We have cable back but probably just briefly ... Comcast is so bad. I really miss Brighthouse, we had that company for many years and never an issue. In the five months we've lived here our Comcast cable (internet, phone, t.v.) has gone out so many times I can't count!

The rains came for a while but have now stopped for a bit; winds are gusty but the worst part of the storm will be during the early a.m. hours, the last I heard that's going to be about 3 a.m. for our area.

I will check in when I can ... hope all those in Matthew's path stay safe!

Lin, hopefully you can get a little rest before it gets really bad. Thanks for checking in. We are all thinking about you guys.

Hubby just took both of the dogs for a walk ... they seem to like the breeze. It's raining again and mild winds with small gusts but nothing bad yet. I'm going to try to take a little nap because I know I won't be able to sleep tonight. I'll check in when I can.

Thanks so much for all the good thought y'all, really appreciate every one of you!

My fellow Floridians
I have some news for you. Most of you know I'm in Lake City, aka The Gateway To Florida. I-75 & I-10 intersect here so we have major interstates running north & south as well as running east & west. They can take I-10 east to hook up with I-95.

We live outside of town & don't go into town very often but today we went to a Dr. Appt. & blood draws so.......

What an eye opener! This town is….I can’t even describe it! There are more power trucks, tree cutting crews, power trucks with those big augers for putting in power poles, crews, crews, crews & more crews of power, rescue, restore, phone trucks, trucks carrying transformers & big electrical equipment, power poles, Red Cross and every other imaginable personnel that will be needed after Matthew leaves than I have ever seen in my entire life. The fairgrounds is wall to wall, only inches between, power trucks. Very, very minimum of 300 of them @ the fairgrounds alone. Hotels & we have a TON of them - parking lots are FULL of trucks, every available space in this town has trucks parked!!! WalMart parking lot, Home Depot, Lowe’s, anywhere there is to park all these vehicles. All ready to move when the storm is over. We saw at least 30 trucks heading west on Hwy.90 — probably to other areas to park or to hold up in Live Oak which is 20 miles away. We were only at the western edge of town. Then the doc, nurses & lab techs were describing downtown & said you can’t move, it’s so clogged with help for afterward. The doc said the hospitals (we have 2) are ready for injured from Jacksonville, all docs on alert. He also said we are all set up & ready to receive displaced people from Jacksonville. You just can’t believe how transformed this place is!!! Unbelievable!!!
It’s a surreal sea of trucks & equipment.
It’s both a heartwarming and devastating vision all at the same time.
It makes me feel good knowing they have enough faith that it will not be bad for us because they wouldn’t risk all that equipment & lives but then I feel guilty for being happy when on the other hand it makes me very scared for all the people in FL who are going to be hit hard by this storm.
But know this:
If ever the powers that be were prepared for the aftermath of a major hurricane; they are THIS time!!! I can assure you that help will be on the way as soon as they are given the go ahead to move out. There were more trucks rolling in all the time and I'm sure some will continue to move on down into the safer western portions of FL where they will be staged ready to roll out from there.

Y'all take care & don't do anything stupid you hear? We don't want to lose a one of you!

Please check in when you can & let us know you're okay.

For those of you in GA, SC, and NC, I'm sure the same thing is going on in your states and we hope you guys will check in & let us know how you're faring.

Alice, did you bug out or are you still at home?

Alice headed out to Asheville NC yesterday morning, Ann. It's Pam I'm really worried about. She couldn't get her mother to evacuate so she was driving from Gainesville this morning to Indialantic. I sure hope she got mom outa there or they both could be in trouble.

It's so frustrating to think that people don't understand what "mandatory evacuation" means! It means that once you get into trouble there is no rescue. Call 911 for even a fire or a heart attack and they can't come to get you.

I am watching the coverage on MSNBC of the storm. It is very scary because they are saying it will be a storm of historic proportions. Still not exactly sure where the point of landfall. But they keep saying hugging the coast going all the way up and that will be really bad for damage.

When I hear that phase, historic proportions that is scary. That is what Hurricane Sandy was for us, historic. Not the kind of historic that any of us want.

I pray everyone stays safe.

I'm worried about Pam too ... her mother lives in Indalantic, the barrier island east of Melbourne, Fl. Her mom refused to evacuate. https://www.google.com/maps/@2...

And I must apologize to you and the Weather Terrorists because several more of the spaghetti models are now doing that "loop around' scenario and have the darn thing coming back to hit us again.

Our weather guy says IF it does that it will be a minor TS by then, though. Still after the initial pass up the coast, even a tropical storm will not be welcome on top of whatever the damage is.

Feeling very thankful to be more or less out of harm's way tonight. We have some gusty winds but have hardly even seen any rain yet.

I wonder if Pam even made it down this way before the bridges were locked down? They lock down all the bridges over the intracoastal when sustained winds reach 35 mph.

Law enforcement has been on t.v. news conferences numerous times today and they are constantly stating that there is a mandatory evacuation of all barrier islands, all mobile home parks and those living in un-sturdy homes and low lying areas. They've stated that they will not arrest anyone who defies the evacuation orders but if they do stay and need help of any kind ... no one will be able to respond, they are on their own. Apparently a bunch of people in mobile home parks in Martin County have refused to evacuate and they expect many others will make the same decision to defy the evacuation orders. Governor Scott has had numerous press conferences today and has stated many times that there will be loss of life from this hurricane.

I've seen a lot of reports showing that u-turn and loop de loop. Matthew is not being very nice. Last I heard they are now saying Brevard and Volusia Counties will get hit hard. We moved down here from Volusia ...

Just checking in; all is well in Naples, my windchimes are happily chiming away out there. Our tropical storm watch was lifted at 8 pm so I trust it won't get any worse.
My go-to site is Wunderground and specifically the Dr. Jeff Masters blog. No-nonsense weather information without any of the hype of the TV stations.

Everyone - be safe!

Thanks for all the concern, I really appreciate it. We are high and dry now in the NC mountains and just hoping we have a house to go back to. We went to Lowe's and bought a generator tonight. I know there won't be any to be had at home and if we don't need it we can always return it down the road. We just heard they evacuated Beaufort Memorial hospital, scary.

Sister and her family left JAX today going up I-75, they are having to go to Dalton, GA near the TN border to have a place to stay! Interesting that the bridges close down with that little wind.

Got my computer set up, and we shall see how long the electricity stays on. I am in fact at my Mothers. If you look at the map Lin posted, you will see the melbourne causeway. Go over the causway, take your first right on s. riverside, and Im three blocks down on the intercoastal at 8th ave. Im actually right under the d, in riverside. Weather station right down at the beach. Im less than a 1/4 of a mile from him, so if you catch the weather station, youll see what Im seeing.

Speaking to what Ann said. I happen to have met a friend for dinner in Lake City last night. It was as awing as disney world. So help me, there were 500 trucks lined up at least. They were busing the drivers to hotels. The turnpike was loaded with them. There is alot of prior planning that goes it to this. I still cant believe all those vehicles. Ann knows. Amazing spirit.
Hetty, glad your OK, to tired to rail on the hype, but its a problem.
Off to see if I can get Mother to bed, at least for a few hours.
Be back soon, or when electricity is back if we loose it.
I had my husband bring the ladder in and put it by the door, Im not so worried about the wind, Im headed to the roof if the river and the ocean decide to kiss tho. I doesnt look like that will be the case, altho from daytona, and especially jacksonville, they have themselves a major surge issue.
Courage is fear thats said its prayers. That done, on to just hunkering down.

gardenglory said:Got my computer set up, and we shall see how long the electricity stays on. I am in fact at my Mothers. If you look at the map Lin posted, you will see the melbourne causeway. Go over the causway, take your first right on s. riverside, and Im three blocks down on the intercoastal at 8th ave. Im actually right under the d, in riverside. Weather station right down at the beach. Im less than a 1/4 of a mile from him, so if you catch the weather station, youll see what Im seeing.

Speaking to what Ann said. I happen to have met a friend for dinner in Lake City last night. It was as awing as disney world. So help me, there were 500 trucks lined up at least. They were busing the drivers to hotels. The turnpike was loaded with them. There is alot of prior planning that goes it to this. I still cant believe all those vehicles. Ann knows. Amazing spirit.
Hetty, glad your OK, to tired to rail on the hype, but its a problem.
Off to see if I can get Mother to bed, at least for a few hours.
Be back soon, or when electricity is back if we loose it.
I had my husband bring the ladder in and put it by the door, Im not so worried about the wind, Im headed to the roof if the river and the ocean decide to kiss tho. I doesnt look like that will be the case, altho from daytona, and especially jacksonville, they have themselves a major surge issue.
Courage is fear thats said its prayers. That done, on to just hunkering down.

I pray you stay safe there!

Glad to hear you're ok Pam

Really worried about Pam and her Mom. Praying that they are both safe somewhere away from the coast.

Cross posted with Rita and Ginny. Still praying for you anyway, Pam.

Pam!
Your husband is there with you?
I am SO glad we heard from you! Geez girl, you're going to ride it out in style I guess.

Yes, it's awesome to see all the help waiting to spring into action. Thank goodness they began early and we had so much lead time with the warnings so that everything could be put in motion to be ready to help. These people who do this, the employees of all the companies, they sleep in trucks & live in trucks for days on end. When we went through Frances & were w/o power for 9 days AND we knew it was going to be a hard fix b/c the power pole in the empty lot next door broke in half.... we cried & cheered when those 3 power trucks out of NC showed up. They were tired, dirty, hungry and still had a spirit that was humbling, they were still able to smile and were happy to see us happy. Amazing people! They hadn't seen their families, hadn't been able to kiss their kids or have any kind of a normal life for 10-12 days and didn't know how much longer it would be before they could go home. Bless ALL of them!

Geeze Pam! You guys wanted front row seats to the show. I pray for you and your family Mathew heads more out to sea. I saw the radar where you are and it looked like you guys where in a clearing for a little while. I commend you for getting to your mother and am glad you are not alone.