A Category 4 now south of Jamaica and heading toward the Yucatan. Saffir-Simpson scale here.
I spent a season in Florida with four hurricanes, and maybe what I most remember as I while driving northeast to Orlando to escape Charley, was how anxious I was.
I sat among tens of thousands of cars jammed on I4, nosing east. I was flipping through even the am stations for updates. Will it be really bad? Will I find shelter? This land is so flat, I remember thinking, just a large spit of sand.
The weakened eye passed right near the Super 8 near Orlando where I luckily found a room. I stood near the breezeway for a few minutes with some teenagers, watching plywood and bits of plastic, a construction cone, and driving walls of wind and rain pass through.
I watched and listened in awe as a steady roar filled the night, then gradually died down.
Fortunately, I didn’t have a house or loved ones to lose.