Current Outlook/Mood in Daytona Beach

[Dmetal81]

Having arrived in Daytona Beach tonight (not a thrillseeker, my family lives here) the mood is tense, but not panicked. With schools and businesses starting to close tomorrow most have put off any fortifying of their homes until tomorrow. I have not been able to find a gas station that has gas left at this point, but fortunately all but one of our vehicles has a full tank.
On the other hand, the trip to wally-world was full of fun. Many empty shelves, although there was no lack of bottled water, flashlights or batteries. Plywood for residents who dont already have it has become almost a non-option since the already short supply. Although the storm is not expected to make landfall this far north at this point, we have been told to expect up to 10 hours of hurricane force winds, and a storm surge of 9ft. All this could change one way or the other very quickly, but fortunately it looks like few will leave their fate to chance.
Conditions are warm, with a light easterly breeze. The air is quite tropical and almost stifling, although that is not all that unusual for this time of year.
Tomorrows plan is to board up the mobile home and secure as much of it as possible and hope for the best. Interesting to note is the amount of storm debris still laying around from Charlie. Many piles of wood and branches in residential streets, and many trees have not been trimmed back since the damage they incurred 2 weeks ago. This is something that has me worried since all this has potential to become "missiles" in the coming days, but there is little to be done about it now, there is too much around the city for it to be removed before conditions possible begin to deteriorate.
Tomorrow afternoon I will be heading southwest to Deltona to board up my sisters house and prepare to hunker down there. With the current forecast Deltona would actually feel a more direct impact then Daytona, but the structure is much safer and the shutters are quite thick and cover every window on the house (including the sliding glass doors and the teensy bathroom windows!).
Im not sure if any of this is of interest to anyone, but if desired I will continue to post updates on this area until we lose power or the threat moves elsewhere.

[yoda]

Hope you and your family stay safe man!

[wlfpack81]

Dmetal81 I wish you and you're family (as well as everyone else in the potential path of this storm) much luck and I'd certainly be interested in updates as long as it's safe to do so from your position.

[Dmetal81]

I am fairly sure that although it may be a bumpy few days that we should be OK. I thank you for your kind words

To give an idea as to what we've done to prepare, and any further suggestions would be helpful.

To the house that we will be staying in:

Charlie felled some trees in the yard 2 weeks ago, these have been cleared away, including several that were hanging ominously close to the roof.
Shutters on ALL windows in the house. A "safer" room as we call it has been prepared in case the worse case scenario comes to bear. This is the most interior room of the house and has been preloaded with an extra kit of lights, water, matches, candles (not for use during the storm), and non-perishable foods.
Two cars parked in the garage. Garage door will be braced with 2x4s and the two cars will be backed up against the garage door to brace it (expierience with Floyd taught us that besides the windows, the garage door is the next weakest point). The last vehicle will remain outside and be parked parallel to the garage door shelter it further.
Im not sure how much water we have, but its alot (im not in charge of that). Due to the fact that our family is scattered over florida (except for me in SC, but Im here for the grunt labor more than anything) IE Deltona, Jacksonville, Daytona, Port Orange, we have all gathered together to weather this together especially since any of these areas
could come under direct impact, it was felt the best policy was strength together. All of our abodes have and will be prepared as best possible with most effort going towards our shelter.
Some of this may seem a tad bit extreme, but have planned for every circumstance, whether it hits here or not, we will be ready. Unfortunately, my parents mobile home is located 2 miles from the ocean in Daytona... currently we have moved all irreplacables (photo albums etc) out of it in anticipation of the damage it may take.