Thank you Christine and Janelle for your concern about us Florida people through this storm.

I have to tell you that I am a native Tampanian, lived here all my life, have seen a few hurricanes come through, but this one really scared me. I am just grateful that it did not hit us. We hardly received any rain. I am very sorry though for those that did have this hurricane come upon them. We can only pray for them at this time. I know that it has to be devastating for them.

Just a hurricane update from Orlando, Florida. Finally got our cable - and our internet - back yesterday (Sunday 8-22-04). I live 4 miles south of downtown Orlando and we were without power the nite of the hurricane Friday 8:00 PM 8-13-04 thru Wednesday 11:00 AM 8-18-04. My son and I hunkered down in a downstairs bathroom with no windows for about an hour when Charley came through. The winds were 90 mph sustained and, I'm sure, gusted to 100 mph or more - Charley made a lot of noise. It sure seemed like our roof was going to fly off for a while. We came out of it just fine - no major damage. For us it was quite an adventure. It was one of those times I was glad I was around to experience this with my 16 year old son. I know some of the cities southwest (Florida's gulf coast) were devastated. My thoughts and prayers are with all the good folks struggling with the aftermath.

Peggy,
Did Disney World get any damage? I didn't hear anything about it on the news.

Disney was open Saturday - the next day. They were actually west of the storm so they missed the worst of the wind; there was very little damage. My husband works at a hotel on Disney property that ended up becoming more like a shelter that night because so many people had evacuated from the West coast of Florida (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater) not to mention the usual tourists from all over the world. He stayed at the hotel that evening to help and said the it was windy but they never lost power.

Thank goodness you are safe. In another life, I worked for the Amercian Red Cross and saw the aftermath of some powerful hurricanes, Hugo being the largest. I can understand your fear.

Love and light,

Lisa