I swear, I’ve never been through a hurricane that moved this slowly before, and after 75 years of Florida living, I’ve been through quite a few. The Stalking Turtle reference becomes more obvious every day. The image above shows you very clearly that the danger of this storm is not in the eye, which is a quiet, calm area in the center of the storm. The danger is in the bands of powerful winds which circle the eye in a counterclockwise direction. Yellow, orange, and red are the DANGER colors.

I’ve used an image from last night because it gives you a good idea of just how far these bands can reach out to wreak havoc. The eye of the storm was approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida when this image was taken. I’ve tweaked it a bit to show you roughly where it is now, in relation to Daytona Beach and us.

We got significant winds during the night and some downed branches here and there, but so far have been lucky. However, these bands will be arcing through Florida for hours before clearing the state line, so we certainly aren’t in the clear, yet. And then it’s the folks in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and even Virginia that have to be on the alert. (The Carolinas look to be in for some rough times ahead.)

If our house doesn’t take a hit today from one of these bands of wind, we’ll be okay. Just soggy and tired of it all. If we do, and another tree comes down, that changes everything. Mark had to go in to work, so I’m sitting here by myself, watching the heavier wind gusts and trying not to panic. 😯 It’s going to be a long day, but so far, no damage or power loss, so I’m very grateful for that.

I have discovered that one can only “hunker down” for so long before it gets really uncomfortable! 😀 

Here’s a photo I saw yesterday, long before the storm itself was even close to this particular location (St. Augustine, in north Florida). This is what even an outer, outer, outer band of the hurricane looked like yesterday morning. 😯

Please forgive me if it takes me some time to respond to all your lovely comments. I thank you so much for your support and well wishes and prayers. ALL are much appreciated and have helped me stomp down the incipient panic attacks. I’m taking deep breaths this morning and trying not to worry about what I’ll do if a limb smashes a window or damages the roof–other than running around in circles while shaking my fist at the sky, I mean. I’ve got that covered! 😀 

See you on the other side! ❤ ❤ ❤