Hope everyone is prepared or quickly preparing for Matthew, which is a very powerful and dangerous storm! According to the latest news report, several computer models have it making landfall somewhere in the West Palm Beach area or possibly a bit farther north as a CAT 3 storm. Yikes! A state of emergency has been issued for Florida and apparently evacuations of extreme south Florida and the Keys may begin later today! I'm sure hoping Matthew will weaken and be far off shore by the time he makes it up this way but we'll be battening down the hatches here ... with hurricanes you should always prepare for the worse and hope for the best.

Keeping those in Haiti in our thoughts and prayers. Haiti is a very poor country and they still haven't recovered from the earthquakes of 2010.

It's been awhile since we've been threatened with such a powerful storm. If it comes in around WPB, most everyone on the East side of Florida will feel the effects. Hope it misses us!

We are under mandatory evacuation as of 3 pm tomorrow. We are all packed and will go first thing in the morning. Packing was easy for us, a few clothes, the important papers and the laptops. Getting the garden ready was another story. I moved more than 100 containers into the house and the garage. There are still dozens outside that have been stashed under shrubs. After all this the storm will surely miss us.

Alice, I was watching the weather channel today and saw that they were going to have mandatory evacuations for your area of S.C. This storm is nothing to take lightly ... so better safe than sorry. My husband is going to put our hurricane shutters up tomorrow and I will move more stuff to a secure area ... looks like we'll probably be working in the rain.

Lin, Landfall in the WPB area????? Where did you see/hear that? I'm just curious where that came from. We were gone to doctor appts. until afternoon but since I've been home we haven't heard anything like that.

Stay safe everyone. Hopefully it will shift out east and become less of a threat. Ann, the weather channel is covering evacuation notices in various states.

Ann, I don't remember what news channel I had on at the time ... but I'm not paying a lot of attention to any of them anymore. Who knows where he will make landfall; some reports are now saying S.C. or N.C. Latest is that he's supposed to be about 60 or 70 miles offshore from our coast but we're still in the cone. We have almost an 80% chance of tropical force winds (60-74 mph) here on Thursday but we'll have to wait and see. Hubby got home this evening, ate a quick dinner and then headed out to install the window shields, get the generator set etc. He stopped for gas on his way home today and all they had was high test, no regular. Everyone I've talked to says regular gas was sold out ... long lines too. The news showed store shelves empty because folks are stocking up. One lady in my neighborhood went to Publix early today and they had already sold out of bottled water but someone said they had trucks arriving tonight to restock. I still have lots of container plants to get moved in the morning, hopefully before the rains hit.

I think our governor jumped the gun a bit and overreacted; the storm could still go in another direction but we have so many people and so few roads off the sea islands it is usually better to be safe. Also, once there is a mandatory evacuation our island locks down and we can't get back on until we get the all clear.

ardesia said:I think our governor jumped the gun a bit and overreacted; the storm could still go in another direction but we have so many people and so few roads off the sea islands it is usually better to be safe. Also, once there is a mandatory evacuation our island locks down and we can't get back on until we get the all clear.

It's important for people on the islands to have time to get off. I get that. Senario: What if one of the bridges has a problem & can't be used or only one lane can be used? That can create a MESS so I get it for island situations. Better to be safe than sorry.

Esperanza said: Stay safe everyone. Hopefully it will shift out east and become less of a threat. Ann, the weather channel is covering evacuation notices in various states.

Thanks Audrey, I know. I stay about as far away from The Weather Channel as I can. We call them The Terror Channel. They really know how to raise people's anxiety to a fever pitch. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't take hurricanes lightly and I've been in more than I care to count but I find TWC and local news stations less & less reliable in terms of honest information. They skew, they fudge, they hype. Ratings, ratings, ratings, web hits, web hits, web hits....it all adds up to $$$$$.

So true!

Yep, your right. I only look at the "terror channel" when I think it is something to be concerned about. They are always there to deliver the worry factor.
I had not thought about it that way before

Audrey, I really like this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
You can subscribe to his YouTube channel & get notifications in your inbox or check for yourself as needed. Here's his website too:
http://www.tropicaltidbits.com
None of that terror stuff, he tells it just as it really is and actually, I've learned SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much from just watching him & listening to him explain. He's just honest and doesn't try to hide anything or make things look worse or better than they are.
He only posts a vid once a day usually in the evening but sometimes in the morning & once in a while he'll do two in a day. Meanwhile, I just look at the National Hurricane Center:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

For us, following those 2 keeps things much calmer around here and you get your valid info. without someone trying to bend you all out of shape about it.
Does the hubs turn on The Terror Channel sometimes? Yes, and I tell him to turn it OFF! He does.

Thanks for those links, Ann.

My phone went off this morning waking me up, we are now in Hurricane watch, ugh. We did gas the cars up yesterday and husband filled our propane gas tank for cooking. We will go to the camper today to get our lanterns and camp stove, and most important the stove top coffee maker.

I hope everyone stays safe, especially those along the coastline. Hopefully fingers crossed the storm moves further away today.

From the forecasts I have seen here there seems to be doubt if it will make landfall along the Florida coast or stay just offshore as it travels north. Sure hope it misses everyone!!

I'm around 45 miles inland, not far from Sherri, and we were just upgraded to Hurricane Warning.

http://www.weather.gov/mlb/

I went to food Walmart to get cat food and bread, out of bread, no water, most canned goods gone. I did get some bananas and cat food though settled for flour tortillas
No parking spaces either, it was crazy.
Guess it's looking like we're gonna have some strong winds, gonna have to prepare garden tonight or wait till morning and see if any changes. Hopefully.

We've been working all day, getting the shutters up; securing outdoor furniture, moving potted plants. My husband went out to fill his truck with gas early this morning and most places are out of Regular and only have High Test (or whatever it's called.) My brother in law and my nephew were both out looking for propane today for the grill but everyone is out. Lines are long at gas stations and yeah, I hear the grocery stores are running out of supplies.

I'm in Columbia county & at this point in time, we have no watches or warnings.

When we went through Frances (2004), Jean (2004) & then Wilma (2005) and lost power for days & days, we found out that all those "hurricane supplies" food wise that we constantly kept on hand really weren't needed. They were just taking up space. Why? Because when the power goes, & your fridge & freezer are starting to warm up (assuming you don't have a generator to run them) then you cook EVERYTHING in them. Why? Because cooked food keeps longer than uncooked food. We used the grill, we also had a coleman camp stove we used. Then you put everything into the ice chest & the freezer with frozen, water filled milk gallons to keep it cool in there. We ate like kings! We never touched any of our (food) hurricane supplies and we ate great! That was a real lesson learned for us. Of course, we always have canned goods & non perishable things on hand b/c that's just the way we are. Our larder is never bare.
Turn your fridge & freezer settings down (colder) NOW so they have time to get down to a colder temp.; that will keep things colder longer. Freeze water in gallon milk jugs. All food packed tightly will maintain cool longer so group everything together on 1 or 2 shelves & surround them with frozen jugs. When the water melts, you can use it for drinking.
You can heat water in a pot on a camp stove or the grill. Get your garden watering can & put some water in it & pour heated water in it to make it warm. Stand in the shower & have your spouse douse you while you soap & rinse. Then you can return the favor.

Ann, you have gotten the drill down very well. Hope you don't have to need any of the hurricane prep.

Lin, not surprising as everyone runs out at once to stock up. Hope you got everything you needed.