Florida and Hurricane Charley.

[Rob Thomas]

Not sure what to say, but for all living in Florida, especially on the gulf coast, good luck, and God bless. They expect the storm to intensify throughout the day and reach category 3 status, and looks like the entire gulf coast will be effected to some degree. I hope your damage is as mimimal as possible, and no-one is injured. I have a brother in south Florida, but fotunately he is on the Atlantic side, and will only recieve tropical storm weather, hopefully anywayl.





Anyway, God bless all of you in Florida.



EDIT: I just got off the horn with my brother... . it seems he is slightly peeved that he's not going to get the full fury of the storm in his area, (been wanting to witness a hurricane first hand, and has only lived there for a few years) His wife said, "Don't worry honey, it still might turn and get us". Apparently the freakiness runs in the family.





Rob

 

[XJSuperman]

Thanks Rob. I live in Ocala which is directly int he path of the eye in the center of the state. The main thing for folks to do now is not panic. It's coming and they can't change it and fortunately this is one of the natural disasters we can plan for to a degree. There will be damage of course and some very dangerous times in the next 24-48 hours. Hopefully the west coast folks will have left by now and I wish them and their families the best... I may even see some of you here.



BUT I consider us here in Central FL VERY lucky. We have been missed by snails hairs MANY times in the last 20 years by storms such as Andrew, Gilbert, Hugo and Floyd... names I am sure the folks who went through those storms will never forget. So while CHarley is bad... we could be facing much more dire straights than this... . and we need to keep in mind there's a tropical depression tearing across the Atlantic about a week out and it's building up FAST.



So everyone hang on tight it's gonna be a wild ride.

 

[Rob Thomas]

According to www.weather.com , they have upgraded the storm to category 4. Yikes, Michigan isn't so bad after all. Hang on XJSuperman!



Wannabe weatherman, Rob

 

[XJSuperman]

Now it's getting interesting

 

[I-6DZL]

Best of luck to all Floridians!

My sister lives in Boca Raton along the east coast, so i really hope all goes well in and around the surrounding areas of the storms.



Good Luck



Curtis

 

[XJSuperman]

It hit farther south than they expected so Ft. Meyers got slammed. Now it's headed right for Orlando in a diagonal path. It was supposed to hit Tampa and then head right up to Ocala... . so bad for Orlando BUT the good thing is this storm is only making hurricane force winds about 30 miles outside the eye... beyond that it's just tropical storm force with the possible tornadoes. So hopefully Orlando will fair ok.

 

[HWigand]

Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte were ground zero. The southeast got little more than a couple of squall lines, wind and a good light show. My husband went over with fire rescue to the southwest coast. He said it looked awfully familiar (Andrew). The area is littered with trailer parks, not good. Now I think we're all watching Earl to see what he's up to. If you all have local fire/police departments make sure to send items over there. Bug spray is a MUST especially with the whole west nile thing going on. My prayers and husband are with everyone on the west coast of florida. Hang in there!!!!

 

[Greenleaf]

I arrived two days after it hit. I was @ the Kennedy Space Center and Orlando area, then drove down to Naples/Ft Myers area. Things are getting cleaned up.



Fuel stations have the canopy crashed down around the pumps and there has been a fuel shortage in towns along the hurrican's path because towns directly hit have no power inwhich to pump fuel.



See many out of state electric line trucks/tree service trucks. I followed a long convoy of line trucks downd into FL when I reached the area of the state line.



-S

 

[mgonske]

Charley Damage Report

No major damage at my place, other than downed trees and lots of downed branches. With a lot of help from the neighbor's kid, the cleanup is getting close to being complete (some neighbors and co-workers were not so lucky, with trees on houses and barns). It sounded like a war when the major part of the storm went by, with all the debris hitting the house. I just got power back on last night.



One of the lessons learned was that a Honda EU1000i will not run a well pump--fortunately, I had enough heavy gauge extension cord to plug it into the nearest neighbor's bigger generator. The little Honda was able to run one refrigerator, two fans, the DSL modem & wireless router, and the satellite receiver & TV. That meant (besides cold showers) I had cold beer, TV, internet, and at least a breeze--what else could one want? OK, air conditioning would have been really appreciated