April, good to see you...but not with a worrisome post about the likes of Fay. I will be thinking of you with major good thoughts for your safety as Fay moves closer to the Florida coast. Oh and good luck with tonight's showing!

April, we're in the Tampa area and we're watching, and hoping and praying it goes elsewhere.

Last forcast looks like it's heading straight up the west coast towards us Monablair.

Hang on tight.

Daughter and her family just left today for Destin, Florida, for her in-laws' family reunion in Destin. Looks like rain every day.

mimi-boo, I didn't want to hear that.

Everytime we get a strong wind storm, hurricane or not, we end up with $$$$ damages from tree limbs. I'm so tired of doing repairs to the roof, the gutters and especially for paying to cut these limbs and trees and hauling them away. I dread this time of the year!

I agree, Aprilflower. We're on the east coast in central Florida. Fay Fay go away. Good luck everyone.

I can't agree more with the title!! I am on the SW coast just 2 hours south of Tampa, in Cape Coral. I still remember Charlie, it was headed for Tampa and our area got it. Meanwhile, I'm packing for a trip to Alaska that has been planned for 8 months. Be prepared and stay safe. Carol

Once again we in Fl are under siege by the forces of Nature. We choose to live here for the perfectly wonderful tropical weather with sunshine and breezes most of the year long. Now we have to deal with the down side of the semi-tropics and tropics. June 1st thru November 31st The Storm Season Thunderstorms with techni-colored lightening almost every afternoon, tornadoes that take out blocks of housing and everything around and the dreaded Hurricanes. We can take precaustions of storing the supplies we'd need in an emergency, batten down the hatches and hunker down or flee. Just as any other disaster that befalls us anywhere in the world all we can do is ask or deity of choice to please protect our loved ones and property. I would never pray for the storm to not come my way for there is no place else I would send such a terrifing and potentially devistating storm. I will love the wild raw natural energy of the storm. I will be thankful for the rains that come with the storm because we so badly need to refill the aquafers after such a long time of drought conditions. I will cherish the people and things that are safe and unharmed after the storm. I know there are people who are still trying to recover after Charlie, Francis, Jeannie and Ivan from 2004. Then Wilma in 2005 trampled lightly over a few more of us, but asking for Fay to Go Away is not something I can do. I have all the hatches battened down and the supplies necesary to last through a few weeks of deprivation. My Prayers will be for the storm to not be as vicious/violent as it could be and that no one is harmed.

CT

We're in the Venice FL area and go through this anxiety every year. Got my hurricane box all ready to go. Will probably to to a shelter, even though that's no fun. Have an inflatable bed, blankets, pillows, water, snacks, bit of clothing changes, deck of cards and books to read. Hope we don't have to use them.

I'm in North Port, and I'm looking at the forecast, and right now, it's headed straight toward the same path Charley took. I don't have anyone to help me board up or anything! I'm just gonna pray and hide in the bathroom if it comes here.

i'm avoiding the fear mongering, after 3 back to back in 2004 i have perspective. it's barely going to make 75-80 mph so no need for boarding up believe me. if tampa ends up on the eastside of it like the path is now there may be highrise window damage like they see in miami but general neighborhoods will be o.k.

we went thru charley at 100 mph constant, gusts well over that w/o window damage, lots of other damage but no windows lol. mine are original crappy 1969 i thought they were going to get ripped off and i just learned this yr you are suppossed to keep all windows closed while i had mine open for charley :-/ apparently winds can get in and need to get out and rip off roofs that way :-0 charley turned at the last minute from tampa, they've been extremely lucky(!), and barrelled over us, our power went out at 5:15pm just before the path turned so we were quite unprepared when it came thru at 10pm lol. took almost a week before i could get my hands on the right plywood just in time for francis, which we did board up for, that was a waste at 75 mph, it seemed like nothing compared to charley. those boards stayed up for another 3 weeks thru jeane at 70 mph which was like a regular storm at that point. i even drove thru the last 2 to work, no problem.

we need the rain for the aquafer and south & west fl needs this water as they are very close to severe water restrictions soon, suppossed to start in the winter. once those 2 regions go on these new restrictions everyone will too, just a matter of time if we don't get alot of rain this season. ~ liz