Georgia is going to get tired soon of being the state most likely to be evacuated to. Florida ran there for irma and the carolinas ran there very recently. Now florida is on the move again...at least it isn't nearly the whole state this time.

Central Fl. here- predicted to get heavy rain bands and wind. My gardens will take

the rain.

Pea, this time, GA is getting hit too. Seems it's safer to go South than North this time out.

I'm bringing in the most important plants and stuffing the rest up against the house and courtyard walls. We are only getting 40 mph gusts, so not very bad, more like a severe thunderstorm, but still -- I don't want my plants shredded or crushed by falling limbs.. Unfortunately, some will just have to take their chances outside.

If i was in the panhandle i would still head north...i'd not want to gamble on it taking a surprise right hand turn like charley did. If you head to to north georgia all you get is a little wind and some rain.

My bro lives in south Georgia and i just got off the phone with him. He moved from here to there about a year and a half ago. Thats where i ran during irma. He says Georgia doesn't know how to panic like Florida does. He got gas this morning and didn't have to wait in line. He thinks it might still be a cat 1 when it blows thru which if in Florida is a cakewalk but Georgia trees aren't built for wind and that is what is worrying him the most. He is currently tying down lumber from a old barn he took down and dragging heavy stuff onto the tin roof he salvaged so it won't blow and then he said he'll be picking up pecans until forever cause its pecan season and the yard is full of them even tho he just picked up this past weekend.

It's now predicted to be a category 4 storm hitting between Panama City and Apalachicola. I remember what Ivan did to Pensacola. This will be worse. It also means that we're going to be getting TS winds here in Gainesville.

Well, I got all the plants I could into the house, and everything is battened down as well as possible. We're already getting rain and the wind is picking up a bit.

I hope everyone along the beach in the big bend area leaves. The 13' predicted storm surge is so scary. Anyone else with a hurricane headache? I always get one when is hurricane in the gulf.

They shut down the gas pumps in Panama City yesterday before it was upgraded to a 4, so anyone (about half the population) who didn't get out is stuck now. They've opened up all the schools in the areas as shelters. Let's just pray for those who can't get out and can't get to a shelter. I pray they open the pumps back up this morning for awhile so people can leave.

This area has never had a major hurricane. It just shows how unprepared they are. I feel sorry for the animals. We have a lot of endangered species on the Big Bend/Nature Coast area. Most of that area is protected game preserves.

Actually Panama City has had several major hurricanes--Opal, Eloise, Kate, etc. Friends of mine lost everything in bayou flooding from Opal.

But for sure never one like this--145mph!

writersblock, yes, I meant to say it's never had a Cat 4 before. I feel so sorry for them!

For sure. It's awful to think about the flooding, let alone the wind damage. I'm selfishly glad it's not here, but I wish nobody had to deal with storms like these. I wish they could all just circle around in the oceans like Leslie and some of the other recent storms have done.

ETA I really dread the day when Tampa gets a big one. That will be horrific.

Everyone in the hurricane zone please be safe and good luck

Why would they shut off the pumps so far ahead of the storm? That seems so odd. There are so many ways to get out of the panhandle that you'd think if there was still gas in the stations they'd continue to sell. But most people have enough gas in their tanks to have gotten off the beach. I hope they did.

Eye is coming on shore right now with 150 mph winds. This is way to much like Andrew.

That's crazy they would shut down the pumps so early. We went through two Cat 5 storms in Louisiana in 2005 a month apart. First Katrina then Rita. Rita smacked up good and we had massive flooding. There were small gas stations still open until they ran out of gas. They were allowing everyone up to 10gal of gas. They were only accepting cash, no credit cards! The lines were crazy long. We were one of the last people to get gas before the pump went dry. Many others behind us had to go looking elsewhere or just stay put. Many just stayed in a Walmart Parking Lot which is where we ended up eventually because there were no shelters left after Katrina (a month prior), no hotels, we couldn't camp because the forests were officially closed due to possible falling trees.

People talk a lot of smack about Walmarts but they will let people stay in the parking lots during storms when there are no other hotels, shelters open or they are already filled from the last storm for 3 states over lol.

Here is the thing I've learned...don't ever think you can rely on the government or anyone else. A lot of people who are handicapped or in nursing homes etc. don't have options but if you are capable, make sure to either get out if possible and always be ready. If you know there is a hurricane in your vicinity make sure you fill your tank and keep it that way and have cash on hand because those ATMs and credit card machines will not be working once the power goes out.

They may have just run out of gas. They usually do around here within a couple of hours of an evacuation order.

At last report, NWS had it at 1 mph off Cat 5 when it made landfall. I've been watching live streams, and it's very, very bad - Puerto Rico bad. Brett Adair, a storm chaser, had to abandon his truck and take shelter in a house on Mexico beach, as his truck was washed away by the storm surge. Pine trees were snapping like toothpicks. Whole houses demolished. It hit Tyndall AFB head on. Luckily, no one was there. It hit Tallahassee hard and 90-100mph winds expected in Jacksonville and in western SC. It just didn't weaken much once it hit land.

I pray everyone we know is safe and sound. This is going to take a generation to recover fully from, I fear.

I wouldn't be surprised if they decide that it was officially a Cat 5 later on. Sometimes it takes them a while to analyze everything. The storm surge is not always immediate either. They could get storm surge coming in days after the hurricane which was the case with Rita. Much depends on the lay of the land/coast and how long and strong the hurricane was churning up water before it hits..tides, lunar pull (tidal force). I am praying for all the people and critters. I hope any manatees still around found a place to hide too. I went out a couple weeks after Rita to look around and there were so many dead alligators and other animals.

There's footage from Panama city uploaded onto youTube

The manatees! I am praying so hard for them and the animals along the Nature Coast. We have more endangered species than any other state, and many of them are on the Nature Coast, which is basically one big wildlife preserve. The losses will be catastrophic with this one, I fear.

It hit Tallahassee hard and 90-100mph winds expected in Jacksonville

Curious as to your source for this. According to WCTV in Tally, they just now got up to 41 mph with higher gusts. It's bad over towards Marianna, yes. They aren't even predicting tropical storm force winds for Jax, but a risk of tornados, of course.

ETA Ah, I see. Good old network news. Tally radar is not offline--it's on their tv stations live all the time, they haven't been hit hard; it's just that the guys in Panama City can't pick it up and so of course are being as lurid as they can be.

The Tally station did say the storm surge at St Marks might reach 14 ft.

It would be so nice if we could learn a way to safely weaken these storms or prevent them from gaining so much force. I mean we are afterall seeding clouds now to create rain in deserts which I found hard to believe was even possible at first. I think there was an experiment in the past where researchers claimed that they were somewhat successful by dropping dry ice into a developing system. I don't know how true that is though.

writersblock, I got that info hours ago on the Tropical Weather forum on Reddit, which is run by retired and amateur meteorologists. The news came from NOAA and NWS (National Weather Service) not network news, or Faux News, or any other news channel. Evidently, things have changed since I got that weather news This was just as it was coming ashore.

I don't know how accurate government data is, because there aren't any qualified people in Washington running these things anymore, just rich a-holes using them to make themselves richer. Hell, half the positions in these agencies haven't even been filled, because we all are paying to give tax cuts to billionaires and cut all the funding for agencies, including FEMA, NOAA, and NWS, that could actually HELP in such a situation, so corporations can all buy back their stock and hide money offshore.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone -- well, no, I'm not, because I don't like having qualified newspeople and our journalists attacked on a daily basis by evil crazy people. I'm going to stop now, before I get kicked off of Houzz. I'm sure someone will report me, but if you do, please have the integrity to tell me who you are. Don't be a coward and flag and hide.

I saw footage of mexico beach, florida and the water was up to the eves of the houses so you figure thats 8 feet of wall and they usually build the foundations up so you got to figure 10 to 12+ feet storm surge. My house is built 9 feet about sea level i think but i don't know the florida standard.

Also i saw a before and after photo of what i think was a 2 story condo building and in the after shot the whole building is gone...no wall, no foundation...gone.

Thanks, Deb. The storm surge and damage in the worst areas does seem terrible. Luckily there seem to be parts of Panama City that weren't too bad--I imagine they are mostly away from the water.

And I'm sure the whole area it passed through is a mess of downed trees and broken wires. And since that includes a lot of poorer areas, some significant home damages, too.

And I totally agree with the rest of your post.

Pea, I have headaches and also the body aches when the hurricanes come. I brought all the fragile plants inside and had to prune some of my guava trees. We had some wind gusts and some rain. I was expecting worse than that but I don't complain. I feel sorry for the people in the hurricane path. I hope there's no death and everyone is safe.

sultry, thanks so much for that video. I'm going to spread it far and wide.

Well, now I have to take all these plants back outside. It's still sort of breezy here, but I think that's from the cold front coming in. I truly hope it cools things down, because I'm tired of 90 degree highs in October. That's just ridiculous!

I found this guy's youtube channel...he kinda put himself right into the middle it and has lots of video of the storm

https://m.youtube.com/user/LiveStormsNetwork/videos

That was very interesting, Pea, but that guy is crazy to do that!

I once knew a late 60's widow who lived in Mims, Florida,...way over there on the se coast. One day she told me about what happened to her a few years earlier. A hurricane was approaching,..she lived in a 2 br mobile home, not much she could do all alone. So she did what she could, went to bed, sometime in the early AM,..pitch black outside, she awoke as her entire roof was being ripped off !! How she survived is unbelievable, - showed that she had a healthy heart for sure!!

A hurricane over cat 1 approaches my home, I AM OUTTA HERE !! No doubt about the direction,..NW for a minimum of 700 miles !!! Hearing the details of that poor lady's story resonated big time !!!

Okay now that the storm has passed, what can you do to help?

We have a condo in Rockport and had 145 mph winds for 5 hours plus tornadoes during Harvey last year. Here are some things we saw that you can do.

THESE ARE IMMEDIATE NEEDS.

Organize your church to pay all expenses for a food truck to visit the area and give away food. Oh and send horse trailers filled with bottled water. There will be a few centralized locations for people to get food and water. Find one of those spots.

Organize your law firm to pay all expenses for a food truck as above and place your advertising on the truck.

Organize your bank...

Organize your insurance company...

If your organization is sending care packages, send twice as many baby wipes as you send diapers. There's no running water so everyone needs wipes, but only babies need diapers. And there are not many babies involved in the cleanup.

If you have a bobcat or skid steer with a grapple on the front, take that and help people clear the trees out of their yards. Grab some friends with chain saws, too. At most 2 chain saws per skid steer. The skid steer does most of the work.

If you have industrial generators mounted on trailers, you can rent those to the lucky ones whose homes are still livable. They don't have power to run the air conditioners, and it takes an industrial unit for that. They will need the generators until the power comes back on in 2-4 weeks.

If you have industrial water pumps, they need them there right now.

If you have access to a lot of healthy young people who need some exercise, for example a sports team or membership gym, send them to help people move rubble into piles for pickup later. You cannot imagine the amount of stuff that needs to be cleared out.

If you know someone with an industrial incinerator on a trailer (18-wheeler trailer), contact the local governments to see if they want one. They might not realize it but they need it.

Rockport piled up rubble in the median between freeways for eventual burning. That worked well. The sooner this process starts the faster the towns will clean up.

Also reminding volunteers to wear appropriate footwear. Sturdy boots with thick soles and good tread. Watch for snakes who may be hiding or trapped under rubble. There may be nails, screws, glass, or other sharp objects. A good pair of heavy leather gloves are good to prevent splinters from broken wood, etc.

During Rita we has downed power lines scattered everywhere and all kinds of critters and debris.

Yes, snakes -- and alligators too. they'll get washed into storm ponds, and when they dry up, they'll try to make their way back to the water, so they'll be out and about and hungry and stressed. If you see one, just get as far away as you can.