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.