Its now Saturday morning , all is calm here in Sarasota, But I cannot belive what I have seen of areas just 20 minutes from me, total destruction of Arcadia,Port Charlotte and Punta Gourda,The people who lived in these areas were unprepared for this hurricane because the path it took was so fast and unpredictable that they thought they were in the clear of it. The storm took a deadly turn away from our town and ripped through several areas to my south, wiping out complete subdivisions in its path. I sat in my apartment all day tracking this storm wondering WTF I was gonna do, I have only been through one small tropical storm since I have lived here, and I thought that was bad enough! Like everyone else, I have always liked a good thunder storm in a safe enviroment,but when you see the power and devastation of a cat4 hurricane, your respect for weather changes drastically! The hurricane was still at cat 4 when it tore through Arcadia and leveled the whole downtown area, NC Nitro and his family live very close to this area, and the path this storm took could of gone through his town as well, I am hoping the best for him and his family, NC I hope you are fortunate enough to read this and let us know you are all safe! I have lots of friends up north, they always ask me why I live down here, we all have our reasons and the weather rarely has anything to do with that decision,I love Florida, I love the ocean,I love to fish,and belive me, the sites at the beaches are unbelivable! but if you are hit by a hurricane of this magnitude and lose loved ones and everything you own,all the great reasons no longer matter! All of you reading this have your own weather (Earthquakes,snow storms,tornado's etc.) to deal with and you deal with it the best you can, all I can say now after seeing something like this, I have multiplied my respect for the weather by thousands!!
I am not sorry for the long post!, sometimes I just gotta say whats on my mind, I hope you all understand and thanks for reading, Carl
