I'm a little worried. O.T.

[MissWinnie]

Thanks. It is still over Cuba. Its speed dropped from 15 mph to 9mph so it is crawling towards us. It will look like it is losing power, but as soon as it gets back into the Gulf and hits those warm waters it will intensify. They now say we will most likely get the full force, but I don't think they know what they're doing.

Ok. Have caught up with it now. It must be so hard to accurately predict ...

Have been looking at pics of people at Florida Keys taking pics of giant waves/selfies in front of said giant waves. I can't believe that people risk their lives just to get something on camera.

[Exiledvillan]

Hope you n yours are safely locked away Statesie, Sky news said this thing is Tampa bound, tho I'm sure you had guessed that at this stage. Chin up and baton down mate.

[MissWinnie]

I only remembered you were based in Tampa, Statesey, when I was looking at a map of Florida ...

I see there's a 6 pm curfew in Tampa, with the storm expected to hit at 9 pm your time, so as Exiled says, I hope you and yours are now safely locked away.

I'm sure we are the last of your priorities at the moment, but let us know how things are when you can. xxx

[stateside]

Everything is great. We were a few miles maybe 20 from the eye. The winds were absolutely crazy. I don't know if it was a cat 2, cat 1 or tropical storm, but it was nuts.

No power right now. So preserving the phone. Thanks for your well wishes.

[MissWinnie]

Thank you for getting in touch, Statesey. I was thinking of you and your family last night x

I'm so glad you are okay, albeit without power. Gosh, you were scarily close to the eye ...

I hope you get your power back on soon. I was reading that over 6 million (accounts) in Florida are currently without power ...

You take care, Dad.

Winnie x

[stateside]

Power is back on. Just as the frozen food was about to go soft. What a surreal night! The power went out just before dark, we had flashlights at the ready, but none of us was ready to eat. As it went dark I got hungry and someone had just posted "I want bacon!!" Me too. Wait. I had cooked up a load of bacon that morning and I love cold bacon sandwiches. So I grabbed my head light flashlight so I could be hands free (great investment) and this may sound stupid now, but it was still in the box. I had to fumble around with a regular flashlight in the dark trying to load it. I should have joined the Boy Scouts when I was a kid.

So everyone had cold bacon sandwiches. The British with ketchup or HP sauce the Americans with mayo and cheese and lettuce, the hybrid Ameri/Brit had it American style with ketchup. Every one loved them.

We broke out the candles after the sandwiches and again we weren't prepared but we were able to get enough light. Then my with remembered the lantern sitting below the TV we spend our lives watching was a battery operated light!

So we are sitting in the dim room watching the winds swirling outside joking about every thing we can think of my daughter and I replaying that Will these winds skit with Rowan Atkinson and Peter Cook. Then as it went quiet, we were wanting news on the storm, but the weather radio was getting boring so we went around the house searching until we found my Short Wave Radio that I used to listen to Villa on. It worked!
So we found some local stations and listened to what was going on around us until again we got a little bored with the same stuff. 3 days of reporters standing in ankle deep water saying there is a limb down gets a little old unless it is the reporters limb.

The only station actually playing music was a 50's 60's station playing some songs I recall and others really obscure. Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Sinatra Jr, Shirley Bassey among others. We loved it.

The wind got stronger and the trees outside bent in ways I have never seen them bend. We were grateful it was a cat 1 or 2 not a cat 4 or 5 hitting us.

My phone was down low and I switched it off figuring I would use my battery back up the following morning. We were told it may be 3 days without power. My charger has about 2 charges in it. I figured we had seen the worst of it. I was wrong. We still had the eye that went over Tampa which was 13 miles from us. My wife thinks the wall of the eye came within 20 miles of us. The next hour of squalls were just amazing. Throughout the night we were pretty relaxed. It was a night to remember. From the flute sounds that I thought was from the people across the way but turned out to be wind going through the pipes to the flashing blue lights that looked like lightning but were transformers going out around the city.

[MissWinnie]

Wow. Sounds like a night you'll be able to tell the grandchildren about.

I bet you'll always associate those Sinatra, Fitzgerald, and Shirley Bassey songs with that night, forever

Glad you've got the power back on. I can imagine your relief that it was a category 1 or 2 in the end ..

My dad, the bacon sarnie hero.

[bongosdad]

You should put a vest on like Bruce Willis and go and save everyone. Glad your safe

[MissWinnie]

PS I meant to say, they say people often get caught out when the eye passes over, folks think it's all over, venture out and then ...

Thanks for sharing a memorable night.

[stateside]

I'm not in a position to save anyone Bongo. I did something to my shoulder. Hoping it isn't my rotator cuff.

Yes Winnie. The hurricane was so big it was clearing out bays to feed itself. Tampa Bay was drained out. There is lots of footage of people walking out onto where the Bay usually is with their unwitting pets. Luckily they were all fine and no tsunami effect was in play. One guy in the Florida Keys decided to stay in his bar. The reporter must have convinced him to leave and luckily he did as it was totally destroyed.