Is everyone OK?
What is going on with our Florida gang?

Yes, please check in with us!

Fine here but not so fine in other places in central Fl - tragic!!! We had strange weather last night - very heavy winds and rain - off and on - I pray for those folks who lost it all -

How scary - it is so awful when tornadoes hit in the middle of the night. Praying for everyone there - this is such a tragedy. :(

Its very frightning what has happened in our state in the past few years. Today is tragic!!!!
We feel so sorry for all those involved. Down here all you hear about is the Super Bowl..UGH..
We just came home from a birthday celebration at a restaurant on South Beach and it took us over an hour to get there when the normal drive time is 20 minutes. I think we will stay home the rest of the weekend just to avoid all the tourist and all the traffic.

Such a tragic and terrible situation. FL sure has had more than it's state's share of difficult times.

Stay safe everyone!

Glad to hear that at least so far everyone seems to be ok. Very tragic and it must have been so scary.

We're OK on the west coast but I'm so glad that Marc and Arlene are no longer in central Florida - I believe there was some damage in Orlando - and far worse not far from there.

It's really a concern because it's already very hard to get insurance - this will only make things worse - some of the people who lost their home had no insurance because of previous storms. It's awful for them.

Fortunately for us, the storm passed north of us, although our weather alarm kept sounding all through the night. I feel so sad for those people who have lost loved ones, their homes, and their belongings are scattered to kingdom come, and the rain keeps coming.

Betty, what is a weather alarm? I have never heard of this.

Andi,
It's a weather radio. I bought one several years ago, and bought them for all our kids. When dangerous weather (tornado conditions, etc) occur in the area, the alarm is triggered and we can turn on the radio to hear the NOAA warnings.

The devastation they have shown on TV is just awful. My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones and their homes.

That weather alarm radio sounds like a good idea!

Got a weather radio several years ago as we are prone to tornadoes in spring/sometimes fall. BUT problem is when you hear the alert and "drag" yourself out to hear, it has always been about an alert maybe 50 miles away! That may be metro ATL or this particular radio, but I lost faith. Haven't heard the alarm in a while as I think power outages have rendered it "inactive." Better get out the manual! If there's someway to make it more specific, it would be great, but I suspect the Nat'l Weather Sevice in the area is just too broad!

The FL video is just heart-rending; all that new construction allegedly built to withstand hurricanes was just blown away! I grew up in Miami and with hurricanes, there was a warning; tornadoes = no warning and that's what makes them so frightening!!

We have them too Betty - although lately only thing that disturbed us was wrong number call at 4:15 AM this morning - phone ringing at that hour makes your heart stop -

Yeah Joanna, Don't we all hate those middle of the night phone calls!!!!!!

Kathy, I understand what you say about the annoyance of the weather radio alarm, when it may not matter. We too, get complacent about ours, at times. However, I saw a man interviewed, who said that their alarm had gone of 3 or 4 times and finally they said "we need to heed this warning". They pushed sofas together, and crawled under a mattress, and he believes that spared them.
Renewed my trust in the weather radio.

Thanks for sharing the facts about this radio. We had a freak tornado here last summer 25 miles north of NYC. It is still weird to drive through this area. There is a wide stretch where trees have been leveled and you drive by it on the SawMill Parkway. Everything on either side is fine and just this one swatch running from the Hudson River through to the LI Sound was leveled. Only roofs and gardens were damaged...thank goodness no people or major destruction. It was a very fast rain storm in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and the devastation took a mere 4 minutes. There was no warning as we have with hurricanes.

So glad to hear that our LCT friends are okay. We have dear friends in Mt. Dora, Florida, which is in Lake County where the worst of the damage occurred. They are fine and were maybe 15 miles away from where the storm did the most damage. Having grown up in Kansas, I know about the sudden and freakish patterns of tornadoes, leaving devastated and untouched areas side-by-side. It's very scary.