Good luck with this hurricane Jules.

You might want to tell your folks that it might be time to consider moving to nice and safe California. J/K, we have our own natural disasters here and plenty of them (earthquakes, fires, Michael Jackson, etc).

Vic

I live in Mississippi and got a good dose of Katrina.

If they call it a cat 4, run. Catch a bus, plane, train or automobile; you do not want to be in town.

Hurricanes have an unique property of being able to suck and blow at the same time. WHile this might be fun for parties if it came wrapped in a hunky guy, unfortunately it comes as a great big hagus of a skanky storm.

Julian,

I'll be thinking of you...be safe.

Re disasters in California, you forgot mudslides. I always find it somewhat consonant with the character of the state that California disasters seem to strike at the rich. Consider that the most valuable land is either on the coast (storms, mudslides, or landfill in earthquakes) or in the mountains (more mudslides and fires). Here in the midwest, our disasters usually take out poor bastards. Tornados seem to quest for trailer parks, and flood plains are the preserve of stubborn rednecks.

Hope you're ok, Jules. CNN has Wilma now at category 2, so hopefully not so bad.