Irma's dropped to Cat3 (but just barely) and is looking to batter the whole state at this point due to her width.
 
So if you are able to, let us know what's up. Hopefully everyone is hunkered down safely with a healthy supply of their beverage (or other vice/pleasure enabling devices) of choice.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hurricane-irma-florida-sunday-1.4283014
 
We be thinkin' of ya.
 
Cheers.

I especially want to hear form Linear and Mesh. But of course anyone from FL-A will be nice to hear from.

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.

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.
 
:-/

Down to Cat2, 2.5 million without power (likely why we haven't heard from anyone yet so hopefully that's what's up).
 
Based on this image it looks like it's attempting to make a Murrica babby...
 

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.

We are doing ok so far.....lots of tornado's, wind, and rain.....water is flowing like a river on the street. We've got supplies. water, and food....and so far, have power. Irma is due to hit us around 2-3 am tonight and we're just going through the precursor (which is very uneasy as it is). 
 
Appreciate you guys thinking of us down here, and hoping Linear, Fireberd (Jack), McQ? and everyone else are all doing well.
Will post back when I can.....

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.

I'm fine quit worrying ma

We made it through the worst of it....power went out at 5:30 AM and no telling when it will return. We're all very thankful/blessed no one got hurt and no damage to the house. Just have to wait it through until the power crew fixes our area.
Cheers!!!