Here in Venice we were extremely lucky! Sadly, our neighbors to the south were not..........

Port Charlotte is about 25 miles south of me and the pictures of the destruction are unbelievable. I keep thinking that could be us instead.

I went to a friends house here in Venice-with my dogkids- as I really didn't want to be alone during the rough weather. We thought we would be ok until the storm became a Cat 4 and then we were very nervous. We had our "safe room" all ready if needed. Glad to report that we didn't have to use it as it was an interior bathroom with no windows and there would have been 3 adults, 2 small dogs, and one 70 pound Yellow Lab in there for perhaps an extended period of time!

We never lost power which was somewhat surprising, but I did hear the island of Venice was without power for several hours.

I'm a native Floridian, have lived through a couple hurricanes, but am always amazed at the power of Mother Nature.........

Claudia