To our Florida friends. Check in here if you can.

craigb
I had a stubborn cousin who's 78 and wanted to ride the storm out with his wife in their home.  Where do they live?  In Port Charlotte a few miles north of Fort Myers about two blocks from water in a small, single story ranch that was built in the 60's.  They finally gave in and supposedly left yesterday for South Carolina (no idea how they did on their evacuation).
 
Judging by what I see, they'll be lucky to come back to a house!  It's a very flat street and soooo close to water on both sides, the storm surge could be higher than their roof!  Oh yeah, they should take a direct hit as well.

Yeah, that's no good. Hope they made it out in time. They still would have had a hellish time on the road though. The highways have apparently been congested for days.
 
Strikes me that that entire part of the country should really make self evacuation easier. Especially for more vulnerable folks.
 
:-/

aaaand based on that trajectory I guess I can expect a lot of rain starting sometime next week. We generally seem to get the arse end of these things shortly after they are done with you guys.
 
Of course by the time they reach us it's just a whole lot of wet and a bit of wind. It's depressing and yucky (and due to the time of year brings on teh cold earlier than one would like) but no airborne things that would normally not be airborne so any kvetching about it is pretty petty considering what kind of destruction has usually preceded.
 
Also, I pretty much never go outside these days anyway. Might make my back act up though... so I guess I'd better watch myself for a while. I've been enjoying a relatively pain free/upright couple of weeks and I hate going into winter injured.
 
oops... that would likely qualify as petty kvetching.
 
Apologies and again... all mindbeams of safety to all currently getting wailed on. Come back soon.

I was born in Florida. Does that count?
 
We heard from our friend Barry who lives on a boat on the east side; he's okay. My room mate hasn't heard from her brother, who lives in Daytona Beach. He only does email, so if his power is out...
My brother the (former) tax assessor lives in Milton, above Pensacola, along with numerous nieces and nephews. The sister-in-law is posting on FB, so presumably they're all still there.

Glad you're okay Mesh!

WAITAMINUTE!!!
 
Do you have notifications set to notify you of intertubey gratification?!!
 
Don't lie, son.
 
I'll know if yer lyin'!
 

So if I Orange and/or Green tag your comments, yank them, rinse and repeat you'll just keep getting notifications?
 
I think I've found a new way to annoy, Edwin.
 
 
Not that I would ever use this knowledge for EVIL!!!
 
 
*evil noises*

We are alive (me + entourage) are all in Pigeon Forge TN

-- yes. We went to see Dolly Partons Dixie Land Stampede. No. That was not very good for my jiu jitsu diet. Actually, I'm never going to another dinner theater as long as I live.

I'm anxious to return home to my vegan/vegetarian diet.

I can't get in touch with my next door neighbor- I pray the house is ok.

If the power went out, I'm sure our alarm is off.

Anybody who has dared to loot my house will be shot no questions asked.

Pigeon Forge has been ok, although I'm likely never to return here. I did manage to hike the national park every day until today when the park service closed it down.

Leaving early in the morning to return to florida and my business. Not looking forward to the traffic

Am very grateful we came here - we couldn't find food or water anywhere before we left. Fl without power ie air conditioning is a difficult place.

We're, "trucking," water home - I have 16 cases of Wal-Mart's finest purified water

Some of my friends have power, some not.

I'll post more, when I know more

Thanx bapu

And all of you :)