[JohnW]

Just as an update on the situation for anyone interested. The Hurricane is expected to make landfall around the Tampa Bay area at around 8 pm. tonight. The winds are now expected to be almost 120 mph. making it very nearly a category four hurricane, very dangerous indeed. I know that most of the coastal areas around Tampa are being evacuated and also the lower Florida Keys. Downtown Tampa is expected to take flooding with seas being 12 to 16 feet over normal. I believe that almost one million people are under mandatory evacuation today and the State Governor has called a state of emergency.
Charley will then travel across the state and will make a direct hit on this area at around 2 am. Saturday morning. It will have disipated somewhat from its original state due to crossing the peninsula. Unfortunately, with Florida being so flat the disipation will be minimal. Mountain ranges are the best thing for disorganising hurricanes. The winds are still expected to be in the 85-100 mph range when it arrives in St. Augustine.
The main body of yesterday's storm Bonnie, passed us by, but unfortunately produced some very dangerous thunderstorms on the fringes and they spawned some tornadoes in our area. Many trees were uprooted and people unfortunate enough to be caught out driving had their cars flipped over by the force of the winds. Very worrying, as the winds measured in the Tornadoes were around 85 mph. and we are expecting worse than that overnight. I will be leaving work early today to go home and batten down the hatches. I expect to live to tell the tale and will give a "blow by blow" (pun intended) commentary on Monday, all being well.