Fellow Floridian here.

Looks like my area is going to dodge this particular bullet as we’re under a Tropical Storm watch and the latest models suggest the worst part of the storm will not come near enough to us to cause any real damage.

That’s not the case further up north.

I lived three wonderful years in Jacksonville, Florida and attended High School there in the very early to mid-1980’s.  I love the large yet small town atmosphere and, maybe one day, I might return.

What I have noticed in the years since living in Jacksonville is that apart from south Florida, most of the middle to upper east coast of Florida, including Jacksonville, haven’t experienced a hurricane, much less one a category 3/borderline Category 4, since well before I went to High School in those parts over thirty years ago.

I worry the amount of time between dangerous Hurricanes may make people less concerned about what’s to come.  Based on some of the things my daughter has heard from others, I fear there are some (hopefully not many) up there in Jacksonville who are either blase or simply unaware/ignorant of the dangers a hurricane of this magnitude represent.

In my lifetime I’ve experienced several hurricanes, the worst of which were Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Wilma (2005).  I also experienced the eye of a much weaker Hurricane Katrina (also 2005), then a category 1 storm, as it went over our house before eventually going on its way to destroy New Orleans.

Each and every experience proved terrifying and I’ll be extremely blunt here: Hurricanes are nothing to fuck with.

Even a category 1 storm has the potential to mess up your property and, especially if you’re foolish enough to be outside when it hits, your life.

Heed the warnings of local and state officials.  Do not take this storm lightly or as a curiosity.

And please, please, please, stay safe.