Yahoo! News - Florida Warns 1 Million to Flee Hurricane
Residents of the Tampa Bay area, where the eye is projected to hit, southward to the Naples area were told to expect a storm surge of 10-13 feet. State meteorologist Ben Nelson said the surge could reach 16 feet in the Tampa area if Charley reaches 120 mph wind.

The bulk of the evacuations were in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, which include Tampa and St. Petersburg, a city that sits on a peninsula.

All residents of MacDill Air Force Base, on another peninsula in Tampa Bay, were ordered out, with only essential personnel remaining. MacDill is home to U.S. Central Command, the nerve center of the war in Iraq.

Heavy traffic flowed across the three Tampa Bay bridges linking Pinellas with Hillsborough and the mainland. Officials worried about traffic jams Friday morning.

"The highway system was never designed to move this many people this quickly," state emergency management director Craig Fugate said.

Tampa/St. Pete is also full of many poor people who probably have nowhere to go. I hope they can get to higher ground- this has the potential to be a major disaster.

My beloved Anna Maria Island might be totally destroyed- it tends to flood during heavy rains, a ten foot surge would put the whole island under water.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my "home away from home" today.