 mph wind gust. The north facing windows are boarded.

Our neighbors' huge Crepe Myrtle blew down, but it goes down if you drive by too fast. Another neighbor's 80-year-old huge Water Oak which already leans ominously over our pool and power lines is creaking. The life expectancey of a Water Oak is 75 years old. We had our two removed five years ago. Two of their four have fallen in the last two years; one took out their chimney and the smaller part of that tree took out our fence and part of our pool screen. These are the same neighbors who screamed at our contractor years ago when they thought the concrete truck pouring the foundation for our addition drove too close to their &quot;prize&quot; hibiscus!

Channel 8 had a reporter on the Anna Maria pier doing a live report around noon (they kept referring to it as being in Sarasota--NOT). She said they had a hard time getting to the island because of all the curiosity seekers from town driving out there. There were people frolicking on the beach with their kids. #-O The reporter said they expect the pier to be completely under water when the tide comes in. #-O again!

Any news from Boca Raton or Palm Bay? We have several family members who live there. One is a police dispatcher so I'm sure she's on duty.

My dad's electricity has been out for almost 24 hours and he won't budge.

Have you seen the huge band about 30 minutes away that's heading for Tampa, St. Pete and Bradenton? That looks like a bad one. Time for a ((D))

My daughter just told me to take a Zanax. I might slip her one--do you know how much fun it is to be trapped in the house with an 17-year-old girl with PMS? I think I'd rather go sit in the neighbor's tree!

Batten down the hatches--it's going to be a LONG day. Everyone is in my thoughts and prayers.

My Mother in Boca Raton was without electricity as of yesterday early afternoon but had phone service then. I've not been able to reach her today at all. Seems like phones out. Anyone have any info?