Just wanted to post my thoughts post-Charley. Got real lucky here in Lakeland (actually more like Mulberry for me). We got a ton of nasty wind in about a 1 hour period. That was about it. Woke up this morning, looked around. Lots of trees down, some big, most medium/small sized.

Still, showing how fickle this was, about 10 miles east of me, people are still without power in Mulberry, may be for a week. Go another 20 miles east to Bartow, the damage is worse. Go 20 miles more (say 50 miles east of us) in Lake Wales, and it's terrible the amount of damage there is. We are all truly blessed (and lucky) to have not had the major damage here that was just right next to us.

My heart goes out to everyone in SW, like around Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Total and complete devastation. Already 15 confirmed dead, 10 from destroyed mobile homes, 5 from vehicular accidents related to storm. Still about 100 missing unaccounted for yet (hopefully just left town at last minute and haven't checked in with loved ones yet). 1.3 million without power, nearly 1 mill without active water systems. Power may be out up to a week. With all due respect to Phil, you didn't censor "Orlando Waiting" ENOUGH last night with the silly ranting. This is widespread damage and destruction. This is the horror of Andrew, perhaps magnified. Maybe Andrew came off looking worse because it impacted a "popular" area like Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. This is just as bad, will likely be far more expensive, and could turn out to be deadlier.

Oh, and as long as I'm typing, lemme say, don't assume that the media hyped Tampa entirely. I watched what had to be 70 hours of continuous coverage. I turned my apartment into a micro-weather center.

Anyway, nearly every channel I watched out of Tampa kept constantly emphasizing to not pay attention to the "white line", that the storm could go anywhere in the error "cone". It's not like they told people, Tampa's it, ignore everywhere else. They had a live shot on Channel 13 in Punta Gorda at one of the destroyed trailer parks. During the shot, an older man was wandering, shellshocked, in the background. They went to talk to him, and he said that they left early yesterday morning, when they first heard it was coming their way. They had 8 hour warning, he said, and they went to Ft. Lauderdale. He's fine, his place is actually mostly there. He was shaken (clearly) - said he lived there for over 10 years, but had to ask what street he was on, it was so destroyed. He had tears in his eyes and shook the newsman's hand thoroughly and thanked him for the warning and letting him get out with his wife.

The media didn't drop the ball, and the NHC didn't either. They did the best they could. Once people get through their shock and grief, hopefully they'll realize everyone did the best they could.

Londovir