Thinking of our friends in harms way.

Hope it doesn't strengthen too much in the warm water. I'll take the summer storms we get over a Hurricane any day.

Live coverage.

Stay safe

Nobody needs a Cat 4-5 storm but if your area is built for hurricanes then a Cat 1-2-3 is really no big deal. I've lived in S Florida for over 45 years, the first 20 with no shutters/no impact glass etc in older 60s-70's homes. Never had a drop of water inside any house, really never more than a flooded swale between the sidewalk and the street but I've also never lived on the water. Ian sucked for SW Florida last year, this Idalia sucks for the people on the coastline. Ian caused some crazy flooding in Orlando last year which is 100+ miles from where it made landfall.

For most people Cat 1-3 hurricanes are a scheduled inconvenience.......you have 4-5 days to get ready and it usually blows through in 5-10 hours.

Ian wacked a LOT of the state. The St Johns river flooding lasted months, the DAYTONA BEACH area and south had a ton of beach erosion. It dropped homes and pools into the water and condemned some beach front Condo's. That thing was HUGE damage.

The St Johns for the two storms last year was running high prior to the storms which created the flooding. I walked through it on a daily basis for months, it was not fun. Currently the river is running at pretty much regular levels and we have just had some wind and rain but the outer bands have just started. Looks like the panhandle and Big Bend area has taken the burnt of the storm.

Yes they did, my assistant sent me pictures of Crystal River at Citrus and 19, under about 2 feet of water.

Cedar Key really got it.

The usual post storm scene at city island.

Yeah I have been watching the news. I am sure it's slanted to a naritive, we here in Putnam County FL dodged a bullet. The panhandle into GA and the Carolinas got the burnt.