Oh for irony, the friend that gave me a ride to the airport to evacuate from Andrew, that I grew up with on the FL panhandle, stayed through Andrew in CoConut Grove, lost power for weeks and ended up staying with me in a one room efficiency apartment with me and my two cats and him with his German Shepard! He now lives in Jekyll Island GA and thankfully has evacuated with his family.
The eye part of a hurricane and the path of the eye is actually not the most dangerous part of a storm. An eye path will actually see less damage than the path of the front right side (most wind damage) and front left side (most water damage) of a hurricane.
The projected storm surge from Matthew along the First Coast scares me. I watched a documentary about Dora earlier and was stunned to see the flooding in St. Augustine and the Jax beaches from that Cat 2 hurricane in 1964. It’s going to be difficult for me to do anything other than obsessively check news reports this weekend, even though that doesn’t help anyone. We’re waiting to hear if we’ll have some long term house guests, once the extent of the damage is known.
We live in the midlands of SC and H works out of his Ormond Beach, FL office one week a month. The office is across the street from the ocean. He went down this week to set the IT disaster management plan into action and thankfully, they were able to successfully evacuate the building, relocate to an inland site and get everyone off the peninsula late this afternoon before the bridges closed. He is now driving with a co-worker to who knows where. Someone knew someone who somehow got them a hotel room on the west coast. I hope to hear from him soon.
My S and his wife in Miami are reporting wind and rain. We have friends from Charleston on their way here. Everyone in the path, stay safe!
Looks like south/central FL has been spared! Crossing fingers for St. Augustine, Jacksonville, coastal GA and the Carolinas.
Andrew’s second landfall was actually in Louisiana. After it hit Louiana, it started moving eastward through Mississippi and Alabama.
Well, not central. It’s still heading toward the Space coast. Ft. Lauderdale, Jupiter, seem to be lucky.
I had planned to evacuate Charleston. H talked me into staying. Wish we had left. It’s pitch black and rain has been coming down hard for about 12 hours now. I can’t sleep.
@Overtheedge yeeks- are you in historic area or close to harbor? Barrier islands? I was in Charleston three weeks ago ( first trip) and heartbroken about storm. Everyone spoke of hurricane Hugo with such respect, now this
OtEdge,
My sympathies. Do you still have power?
As rough as it was, NE FL was spared most of the anticipated damage. There’s still some river flooding and many downed trees and power lines to contend with, but it appears that the storm surge was far less than expected. Part of A1A in Flagler Beach was washed out and it seems that St. Augustine was the worst hit along the First Coast.
There was a report this morning that 911 service is out in Clay County for all cell phone providers; callers just hear a busy signal. People have to call the Clay Co. Sheriff’s office directly. I’m going to remind my kids to store the non-emergency phone numbers for their law enforcement and fire departments on their cell phones. A few years ago, we lost cell phone service altogether and were thankful for our land line.
Best wishes to those in GA and the Carolinas.
@SouthJerseyChessMom - I’m in Mount Pleasant on the water. I would’ve left if I lived on the barrier islands.
@bookworm - We lost power @11:30 last night. It was pitch black last and the sounds of the rain and wind in the darkness spooked me. It’s much less frightening in the daylight.
My house is elevated so I’m not real concerned with the surge. My biggest concern is a few very large trees close to the house. It is good news that the wind has decreased.
My Eagle Scout H has made a pot of coffee on the propane cooker and we are listening to the radio and watching the rain.
@Overtheedge I’m glad that you are safe. I feel your pain with your Eagle Scout husband. We have 3 scouts in our house, ( one of them is an Eagle and one is an Air Force retiree who weathered Hugo who fancies himself as a modern day Macgyver) . We had a very bad ice storm about 10 years ago in the upstate .i wanted to leave . DH didn’t . He rigged a TV with a car cigarette lighter to a car battery so we could watch Polar Express. The next day we had to drive into Columbia to get " supplies and rations " then had to turn right back around. I love DH but there are times I’d like to be married to a scaredy cat. 
Stay safe.
@Overtheedge - Stay safe!
I have one of these and love this description!
My brother stayed in Mt Pleasant and never lost power at ex-wife apartment but his went out. Now the issue is debris. I-95 is closed both direction in lower part of SC. I will say reading people’s comments on FB, I don’t know why someone was trying to go south to Florida this morning. Please people use some common sense and stay put for awhile. Wind and rain pretty light now here in midlands, but lots of trees down and power and therefore traffic lights out. Governor has urged people not to try and return toward coast today or tomorrow since maybe not safe.
@Overtheedge Hope things improving now.
I think brother said high tide at 1pm which means still storm surge potentially an issue. After that things should get better. No accessibility into Kiawah and adjacent areas right now according to governor. Cell service down in some places.
Yeah, what is going on with I95? Just read about that. 
My parents’ place in Ormond Beach sounds fine (talked to their neighbor). Just yard debris everywhere. No power but they’re not there anyway so it’s fine (feel bad for the neighbors though).
Couldn’t believe the pics of A1A in Flagler Beach - wow! Will be awhile to get that fixed. And St. Augustine did see quite a bit of flooding apparently.
Meanwhile it is a sparkly pretty day here in Gainesville . . . you know the UF game folks aren’t too thrilled.
^^And I guess because storm didn’t turn like they thought after Charleston, NC State and Notre Dame game in NC looks miserable.
Myrtle Beach getting lot more than originally expected.
Wow, just saw this video footage from Flagler College on the Weather Channel’s FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/TheWeatherChannel/videos/10154688414960921/
My SIL got back to her house in Daytona Beach and there wasn’t too much damage. Some roof shingles blew off and a few sections of fencing fell over. The power is still out, but she is very relieved. Whew!!