On location: Hurricane Irma

[By James Richards, Lakeland, Florida]  Many of you know that Patti and I moved to Siesta Key, Florida one month ago.  As Hurricane Irma threatened the area, store shelves emptied and gasoline supplies ran out, we put our daughter on a plane and made our way inland and upland to Lakeland, just east of Tampa.  We are well out of storm surge and flood danger in a new hotel that seems safe except for the windows, which don’t feel hurricane rated.  What remains to be seen is how wicked the wind and rain will be for us.  Yesterday, the hotel was relatively quiet. This morning, the breakfast area was a bustling mix of humanity–old, young, locals, tourists, travelers–now all evacuees.  Here are a few images from earlier this morning…

The lobby of our Hampton Inn–people seem to take comfort in being together, rather than in rooms…

These two sketches were made about 1.5 hours apart…10:10am and 11:30am.  It’s now 12:10pm; my window view alternates between these two as the large bands of wind and rain circulate.