Poochie.... you made me laugh out loud at your "tag you're it" comment. I'll have to use that with my west coast friends.

MzPossum.... I heard earlier that one of our local So. Fla. weathercasters ran into a friend from the Hurricane Center this past May and they were concerned because it was so dry. They commented to each other that, historically when it was this same weather in So. Fla in May, the worst hurricanes have hit. He didn't go into the particulars, though.

Now, here's a South Fla update as of 6:30pm:

MIA closed down this afternoon, FLL closed down before MIA did. I am looking outside my 3rd floor condo window about 8 miles due west of FLL and while we've had gusts, it's about the same weather we had with Frances. The worst of the hurricane is expected between the hours of 10pm tonight and 2am. Check with your airline before you leave for the airport to fly to MIA. The flight might be postponed until MIA is accepting flights. Barring any bad damage to MIA (unlikely) the airport will open up sometime Sunday. What time does your flight arrive? Until the storm has passed, there is no possible way to know when the airports will reopen.

If you will primarily be in the Miami area, you might not have too bad a problem getting around. Just drive safely because you never know where vegetation will be. Loads of vacationers in the coastal area and cruise ship passengers who are stuck in So. Fla. are taking up most of the hotel rooms in Miami-Dade County. You may want to double check to see if you still have a hotel room tomorrow. No sense getting here if you don't have a place to stay! I hear it's much better in Key West! LOL

Just do your homework and you might find you can make your trip tomorrow after all.

Take care. And to the other Floridians ... HUNKER DOWN!

Gosh this is just de ja vu for the Floridians all over again. I feel so bad for all of the Floridians and Fodor Floridians. Your in my prayers. Maybe Jeanne will decide to turn away last minute.

Heartburn I hope Ft.Lauderdale will be safe and sound! We were even considering coming back to vacation in Ft. Lauderdale in November. We really enjoyed ourselves in Ft.Lauderdale. Beautiful place.

Stay safe!

TandooriGirl or OO....
I am in Maine right now, and haven't been able to get through to the people that were looking after our home. What are they saying for our area? The only real news I can get is from the internet and it looks like it will be a tropical storm as it heads through the Lakeland area.
I live on the coast, so I am sure they had mandatory evacuations. (More specifically...in Hernando County.)

If you have any additional info, I would appreciate it. Thought I could leave these worries at home when we left.
Thanks!

Highbay:
This is a really good graphic that is updated when the National Hurricane Center issues it's updates.
Copy and paste and then click on the maps for a real good look:
http://www.skeetobite.com/weather/

Thanks hibiscushouse, I actually have been looking at Skeetobite, but the last update was the 5pm advisory. I was wondering (with the last storms, there was 24hr coverage on the local channels) if there were any mandatory of voluntary evacuations in our area.
I live at Bayport, which only gets publicity if a storm comes around!

Heartburn3...this has been the strangest wet season, hasn't it? We no longer had daily thunderstorms. We had days of heavy rain, then days and days of dry weather.

We are so close to TIA that when the wind comes from the east (which fortunately it rarely does) we can smell jet fuel. Planes are coming and going as if it's a busy weekend in-season, one after another, either taking off or landing every few minutes. My guess is that flights have been added spur of the moment to get people out of here--not only people scheduled to fly from Tampa, but those scheduled to fly from Orlando too. We ran into some at our pool this afternoon who had been shuffled from Orlando to Tampa to get out.

I found a really interesting link on www.weatherunderground.com, I'd never seen before. It takes all the computer models from the initial tracking of a storm, includes the NHC forecasted track as well as the actual path in time lapse, showing how well the actual path correlates with the computer models and the NHC model. This would probably only be of interest to those of us in areas who are frequently affected by storms, who actually look at computer models and care what they are trying to tell us. Go to www.weatherunderground.com, click on tropical/hurricane. Under Hurricane Jeanne, click on storm history/verification. Click on forecast/verification. It'll take a few seconds to load. The black line is the actual track Jeanne has taken since inception, the silver line is the NHC forecasted track, and all the others are the computer models we've followed for each of the storms. The divergence is really interesting, as is the (very) occasional agreement.

I need to preview before posting, that was suppose to be mandatory OR voluntary evacuations!

Have you looked at www.TBO.com? They have evacuations listed.

Highbay...sorry, I was eating dinner between writing the above and posting, so did not see your note. There hasn't been a mandatory class A evacuation for our area (Hillsborough or Pinellas). Mobile homes and low lying areas are voluntary evacuations.

They continued to anticipate a northward turn, but it has yet to happen and continues to track due west. As a result, the track keeps shifting a bit to the west. If it makes the anticipated northward turn, we should only have tropical storm force winds as it will pass north of us with the strongest winds on the northern side. The forecasted track puts it further north than Frances was, as a point of reference.

We haven't had much rain at all, but the winds are picking up in Tampa, sustained at 22 mph now. They are out of the north, and will gradually shift to northwest later. Channel 8 keeps hinting that they expect the next official track will shift west.

You lucky thing in Maine! I think we will be fine, so find some wild blueberries and enjoy. Eat a lobster for me...lots of butter of course. Come home when this is over and done with...if it ever will be!

_OO____OO Shoot! can't figure out how to underline, but OO I want you yo know that lots of Northeners are thinking of all of you.

Thanks so much hibiscushouse. I see that they issued a voluntary evacuation for zone A in my area. It looks like it will be tropical storm weather when it reaches my area.
Thanks too, OO. We have been indulging on the wild blueberries and lobster. Maybe I am experiencing a little "guilt". Gotta check on home syndrome. Whatever it is, I will be glad to have this season over with!

Sorry, I misspoke. Mandatory evacuations in our area (most all surrounding counties) for mobile homes and low lying areas. Eat more lobster...all for me of course. I'll work off the calories for you.

Thanks Mimi! Do you know how to make a word bold or to italicize on Fodors? Underline the same way, but substitute "u" for the "b" or "i" in the brackets.

I've done a dark and light wash, changed the sheets and run the dishwasher--not going to get caught this time wishing for electricity and water.

Last flight leaves TIA in a half hour, and airport will reopen around 5 PM tomorrow.

Sigh!! no, I'm completely inept. I can do smileys but thanks.

OO:
Please tell my husband that I don't have to run tomorrow!!! I usually run 4 out of 7 days. That's my profile. I am am L&D nurse and have been for a long time.

I sure made it sound like we couldn't be invaded by a damn thing. I really love this barrier that we have established. I really love everything that we have been through.
PLEASE,advise me

If I'm certain of anything, highbay, it's that I'm not running tomorrow, so if you eat lobster, it'll be all your baby!

Hurry home, the Susan G Komen is next weekend!

So much for a lazy Sunday morning sleep! It is windy...new track shows Jeanne passing over Hillsborough County (Tampa area) as a category 1 hurricane later this morning, much further south than they thought last night. Where is that darn northward turn they keep promising?

Highbay...it puts you on the north side of the hurricane I believe, hope you can reach the people looking out for your house...are you away from the water?

I had white noise and fans running on high in my bedroom last night to keep my pets (and me) from being afraid. They miss their "daddy" and are easily spooked right now. Even with all that I was awakened about 3 a.m when a particularly heavy band of wind came through. We have had virtually no rain or maybe the wind dries it as it hits.

I'm supposed to go to Boca Raton Resort next weekend for a conference (need CEU credits for my license). The event was already moved from the Ritz on Palm Beach due to Frances. Looks like Boca has just be getting the outer bands like Fort Myers.

Jeanne is hopefully going to move on quickly and let us get on with our neverending clean up. LilMsFoodie

The power is back on in my neck of the woods!!!
Heartburn3- Thanks, My sis and I think
that's such a funny line. I live close to you. I'm between Griffin and Stirling, just east of Flamingo.