My husband and I have spent a lot of time in St. Augustine and yes, I too heard that they got hit really hard by the hurricane. St. Augustine is right on the waterfront so it doesn't surprise me that they are underwater from that horrid storm. People are stranded at the Casablanca Inn, a beautiful historic building right by the Bridge of Lions: http://www.casablancainn.com/

I've been to St. Augustine thousands of times and this video is truly scary seeing all of that water. http://www.ajc.com/weather/hur...

Gee, I wonder if our favorite restaurant The Conch House is still standing, it's at a marina right on the water: https://www.google.com/maps/pl...

Matthew may come back to haunt us as a tropical storm: https://weather.com/storms/hur...

mellielong said:Ooh, I'm so glad I mentioned Mt. Dora.

Ginny, I think you did Florida the wrong way! I'm going on a vacation somewhere in Florida next week (I'm keeping it a secret from the forum I moderate) and I just booked a spa treatment in the luxury hotel I'm staying at (FL resident special rate so I can afford it). And, I booked high tea at the English Tea House about a block away from the hotel. They're having a special "Tea and Tales" night where professional storytellers come in and do their thing while we have tea. And I'm taking an eco-tour on a boat but they market it as a dolphin tour since all the tourists want to see dolphins. It's three hours and we make a stop to do some shelling!

My tips...pick off-season times. Stay away from Disney. Wear sunscreen! Reapply sunscreen often! Stay hydrated. And remember a Japanese saying I heard once - There's no shame on the road.

Now yours would be a Florida vacation I could enjoy - with some beach time added - and seafood

dyzzypyxxy said:We're sailors, and moved to the West Coast of FL 15 years ago because there IS good wind here. Depends where you go of course, but our little sailing club here in Sarasota is one of the most popular spots for racing because we do have dependable wind most of the year. Up in Tampa we've raced at the Davis Is. YC and in St. Pete a couple of times and been skunked with no breeze, though. Anywhere you go, you can get burned by bad weather, though.

Ginny, you really did have a terrible time both times you came here! Yikes. Come in November, or March or April for really great, dependable weather with lower humidity and more breeze. That's when I tell all my family to come.

Yes, you must wear sunscreen here all year round and that's true of any place in Florida. I'm a redhead, so truly an endangered species here and I can honestly tell you I've not had a single sunburn since we've lived here going on 15 years.

If I were going anywhere that required staying in a 6 bedroom house with 18 people I'd be booking a hotel so fast it would make you dizzy, even if they were all people I was pretty fond of.

Until our office quits preparing income taxes or I retire, March and April (unless it's after the 16th) are completely out for me. However November sounds good My DH and I BOTH agreed after the 18 people in the house experience (most of them junior high and under down to a 2 year old) if we join them in a vacation again we will definitely have our own place!!! They are talking about the mountains in the next year or 2 We have a timeshare we can trade so I said we would have to stay in a place we could use our timeshare and they can do whatever they want! His kids vacation together all the time and either go to Anna Maria or Destin or somewhere else in Florida. I REALLY want to go to Alaska

Apparently Matthew has weakened but he is still pushing lots of water in.

MISSINGROSIE said:Flipper?

Those swell coconut patties at the orange fruit stands?

Sharks teeth .." genuine right outta a shark "?

Love Bugs?

Orange Blossom toilet water

Sand that sticks in all crevices with no bias?

Opportunity to trial new deodorant?

Monkey Jungle?

See...there is a lot

Don't forget the ever popular flying cockroaches !

Also always enjoyed the snakes that tried to go in the dryer vents.

I think it's pretty safe to say that you will have a house to go home to Alice. 99.99%




I found this page for FPL = Florida Power & Light which serves most of FL - certainly the east coast. You can see how many customers are w/o power for any given county.
https://www.fpl.com/storm/cust...

Those numbers are WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better than I expected. If Matthew had turned out like they said it would then almost the entire state would have been blacked out.

gardenglory said:

My beloved downtown old st.augustine is under water.

plantladylin said:My husband and I have spent a lot of time in St. Augustine and yes, I too heard that they got hit really hard by the hurricane. St. Augustine is right on the waterfront so it doesn't surprise me that they are underwater from that horrid storm. People are stranded at the Casablanca Inn, a beautiful historic building right by the Bridge of Lions: http://www.casablancainn.com/

I've been to St. Augustine thousands of times and this video is truly scary seeing all of that water. http://www.ajc.com/weather/hur...

Gee, I wonder if our favorite restaurant The Conch House is still standing, it's at a marina right on the water: https://www.google.com/maps/pl...

Matthew may come back to haunt us as a tropical storm: https://weather.com/storms/hur...

Watched the Video of St Augustine. Wow. Scary!!

Very scary!

Yes thanks, with the weakening of he storm we should be good. I am not too worried about the wind, in our location 50 mph gusts are the norm. The surge might be another story, the extent will depend on when the storm gets there. We are hoping it hits at low tide.

My son has heard his home is OK but he has not seen pics yet.

@ardesia Happy your son's home is okay. Hoping for low tide.
It is so sad about St. Augustine. We have been there many times and although we aren't up to climbing the lighthouse any more there are lots of other things to do there!

Good news on your son's home Alice!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for low tide at your house. How high is your house? I mean, what # of feet do you think before it gets water intrusion?

Well, I am afraid it is arriving at the worst time. The floor of my home is at 14' and the tide for tonight would be 6.5' but with 12" of rain today it will be higher. I have heard anywhere from a 6' to an 11' surge. Let's hope they are just exagerating - as usual.

Alice we'll continue to keep you in our prayers. We hope too it's not as bad as the predictions

I checked the tide tables for Beaufort, and if I'm reading it right, low tide is at 8:15 tomorrow morning so that might work out well for the timing of the storm going by.

Hope your house is above the water tonight and tomorrow, Alice because it sure is raining a LOT up there, too.

Just a bunch of tree trimming here in Winter Springs, we did have lots of rain. I think highest wind gust were around 40, so much lower than they originally predicted. I have some very huge twenty year old oaks in my yard and they all did fine. We didn't lose power, but my parents in Casselberry did and my son in Lake Mary still without power this morning. I am so thankful this morning it wasn't as bad as it could have been, the news had me shaking in my flip flops before this storm hit. :crying:

I'm very sad to see A1A in Flagler Beach, our favorite beach is washed out, that is where my husband and I originally lived and would love to eventually have our retirement home. I haven't seen reports yet of St. Augustine, had plans to take my mom there the end of this month for her birthday. I shudder to think what this did do to our coastline.

Hope you are spared too, Alice. Keep us posted.

No news yet and I am biting my nails and anything else in arm's reach. The storm passed within 10 miles as a cat 2 at full high tide which was apparently the highest tide ever reported. How come all the news they release is the bad stuff???? I do know the wind was not nearly as bad as they predicted and I know we have no power or water. The state has to inspect all the bridges and causeways in the county before we can get home and there are hundreds. A lot of roads including parts of I-95 are closed due to flooding and it is still raining so it will be a mess for a few days.

Just be safe Alice ... Matthew has been downgraded to category 1 now but still doing major damage. I saw that S.C. has a lot of downed trees and flooding.