I have been thinking about all the Florida, Georgia, and Carolina coast people and hoping that effects of the storm will be minimal. Take care, everyone!

I hate to think of what havoc Matthew has already wreaked in Haiti and elsewhere in the islands. Horrifying to read that about 60,000 Haitians have been living in tents since the 2010 earthquake. Those who have survived the hurricane will now need to grapple with the threat of cholera.

The computer models are now showing a forecast that seems less worrisome for most of us on the east coast; property damage is likely, but the impact on people's lives is unlikely to be nearly as devastating as what has already occurred. I just donated to MSF (Doctors without Borders), since I know they have a presence in Haiti and do good work.

I do hope Matthew steers clear of the U.S., and damage is minimal.

Stay safe,

Virginia

ETA: When I linked to the WU forecast, and said it looked less worrisome. that was before the 2pm update which shows an increased danger of Matthew getting very close to- or coming ashore at- Florida's coast...

Years ago a lady named Michey was an active poster on GardenWeb and she had a collection of several hundred roses near Mobile.
Along came hurricane force winds and then she had no roses.

Her attitude was to be thankful for her and her friends and neighbors survival.

I'll always remember how she saw through to what was really important.

But we'll all hope that the storm goes east into the Atlantic quickly and stops being fed by hot water.

I hope it stays clear of the coast too. I just couldn't help but think of all my GW friends more in the path than I was. I hope everyone stays stays safe, and the storm turns!

Our thoughts are with all of you in this frightening time.

I hope everyone stays safe. I am in Jacksonville, FL a little off the NE coast. We are not in the Jax Beach area that was already told to evacuate. Hopefully it will turn out towards the Atlantic before it gets here. My dh works at an ER in one of the hopitals downtown so we can't really evacuate. They are basically telling the hospital staff to bring sleeping bags because they will be staying there till the weekend if it floods. Our place has a little branch of the Trout River behind us that floods the yard a bit every time it rains really hard for a few days. Still debating what to do really lol. We have a generator and have stocked up on water and stuff. I went through H. Rita in LA in 2005 and we did flood. I lived just south of a little town called Erath, LA and that town got 6ft of water as did our kids school. It was a nightmare. I really don't wanna do that again.

Lenette

Thank you for posting, Alana. I'm thinking of everyone in the path of the storm! I've been getting Mercy Corps and other alerts in my inbox for several days. Those who weather the hurricane, please keep us informed as you can. Carol

Stay safe, well and dry, all my OGR friends, some of whom I met just this past weekend in Pasadena at the Huntington Heritage Rose Foundation gathering. You are all in my thoughts, and sending out West Coast-yes-I-was-here-in-the-'60s positive vibes.

When the last hurricane hit Florida, I sure got on the phone in a hurry when I heard that its eye passed right next to the coastal Florida town where my sister lives. That was just a Category 1 storm. I hope all you folks in Matthew's path stay safe and don't suffer a lot of damage. Sultry, that means you!

Lenette please stay safe, as well as everyone in the storm's path. Melissa I hope your sister stays safe. Virginia I can't remember exactly where you live, I think it's near Charleston, but memory fails me, so I hope you stay safe and have somewhere safe to go.

Thinking of you all here in Australia, too... please keep yourselves safe, and let us know how you go. Remember if you have to choose, taking care of your people and pets is always more important than saving possessions. Good luck!

It sounds very worrisome right now, with the hurricane not abating as it goes towards Florida. I've seen pictures of long lines of cars on the road evacuating, and I hope they make it to safety before the hurricane strikes.

sultry, your story about your parrot is amazing, and just shows what I've always suspected, that in many ways animals are smarter than we are. I hope you and yours will stay safe, along with everyone else here in threatened areas. I can't even imagine what this must feel like. This seems in some ways worse than our wildfires because you can fight them, but no one can fight water. My heart also goes out to all the helpless wild animals, may they find shelter somehow.

The Jax Beaches areas are getting a little windy and choppy waves. It has been misting a little here and its eerily quiet otherwise. I am alternating between feeling scared and petrified to feeling a little optimistic. I cant watch the news for too long or I start feeling overwhelmed. I'm sure there will be damage, hopefully it will be minimal. I heard a report on the news that some people at the beaches who live in 1st floor apts are refusing to leave. They will surely perish because the storm surge alone could be 11ft or more. If I lived anywhere on any of the beaches or the St John's River I would leave for sure.

I guess I will find out which roses can stand brackish water if the creek rises and floods us.

I feel saddened that St Augustine, (a little south of us) America's oldest city, may soon be completely under water. The fire chief came on the news and said they are evacuating because even all the fire stations would be undr water. Unimaginable!!

Sultry, we're out here and thinking of you and everyone on the Florida Atlantic! I wish I could do more than check the latest weather reports. Carol

We send our best wishes to everyone and hope the storm gets downgraded before too much damage is done. A frightening prospect, do take care as much as you can..

I sure hope the whole state of Florida is evacuated and safe. This hurricane seems like it's gonna be hitting. ya'll the hardest. Check in as soon as you are able Sultry and let us know you are ok. Thoughts are with you all..Carol I wish I could do more as well..I pray you still have a house and some roses left when this is over Sultry..Just know you are here in our thoughts.

Thank you guys for all the well wishes. Right now we are just stating to get some steady rain. Not too much wind yet. It looks like most of our nieghbors are still here. I just downladed an app called my elevation and it says we are 14 ft. maybe the storm surge wont get too bad here. Lots of reports still coming in of people not leaving beach areas.

Sultry, I hope you and your animal friends will all ride out the storm with no problems. I do not understand why people would be staying put if they live on the beach; that's a terrible risk to take. For themselves, and rescue workers.

You might find this link to be interesting: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/quicklook/view.html?name=MATTHEW

Take care,

Virginia

Thank you, Virginia, that is a useful link. Heres a current screenshot of our local radar from a hurricane app i use. The hurricane is near Daytona right now. I am in Jacksonville for reference.

The ad at the bottom is strange... is HD taking credit for Matthew?

But seriously, it's good that you still have power, and I hope that if it goes away that it won't be for long. It seemed like we were without power forever after Hugo. (We didn't stay in Charleston, but Hugo followed us inland.)

We have had a few misting drizzles of rain, but looking at the radar, the outer bands are due here soon. Supposedly, we can expect about 7" of rain today and another 2" or so tomorrow. Good thing we had a practice run a year ago with even more rain than that (although without high winds or storm surge involved). I just reviewed the plants in the yard and in pots, and some are quite dried out from lack of rain and the unusual breeziness; I don't think they'll stay dried out for long...

We also took the canine goddess around the block since she won't willingly go out in the rain... We're about as prepped as we are going to be.

Good luck to us all,

Virginia

That's the only downside of that app...the ads grr. It has a rotating ad scroll on the bottom w diff advertisers on it. Otherwise its really good.

I heard that emergency services like fire trucks cannot go out to help people near the beach. If you stay you're on your own. A grim statement was all they could help with are body bags....

Many communities along the coast have shut off water supplies to areas east of the Intra-coastal Waterway.

Most of these coastal residents who have not been through a major storm don't know what it's like to go for weeks without power or reliable sources of water, and to be trapped by dangerous debris, fallen trees and fallen power lines until crews can gradually and carefully remove the hazards between you and the outside world.

Just a little taste of this sort of deprivation ought to make those who experience it more grateful for what they have, and appreciative for what far less fortunate people have to deal with; lack of electricity and potable water, lack of shelter... these are everyday realities for so many people in the world.

Counting my blessings,

Virginia

We are starting to get it now. Down at jax beach, 2nd street is flooding straight from the ocean. From above they look like one and the same. We still have power for now.

I remember during Katrina in LA officials, at one point, told people if they were gonna stay, to just write thier ss# on thier arms so they could be identified later if they didn't make it.

Here they told people they would be on thier own until the storm died down enough to get rescue workers in safely. The said they aren't going to put 1st responders lives in danger to help those that stayed.

In St Augustine, there are cars completely submerged in water you can only see the roofs.

Best wishes sultry and everyone else affected by this.

Prayers going out to all affected by the hurricane.

We've just (like 15 mins ago) had a short but quite violent storm, with wind gusts hitting 50mph and rain rate of 0.5"/hour but it only lasted 10 mins or so.. It just gave me a small taste of what people affected by the hurricane may be experiencing.

Sultry jasmine

I hope you are spared the bad effects .l kept praying all night myself .we had a curfew in orange County since last night at 10 pm .It was lifted this afternoon at 2pm .all streets are full of broken trees and branches .

Sultry, I've kept an eye on the Internet. It looks like the west eye wall is passing east of FL coast and hurricane is weakening? Bur lots of rain and storm surge to weather along with high winds. Hope all is well!

Virginia, thinking of everyone in the Carolinas (and GA). It will be a relief when this storm has passed! I hope all lower East Coast beach inhabitants have decided to move inland.

Pink Rose, I hope you didn't sustain any serious damage!

Carol

NO damage Thank God !

My tall roses were all bent up to the ground so I trimmed them up and my young roses were barely affected by the hurricane .we still have rain and winds though.

I think it is mostly past us now. Still getting some wind gusts and rain. The tall pines behind our house are really swaying. It looks like (from the back window) most of my taller plants and roses are bent way over or flattened. I havent went out in the yard yet. We heard a crack from the back wooded part of the property so probably some tree fell back there. Theres not really anything for it to fall on execept other trees. Part of the carport roof on an outbuilding looks askew from what I can see of it. Overall not too bad. Our power keeps going on and off.

Hope everyone in GA and S. Carolina do ok. I hear GA may get more storm surge there than we did. It has weakened now so hopefully it won't be so bad. Let us know how you are!

Good news ! I hope Mathew gets weaker . 1 million people in FL's coastline are without power .

We are getting wind and rain; nothing very abnormal about either yet, but I'm sure it will get worse before it gets better. Wind gusts of 38mph reported locally... not as bad as what Nik had in Athens, but again, it will get worse than that, and last a good while longer.

sultry, as you probably know, pines are not a good mix with high winds. After Hugo, the phrase "like matchsticks" was overused, but apt. It was astonishing to see so many "broken" pines as we drove back to Charleston through the Francis Marion National Forest.

The Forest is pretty well reforested by now, but a very real threat to its freshwater ecosystems is from salt or brackish water. I don't know if such inundations as may happen with Matthew's storm surge are reversible? With sea levels rising, this was already a topic under discussion, but perhaps the future threat is now a more current one.

We don't have pines near the house, but we do have oaks that are currently dancing in the wind with Spanish Moss draped about. Beautiful, but eerie.

pink rose and sultry, I'm glad to hear that you've probably made it through the worst, and I hope any losses are minimal. I also hope that if Matthew does the loop-de-loop, you won't have any damage from that.

Thanks for your good thoughts, Carol. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, so let's blame any typos on that, shall we?

Take care,

Virginia

Alana, I keep checking Weather Underground. It looks like the eye is passing Georgia and moving toward SC by morning. I know you're inland a bit, and I hope the storm passes without impacting your area. Sending good thoughts! Carol

Alana, I think y'all must be starting to get some pretty rough weather there. Too loud outside for me to sleep, but I hope you're able to get some shut-eye. I guess an on-off switch for bad weather is too much to ask for, but a mute button would be nice...

I hope all goes well with you as Matthew heads up the SC coast. Supposedly, by the time what's left of his eyewall reaches our area it will be downgraded to a Cat 1, so hopefully, that bodes well for you and yours.

Take care,

Virginia

Hey everyone! I'm alive and well, I just got my power back on. 6 1/2 days without power. I did enjoy the peace and quite, but it was starting to get cold at night, so it's nice to have it back. Around me did receive damage, but me, my family and my roses were spared. Our oak trees protected us. I hope everyone else was spared some of the worse. Virginia, I heard Florence, around 30 minutes from me received worse than I did. Mostly alot of down trees and power outages here. I hope you are doing well. Thanks portlandmysteryrose for the good wishes!

Alana, I'm relieved you weathered the storm! I hope others along the east coast are well, too and not struggling with big clean-up projects. Now the remains of a typhoon are headed for OR/WA/Vancouver Island area. Tumultuous planet! Carol

Alana, I'm glad to hear you escaped any major damage. We lost power for 2 1/2 days... I'm guessing y'all are having to throw out a lot of food that was in the fridge/ freezer?

Carol, I hope you stay safe, and have no damage.

Virginia

Ohh Yeah, they got a good cleaning! :) I haven't ever lost power for so lnd, but there was alot of damaged lines and trees down. I was reading alot of complaints with Duke Energy last night, which is who I have. They are not the greatest, that's for sure... I hope the remains of the typhoon don't do much Carol.

Thank you, Virginia & Alana! The coast is getting the brunt of the storm. Carol

Does anyone know how Linda is doing at Longago roses? I think parts of NC got flooded badly, and was wondering if anyone had spoken with her. Thanks!

I think the flooding was mostly in the eastern parts of NC, while she is fairly close to Hickory in the foothills. Hopefully, she's just too busy with her roses to post here.

Virginia

I know, but I was mostly worried too because she is fairly quick on answering emails, and when I got power back on I sent her one, checking to make sure she was ok, since I didn't know it got NC bad, until after, and then I sent her another two days ago and still have not received a reply. It's generally one day for her to answer emails. I couldn't remember where she was located at and yesterday when I checked her site it was down. Maybe she's just busy working on it. Her site is still down today, I just checked on it.

Perhaps she's having computer problems. I hope that's all it is. I got an e-mail from her just before the hurricane got here; I got no response to my reply, but I just figured she was busy.

Hopefully, she'll check in soon,

Virginia