Made a deal with the landlord to board up windows if they'd pay for the supplies. In the process I tweaked out my lower back pretty good (you know, that little tweak right where the spine meets the pelvis, oh the pain), so now I am hobbled while this mess passes.

Looks like I may get to set in the EOC for the duration, I sure hope this storm moves faster once it makes landfall. Looks like it will take the same path Charley did, and come right up the middle of the state.

I was contemplating running to Atlanta for a couple days and letting it blow through without us, but I guess if no one else here is that anxious, maybe I don't need to pop smoke just yet. With the house boarded up and a fortress for me to go hide in, the only thing I am worried about is getting kicked outta the EOC in the middle of it all.

The local old timers say this track is especially bad for Central Florida, as it spawns a lot more tornadoes. It would be better if it passed on the east side of Orlando than the west. What's funny is no one here seems that concerned, which sometimes gets my neckhairs up a bit.

When hurrican Wilma caught everyone by surprise, they all were planning for hurricane parties and only tropical strom force winds, then that storm kicked up to 100+ mph winds and everyone had to make a mad scramble.

The only big worry I have now is those damned skylights in the roof. Not much you can do about that but hope the seal holds.

Otherwise I feel we are in good shape. Will fill a bunch of water containers tonight, and if it all goes smooth will have a good laugh and a cigar and a glass of bourbon when it is done. If not so smooth, will hopefully still get that cigar and bourbon. That reminds me, I better fill the flask tonight too.

Thanks for blocking another hurricane, we here is Texas really appreciate that.

Good luck, and hope the back heals fast.

-Blast

Stay Safe, and keep us informed.

I saw on the news yesterday that only about 50% of the residence in Fla. were prepared. Hope that's not true. I lived in south Fla for a while when I was growing up and only went through one hurricane while I was there. Everyone in our neighborhood seemed to have a handle on things and there wasn't any panic buying that I noticed, just alot of last minute boarding up. Maybe the people they interviewed didn't look at it as being prepared but just something that you do automatically. You might consider loading the freezer with as many bottles of water as you can find, not only will you have some extra water but if your power is off the extra ice will keep things cold. Stay safe and keep us posted.

I have been watching the forecasts on Fay all weekend and the projected track has been changing every few hours. This is a hard one to out guess.

If she tracks a little to the west and get out into the Gulf, she could get real nasty real fast (like Wilma did). Or, she could break up some and just bring some good summer rain to the southeast.

If I were in South Florida, I would take it seriously and hope I was wrong. At the least, it would be a good practice drill.

One bit of advice that you probably have already covered, make sure your car's gas tank is full. If you need to leave, you don't have to stop and if you stay put, you won't be one of the ones sitting in line at the only station that is still open after the storm.

Benjammin and others who live in any sort of hurricane zone,

Do yourself a favor and start reading the "listening to Katrina" website.

I don't agree with everything the author writes but he offers a very good perspective about living and dealing with hurricanes.

John E

Yep, seems like it could go either way. Now that it is moving over Key West, it will be heading for 90 degree soup water where every wave in the pinwheel will load up quick. It also looks like it is slowing down. The dwell time will feed this thing quickly. Our reckoning says there's a 50 mile window where if it makes landfall at the beginning of that window it will stay relatively low intensity and just bring us lots of rain, but as it moves across that 50 mile stretch it goes right up to a Cat 2 at landfall. That wouldn't be so good.

In any case, I have all the windows boarded up now, and will load up about 300 gallons of water tonight, get all my laundry done, finish up my bug out gear, and see where I want to spend Tuesday night if I don't want to be at the house.

I'm not too worried about the potential for a hurricane itself, because even if it does get to be one, by the time it gets to us here, it will have lost a lot of it's punch, but these gulf side landfalls tend to spin up tornadoes left and right, and those aren't much fun at night, and the weather service takes too long to disseminate when they touch down.

And I was due to xfer to Denver at the end of the month, dang it!!! Couldn't it have waited another two weeks?

Good luck and may the family be safe!

I lived in florida for 14 years, through a couple really bad hurricanes.

My father still lives there, I guess its been about 30 years for him. He doesn't even board up the windows anymore. Feels the statistical likelihood of anything hitting his windows is nil. Of course, this is partly because of exactly where he lives and exactly how his house is built.

On the other hand, he now has a generator, gas, water, and even a standalone AC unit. He didn't when I was growing up.

I know how you feel about the locals being unconcerned. Some of them know what they are doing, and are right to not be concerned because of their specific situation. Others have their head stuck in their sand, of course.

Back pain is the price we pay fpr walking around on our hind legs. It's great for tool handling, but really bad for intervertebral discs. Try drinking the juice of one bottle of bourbon...

How do you store your water? 300 gallons is a very respectable quantity, and must take up a considerable chunk of space.

Regarding local folks not worrying-When I was in Arkansas, I got me a real estate guy and went looking for houses with a storm shelter. He was astounded-said they didn't have them here in the Delta cuz the water table was too high and flooded them out, and, anyway,"tornadoes don't come to this side of town." I didn't even know that they could read, dumb yank that I am....