hurricane charley

It has been a very stressful couple of days.

We woke up Thursday morning to find that Charley was headed straight for St. Petersburg. I was a little nervous about going to work (didn't want to get stranded there away from Mike) but the storm was still over 36 hours away so I went, knowing he'd be getting things ready for us to leave to spend the night with Kathryn and Kelly as soon as I got home.

Once I got to work I debated leaving immediately as we watched all of the news hype. By lunch time mandatory evacuation of zones A, B, and C had been announced, and Mike was freaking out. We could not stay with the girls because they were being evacuated too so Mike found us a hotel in a non-evacuation zone in Tampa where we could take the dog. Mike asked me to come home immediately so I did (Joan took my classes for the rest of the day).

We pretty frantically packed for evacuation, although the storm was still many hours away. I took my keyboard and a lot of wedding keepsakes, although I forgot my flute and the wedding pictures. I also forgot to turn off the power, which turned out to be a good thing.

350,000 were evacuated and all trying to exit on 3 bridges so it took over 2 hours to make a 30 minute trip to Tampa. Once there, it was 5 people, 1 cat, and 1 dog in 1 tiny room filled with bottled water and non-perishable food.

As of Friday late morning the storm was headed right up the Tampa Bay. That would have put downtown Tampa under water and cut off all access to St. Petersburg (HOME). Power would have been out for weeks, and who knows if our apartment building would have even been there anymore when we would have been able to get to it. We were expecting the worst, to lose everything, because we live right on the Tampa Bay where Charley was headed.

We went to the hotel restaurant for a (nasty) lunch and then I headed outside to take Scooter on what I thought might be his last walk for awhile. I came back inside to find that Charley had changed his path and was headed more towards Fort Myers. There is NOTHING more stressful than watching a Category 4 hurricane wondering if it is going to hit you or not. The thing kept moving around and finally devistated Punta Gorda, about 1 1/2 hours south of here. We didn't get so much as a thunderstorm, but it was terrifying to look at the pictures of what could have happened to us and DID happen to many people very near us.

We are VERY lucky. I am glad to be home.

Although, I don't know about any damage in Sarasota. I have a mental picture of portable #9 flying through the air...