Live From Florida

This update was written by a friend of a friend. I include it so you get a first-hand account of what is going down in Florida today:

Figured I'd update y'all on Hurricane Frances in my area. We were told to evacuate yesterday morning by 8AM, then Frances slowed down so we didn't have to leave till this morning, well as you can see I am still setting here LOL. The storm isn't supposed to get here till Sometime tomorrow, and well I really hate the thought of setting on a cement floor with nothing to do surrounded by people I don't really know, so we are gonna set here as long as we can. We have reservations at a private shelter about 5 miles from my house and the sheriff told us as long as we left 2 to 3 hours before the bad stuff got here we should be fine. Our area is on curfew. No traffic is allowed on the roads between 8PM and 2 AM without a very good reason. They want all cars off the road at 2 PM today though.

Yesterday all the gas stations in our area was out of gas, you couldn't find a canned meat, loaf of bread, battery, jug of water, or piece of ice anywhere. My town looks like a ghost town, not many people are around. Right now she is moving 5 miles per hour towards us. She is almost off the Bahamas and then comes the time to worry. Once she is off the Bahamas she will be over the warm waters of the Atlantic and then she may pick up speed and strength. She has been downgraded to a category 2 with 105 mile per hour winds. They say if she stays as she is we may only get 45 to 50 mile per hour winds in our area, but I live in the Ocala National Forest and we have had lots of rain the ground is weak since our dirt is sand the winds could topple trees easily.

I have 10 large trees in my yard alone surrounding my house not counting the trees in the neighbors yards. I have my car packed for when it comes time to leave and it will take me 3 to 5 minutes to get to the shelter we will be going to. So I guess I'm ready. I just wish it would hurry up and get here and get gone. This waiting is making me nuts.