Charlie, Jeanne and Francis all crossed several miles south of my house in South Lakeland. We went over to Lake Wales to help after Charlie and were absolutely stunned by the damage we saw. Flew out of Orlando a few weeks later and could see blue tarps on roofs as far as the eye could see. Charlie was still a Cat 1 storm when it left the state.

My fear: A Cat 4 or 5 coming into Sarasota or Tampa Bay with a 100 mile wide eye. When the storm is half on shore, I'm in the eye wall already. Bad news. Of course, this is a huge storm, but not unprecedented.