Hi.  My mom lives in Florida and is in the midst of it all. She lives between Daytona Beach and Orlando.  To make matters worse, my father died unexpectedly exactly six months ago.  It was also a Friday the 13th.  We are not superstitous at all, but we not fond of Friday the 13ths in my family.    Think happy thoughts for me, will you?  We need them.

Susan

Thanks Greg.  I talked to my mom this morning and she is o.k.  She has downed tree limbs and a roof leak but that can be fixed.  Hope everyone else is o.k.

Tampa did get lucky - storm started turning around 9:30 in the morning - my wife and I waited, watching what it was doing - we were in a B evac zone (mandatory evac as of 18:00 Thursday, 12 Aug) - if it had come the way it was suppose to, our house would have been hit with the wind and storm surge.  

We knew quite a few folks that made the mistake of jumping the gun and running out to Orlando.  They were lucky they didn't get killed on the highway.  I'm still waiting to hear back from two friends one of which went to Orlando.

Send your support for those who did get hit by calling the Red Cross or Salvation Army and making a donation.  Locally it's the same way - it was so bad Thursday that you couldn't always connect on cell phones with all the people trying to get a hold of folks.  What's worse is on Saturday and today, the same front that caused Charley to turn where it did, is causing thunderstorms with tornades spawing off of them.  Those folks still trying to clean up or just gettting back to their homes have to still be careful of the weather.  Our prayers are with them all.