Bonnie Charley

By now all the Barrier Beaches are closed. One way traffic off the island only There is very little wind.but still the sound of drills saws and hammers as people finish shoring up their homes. Our Neighbor across the stree checked at the fire department and discovered that we are not in one of the zones under mandatory evacuation. So we stayed last night and plan to weather the storm here. Denny and Masha have been Working on the house in Gulfport since eight this morning. Denny is right on the beach and has seen flooding from mere thunderstorms. He has a few antiques of value: prints by Hiroshige, Tibetan Thankas and Satsuma pottery, so he wants to take measures to protect them. The news has been irregular. They all pound out the same message for the most part. Our closest station just bailed as of eleven o'clock. They'll continue broadcasting from a remote location. One observation though. the computer models allow the news casters to say exactly what they want. Where they do show satellite pictures, the storm looks as though it has already begun shifting east. It may actually make land fall somewhat sout of Pinellas County, which means less storm surge for us and winds coming from the north east. Any thing less than one hundred and twenty miles an hour would be a blessing.