I'm asking for prayers for Florida and a special prayer for my children and grandchildren that live here, please.
"Irma" is wider than the whole state of Florida, and with no one knowing the path she will take, we KNOW that everyone in Florida will be affected in some way. The last track had her coming up the middle of the state, which is not good for anyone. IF she comes up the center of Florida, I'm in the path because the eye is so wide. If she goes east, there will be less damage for me and my family, as I live slightly west of center, and have my mother (87 with dementia/alzheimers) and my son Jon and his family in the same town. I will be taking my mother to Jon's house to weather the storm -- as his house is brand new (finished in Nov 2016) and is block with hurricane strength windows. My mom lives in a double-wide manufactured home, and her last home was destroyed in the last hurricane,. So, at least we'll be together. My home is over 100 years old, and has weathered many hurricanes, so I'm praying it will stand this time too with no damage. I live on the main street in town in a big corner lot (almost 1/2 acre) with nothing close around the home -- only 3 trees around the perimeter -- so hopefully nothing can actually hit the house.
My other 2 sons, Tommy & Ben and their families live on the west coast (about 50 road miles away) -- Tommy directly on the water on a canal, and Ben about 10+ miles inland. So Ben and his family are going to Tommy's house on the water, since Tommy's home is 2 stories of solid poured concrete walls and floors and sits high off the water with their main living floor really the second floor of the home (built like a skyscraper of poured concrete) and they'll weather the storm there. Even if the water rose 15 feet it wouldn't touch his home the way its built high up above the canal water line. He is pulling his boat from the water today for safety's sake.
So, it doesn't look good at this point. But, I've done this before. They say Irma will be a category 4 storm when she reaches my area if she comes up the center of the state, and I weathered Hurricane Charley who also hit me as a category 4 storm in 2004 and the eye came right through my town (and right down my road when I lived out on my farm property).
Unfortunately, there is another Hurricane right behind Irma (5 days behind) that will hit Florida again they predict, but no idea of the track of that storm yet. When Charley hit us - with the eye coming straight down our road, there was another hurricane that came right behind and hit us again about 10 days later. I'm praying for no repeat of back-to-back hits.
So, praying hard Irma makes a turn east as originally thought, although I don't wish damage and danger on anyone. But I'm not as young as I used to be, and I'd prefer not to have this happen again. I remember the war-zone Charley left behind, with all the flooding (our flooded property was about thigh deep on land that never flooded before), and all the FEMA and others that came to town to help us, thank God. It was a mess for many and so many homes destroyed and people displaced. We made it through, but I'm not looking forward to a repeat.
Praying hard for my fellow Floridians, and hoping my family is not in the path of this one.