Yes it's 7:30am and yes I'm up. There's apparently a mobile home park right behind our complex. And there's a siren that's been going off that states "Mandatory Evacuation" over and over since about midnight last night. It finally woke us up where we couldn't get back to sleep.
Turning on the news things have taken a turn for the worse for us overnight. Instead of exiting out a couple counties north - up in Citrus county - now it's looking like it's going to be exiting straight out the Tampa Bay area. And it was going to be Tropical Storm strength when it left; now it's still a hurricane.
(I'm in the blue circle)
(I'm still in blue circle)
They're expecting MASSIVE power outages so this will probably be all from me for awhile. Things are looking really bad. I gotta say, I'm actually worried at this point. We already have 31mph sustained winds. Gusts higher (upwards of 45mph already). And it's not here yet. Things are going to get ugly in the next few hours and stay ugly.
The National Hurricane Center is listing a 74% chance of it coming withing 65 nautical miles of Tampa as of 2am. And things have come more west rather then north-west since then.
We've only got another hour or two before it hits us. I'm really nervous right now watching how close it's coming directly to us. You have to understand that here in the Tampa Bay area, we're very lax about hurricanes only because everything always turns at the last moment. Charley and Frances came through our direction but didn't produce much more then some wind and rain around here - nothing to really warrnet comment.
So the fact that now it's heading straight for me? Woah. I really can't put it into words. We had all dismissed Jeanne from hitting us - she meandered around so much no one really thought anything of her path.
The current path to date
You can keep an eye on the map in motion here and keep updated on local news here.
Power is already down in most of Polk county (inland from us) as well as Hillsborough County (a little more inland, but also contains the city of Tampa for example). They're basically saying that everyone will eventually be out of power within the next hour or two.
Ugh. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. I'm just freaking out a little. It's early and it's coming. I'm going to upload this now while I can. Think good thoughts for us! And wish us well.
Out for now. I'll post again as I can and if I don't post, you know why.
~ castles of sand by Memory and Dream
at 9/26/2004 07:24:13 AM ~
~
