We who live in Florida are now threatened by Hurricane Irma, a dangerous category 5 monster. Its path is uncertain at this time but all of Florida is under a hurricane watch.

I live in Port Richey which is in the western part of Florida in the
Gulf of Mexico. Best get ready for the worst and pray that the storm
moves out to sea and no one gets hurt. Pray for Florida. Lloyd

My parents lived in New Port Richey FL. been there many times....
hope it misses you somehow. I know the feeling when 4 years ago
we on the shore here got decimated by SANDY and many people are
still rebuilding to this day. Mother nature can be relentless.

stay safe

HURRICANE IRMA

Latest track

Lloyd,

Wishing you and all Floridians the best. I'm praying for lots of you since we have a large extended family aka friends in Florida on both coasts, on the panhandle and Central Florida. Be safe.

Renewed concern for our friends in the path of this monster storm. I would love to offer shelter to SZ'ers who need it but we have already committed to old friends of ours in the St Augustine area (mandatory evacuation) plus their daughter who is a doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and her son. This storm does not play favorites. Best of luck to all of you and hope you come out of this with minimal loss of any type.

chas

I am certainly not looking forward to this. Especially after staying home for Ivan. Now that was scary. We evacuated to Georgia for Dennis. Not looking forward to either option and the possible outcomes. A few years ago this house was flooded and had to be gutted.

It makes me think of moving back to Wisconsin which I left in 1985, but on the other hand I was in a tornado there in 1965 that ruined our house. We had to move out that day. The house was going up and down like an elevator. Only thing that saved us was the roof blew off and equalized the pressure in the house. We thought that was it for us at the time.

Anyway, I hope it goes out into the Atlantic for everybody's sake and am looking forward to getting past this as soon as possible.

Take care everybody in Irma's path.

We're 20 miles North of Savannah in Bluffton and are prepared to leave today for Greenville. Looks like the storm is leaning West which means we may get a break so we're hanging till tomorrow. My house is at the highest point in Bluffton at 32 feet above sea level so flooding is not our concern. House is 5 years old so it's built pretty well. Major Cat 2 or above wind is a problem.
Went thru Sandy in NJ now two hits here.
Wish we would have moved to Ashville, I can take a little cold and snow over this.

My wife and I flew out Wed. Had to drive to Orlando from Fort Myers as no flights available from home. Booked tickets...by the time we paid online, they went up $200 each. Talk about price gouging!

We're sitting in WI with my oldest son's family. Hope we have a house to go back to. May end up using my 970 box for a canoe.

Keep FL in your prayers guys...thanks. Jingleman.

Gary's stomping grounds, Marathon Bay, is barely above water normally. I would think it will be totally underwater.

But I also heard one airline was offering $90 seats for people to get out of FL ...

I couldn't find anything but 2 seats out of Orlando to WI. $850 a pop.

WOW ... That's disgraceful ...

Things looked better for my area a few days ago. Now the latest forecasts shows it coming into SW Florida. I'm 20 miles north of Fort Myers in Punta Gorda. Hurricane Charley pummeled us in 2004 so this isn't my first rodeo. Spent most of the day putting up shutters and getting ready for the worst. This storm is 10 times bigger than Charley was..........I'm a bit apprehensive to say the least.......Fingers crossed. -charley

Ditto.

We recently sold the house we owned in Ocala Florida.......long story but my wife and I disagreed as to whether to sell or not we compromised and sold it. It was the right decision.

Meanwhile I'm keeping all my Florida friends from SZ and our former winter residence in our prayers.

Gouging is disgusting. The Gov't does nothing to keep these crooks from stealing from the poor. Lloyd

Crooks don't punish other crooks (bad for business ).

chas

Just talked with Eddie Shoemaker, he and Carol took refuge from the storm by driving west to New Orleans. I was not able to get in touch with some of the other forum members down there, so I imagine they were out of harm's way because I called their home phones.

Gary

Thanks Gary, I was worried for Eddie and Carol.

When Gary called Carol and I were with our hosts who had to be in New Orleans for the day. We tagged along. Now We are back at their home now in Hattiesburg Miss. All is good here, but am worried about friends and neighbors who stayed behind and are not answering messages. I assume power is out. On the 2-day trip with hoards of other Floridians we saw convoy after convoy of Power Utility Trucks heading to Florida....hundreds of them from several states including Texas.

Thanks Gary, Tom and others for your concerns. We're okay and concerned for those who did not leave.

Wonderful news ! We survived Irma as at the last minute it turned
to the west preventing the destructive hurricane from destroying
property and lives. We are so thankful it missed us but pray for
all in Florida who lost homes and lives. limbs and branches are
all we have to clean up thank God. It was a scary 24 hrs.

My Tyros 5-76 is dry and safe in the living room ! Lloyd

Got lucky. All is well here in the panhandle

Lloyd and Scott,

Great news for sure!

My friends in Ocala escaped most of Irma's wrath as well.

Ed,

Hope you're home has escaped the worst of Irma too!

P.S. Saxxman aka Randy from the Destin area also dodged the bullet and all is well where he lives.

Our house survived in Cape Coral...no storm surge. My son's house in Fort Myers also survived.

Sounds like the Key's and Marco Island didn't fare well. Thanks for all your prayers. This was the scariest weather event we witnessed since moving to Florida 10 years ago. Even though we watched from the comfort of my Son's home in WI, Watching it on television was excruciating.

Thanks again,
jingleman

REPOST:

Everything fine here in Port Charlotte.North of Ft Myers, No sign a storm was even here. Thank God, to listen to the reports, we envisioned a wall of water filling up our house and drowning us. We left for Orlando Sat morning.

Bernie
P.S.
I haven't heard from John C.(Bruno). West Palm had it rougher.

The reports here in Port Richey said it was headed straight for
us but it turned right the last minute and headed east. This
saved us from the wrath of Irma. We thank God for that. Lloyd