Another thing to remember, once the weather goes downhill, that's pretty much it. In a doomsday Cat V (Gilbert-esque) moving up from the south, hurricane force winds would be there hours before the IH winds. In Charley's case, it's probably going to be a few bands with big gusts and heavy downpours until you get into the concentric part of the storm where it's chaos. Charley passing over an area from the south looks to be a wild ride of about 8-12 hours @ 14mph. Also, you usually won't see much thunder and lightning with a strong hurricane. But the outer bands can (and do) often spawn short-lived tornadoes that touch down for a brief time and pick back up. That's what killed all of those people in LaPlace, LA (10-12 miles west of me) when Andrew came ashore in St. Mary Parish. So definitely beware the first squall line coming through your area if you've never experienced a strong hurricane before. And I could be wrong, but I think tornaodes rotate in from the SE (any mets could correct that if it's wrong).

Steve