Thank yall for answering me, Im middle aged, live alone, no friends or family, and do not tolerate heat or travel well, so its twice as scary, just bought this house less than a year ago (80 year old cracker house, like I said its sturdier than me!), I do know that I seem to be a lightening magnet (today the phone lines and satillite got toasted so I cant even see the weather channel) and the weather blinks and dims EVERY STORM but its never lost. Former owners said that they had lost power for 2 weeks during the o4 canes. My former house in the same area only lost power during jean and that was only for about 10 hours and at night. But then I was on the same line as the hospital, now Im on the same line as the cows! (W side PC no of i-4) LOL I do have a gen. and a window unit but Im afraid of the heat/power outages-or how long power would be out....a tree fell on lines early in the summer and I was without power over 12 hours-good thing it was at night and cooler out. Ive watched all the eve news and they just seem to relish in placing that hurricane logo over the Tampa Bay area. I rememeber leaving for Charley and I ended up in the other side of orlando area...then they say it was coming THERE and I travelled all the way to WPB in fear. But that to me was the biggest example of a BIG WHOOPS on the part of the meterologists, and now my trust in them is toasty-but I also look at the NHC website and they are obviously saying the same thing, just without as much color. I keep trying to tell myself the track is not set in stone but I havent seen it move too far from the TMP BAY area yet track wise and thats scaring me. What can one expect during a cat one storm inland (Like I said I left in 04) but here I have so many dogs and livestock leaving isnt really an option. And maybe one of you more exp weather folks can tell me about the spagetti models...they even said Miami as a possibility, the gfdl model which they like, but then each tv station seem to like their own radar models????. Also how far out do the winds go from the center...will we be in a stiff breeze or a hurricane??? And are their storms in that whole big white fan looking mess or just near the center. And are they like our evening storms or is it more of a rain event w/o the lightening?? I really appreciate yall taking thte time to post to answer my questions as Im not a newbie to FL I am a newbie to the idea of riding out a storm, I never have and Im TRYING not to panic....knowledge is power for me. Thanks yall again!