A friend's daughter did her study abroad in Cuba last spring semester. Most folks were already living in houses made from whatever they can find. I just looked at the 36 hour forecast and it's for a Category 3, 115 mph winds! Yikes! Here's part of the discussion on Weather Underground: The objective guidance near landfall ranges from a category four from the GFDL to category two from the SHIPS model...about the error one can expect from an official forecast one to two days out. The official forecast roughly splits the difference between these guidance models...and anticipates that Ike will be a major hurricane at landfall

Geez, thanks for checking in on us. Here, we haven't experienced anything but a couple of small showers from Dolly. We are supposed to start getting some rain from the outter bands in a few hours, but only a few inches, which is welcome. Dolly hit southwest of us, plus we are about 3 hours from the closest shoreline. They did bus alot of people here from the Brownsville & South Padre area. I am sitting here trying to figure out what to do with a couple of boxes of cukes that I bought and are on day 5 of Linda Lou's Sweet Pickles. I had a procedure on my back yesterday which limits my lifting to 5 pounds adn limited activity, which is not very conducive to canning...lol. Doc made this decision post procedure :(. I think Karen is far enough from us, but it looked on some of the radar that May might be experiencing alot of rain from the bands. Will hope to hear from them, too. Brenda

I breaks my heart when I see the homes underwater up to the roof line. I try to think how I would deal with it (not well I know) and how my family would recover. I still have vivid memories of the one time my family was forced to go to a shelter during a hurricane (the second strongest in Tampa's history). A huge oak tree crashed on our house without hurting any of us. Daddy piled us in the car (7 of us in a VW) and we literally floated down the street in the dark dodging what poles were left in order to get to the shelter. I feared for my dad who went back to the house during the storm (power lines down). I focused on the door all night and early morning I recognized his silhouette from afar as he walked in the shelter. I tear up even now remembering running down the hall to embrace him. Sorry, we were lucky so I shouldn't be a slobbering baby. Bless those people who have lost their homes to flood waters and give them the strength as they struggle through this crisis and carry on with their lives.

Hey, here I am! Thanks for the concern. Glad everybody is OK. We are battered, bruised, damp, & exhausted...but still here. I also would like to give a shout-out of appreciation to Michigan, Iowa, Lousianna, & Georgia. They had 5 bucket trucks, 2 pick-ups, & 14 linemen working on our street today. A big thanks to these states also for helping Mystic this week. We really needed the assistance. Idaho, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Vancouver B.C. (thanks, Ann T.!), Colorado, & Ohio. We were 97% black for the first 3 days. It's been slow going ever since. SE Connecticut was hardest hit. (See article from "The Day" below) http://www.theday.com/article/20110902/NWS12/309029912/1018 Connecticut had over 620,000 outages (about half the state). Our First Selectman (equivilent of a mayor) declared a state of emergency in Mystic that was just released yesterday. At one point nearly 85% of our roads were empassable due to flooding, down trees, and/or down power lines. I've got lots of pictures but am too exhausted to upload tonight. Will post tomorrow. Here's a video of Mystic. Our house is featured but due to living in such a public place I'd rather not point out exactly our home. Some of you may recognize it. BTW, the videographer is NOT in Mystic Seaport. He's in Historic Mystic. It's a common mistake. Mystic Seaport is a living museum of the sea located in Historic Mystic. There's also a regular "Mystic" and an "Old Mystic". Confusing. Again, glad everybody's OK. More tomorrow. /tricia Here is a link that might be useful: Youtube - Mystic, Hurricane Irene