Kathy Kinsley is battening down the hatches in southwest Florida. Looking at the map, it looks like our house in Boca Raton will be OK.

Wish I could say the same for my Grandfather. He lives around Brooksville between Orlando and Tampa.

Blogging from the path of a storm is a pretty stupid activity.

My dad, a native of and living in Jacksonville, comments; you can easily tell the natives from the imports. When the hurricane warnings come, the natives get ready and/or evacuate. The imports break out their cell phones and call their stockbrokers.

Living in Jacksonville in the 70's, all of my (Florida) relatives knew exactly which of of my (Atlanta area) relatives they were going to stay with had a storm come.

Kathy's off line now, since the storm was upgraded and took a right turn much closer to her.

Hey, Derek L, perhaps you could explain to me why "Blogging from the path of a storm is a pretty stupid activity"? And for that matter, what would be wrong with calling one's stockbroker? Kathy didn't indicate she wasn't ready or tossing the hurricane off lightly; and she wasn't in a mandatory evacuation area. Besides, everyone who evacuated were basically chased by the storm across the state -- which you could see by the path they took. That thing was huge, and it still isn't (at the time of writing this) quite finished.

By the way, I was born and raised in Miami, and I have lived in Florida my entire life. If you don't have to evacuate (and everyone shouldn't -- there are only a limited number of shelters and people shouldn't be tying up the road if they don't have to leave) know what to do during hurricanes; you gather up canned food, water, bring your loose crap inside, and sit down and wait. Blogging is a perfectly reasonable thing to do as long as the power is still on, or at least it's as reasonable as watching the weather on tv or listening to the radio.