I'm sure most of you have heard about the deadly tornados in Central FL by now...at least 14 people killed, dozens more injured. Most of the damage was along the I-4 Corridor between Tampa and Daytona Beach. One of the hardest hit areas was The Villlages, which is a retirement community and I'm pretty sure Vince has done a concert there in the past. The news was saying that since it's a rural area, there are no tornado sirens in the area, but I don't think there's many areas of FL that *do* have tornado sirens, mainly because tornados and storms this powerful are rare in FL. The CBS Evening News was just talking to Bryan Norcross (S. FL's most popular Meterologist), and he said that storms that powerful are unusual, but they can happen, and when they do, it's usually in February.

Back on Groundhog Day, 1998, we had a very powerful storm, although not as bad as what this one was, move across S. FL...we had tropical storm to hurricane force winds and one side of the awning came off the house...I had to go out there and fix the awning before it came completely off...I was hanging on for dear life so as to not get blown away while my grandmother was finding the screwdriver I needed to fix it! That one also spawned at least one tornado that crossed two counties...

I heard about this storm from katie today...very shocking!! I called my parents because they just arrived in Florida (Panama City) yesterday and are there for 6 weeks.
It looks like the hardest hit area was an hour from Orlando...make me nervous because we are going to be in Orlando for 8 days next month.
Prayers and thoughts go out to those that were affected by this terrible storm.

Leah,

You and your family will be fine. March is a nice time to go to Orlando because it's not too hot and not too cold. Just make sure you have all your reservations confirmed because that's a busy time up there because of Spring Break. We went up there in March back in 2005 before we moved here, and there wasn't a motel room to be found between Orlando and Ft. Pierce, an hour to the south! The problem was a combination of Spring Break and FEMA/Red Cross using the motel rooms in the area as shelters for the 2004 hurricane victims. I'm sure that with these storms now, a lot of motel rooms in the area will be used to house victims. I know Kissimmee boasts the most motel rooms in Central FL, but that year you wouldn't have known it! And we weren't the only ones trying to find a motel room that night...some other people were, too. We finally wound up just going back home...got home around 2am!

Thanks val...we actually booked our stay quite a while ago. We are staying at one of the Disney resorts for a few days and have also rented a house with katie and her family for 6 days in Kissimmee...can't wait!!!

My dad and stepmom live in Tavares, which is Lake County's county seat. I tried calling them and couldn't get through because "all ciruicts are buys". So then I tried my dad's cell phone- left a message but haven't heard back yet. I don't think they were in the direct path of the tornado, but Lady Lake is very close to Tavares.

Yes, I heard about it o the news...holy smokes !! I'm always stunned whenever a tornado hits and leaves damage as it does, my heart goes out to all affected, and will keep them in my thoughts/prayers...VGCG

Oh, the Disney Resort will be nice, Leah, as will the house in Kissimmee. When my mom, stepfather, sister, bil & niece went in 2005, they rented an apartment in Kissimmee. Said it was nice because they could save money by making their own meals instead of having to eat in Disney or go out to eat every night. We never did that because most of the time we went up there, we were just there for maybe a weekend to get away from Miami for a few days...although when I was in highschool, we did go up several times and stay for about a week for vacation in August...one time we stayed at the Sheraton Lakeside Resort (it's West of Disney on 192...it goes by another name now, but it's on the lake and it has miniature golf, paddle boats, etc) and that was nice. But it just started getting to the point where none of us could take the summer heat up there anymore, so we scrapped Orlando as a vacation destination and started going out of state (Tennessee, Missouri, etc), although we'd always stop in Kissimmee overnight on the way home to eat and get some ice cream at Friendly's.

BTW, I have a friend on the internet (she's a Vince fan) who's daughter works at DisneyWorld in the Magic Kingdom.

Yeah...we are really looking forward to it val. The house we rented in Kissimee has 5 bedrooms, a pool in the backyard and a game room for the kids so it will be really nice for all of us. It will also be handy to have a full kitchen for meals and such. The big money is paying for all the park tickets at Disney.....it is outrageous....but a great memory for all the kids.

Leah,

Look into what's called a Park Hopper pass...it allows you to go between parks at anytime during your stay. Check out Disney.com for the ticket prices and what you can save by buying in advance and buying multi-day tickets. Don't know if it'll be warm enough for you guys to do the water parks, but you can get tickets that include the Disney Water Parks, too.

Just to get back on topic with the tornados...someone who I talk to on the internet who lives in FL, said that their "Celebrity Meterologist" who is at one of the Orlando TV stations said that they could have more tornados before the end of March. So keep an eye out on the weather while you're there, Leah, since they're predicting more severe weather. And those tornados that hit FL the other day were F3...winds from 160-200 mph...now tornados that severe are very rare in FL...and in fact, they were worse than the one that hit Waco last April...that one was 'only' an F2.

I feels so sorry for those folks in Florida. This past August an F4 tornado wiped out a VERY small town just a few minutes from where we live. Fortunately most of the people were at a local county fair and no one was killed, but the town is virtually gone. My daughter and I stood on the back steps of my house and heard it go over. It dropped about 1 1/2 miles from our place. You can believe we'll NEVER do that again. We went to one of the local churches and voluntered to help with food and such. I've never seen anything like it before and hope never to see it again but guess that's asking a lot considering we live in Missouri right along the Mississippi otherwise known as tornado alley or part of it. I went out and bought a weather radio that has all kinds of warning signals if something happens. Makes me feel a lot better just knowing it's around. I send my thoughts and prayers to all the victims of this horrible disaster. <smokypaws>

My dad got a lot of rain and wind, but no seriou damage. He lvies pretty close to the Villages - threre is a Chinese restaruant there that they like a lot. He said 19 people were killed and the damge is unbelievalbe.