Actually, the folks who need thoughts and prayers are in New Orleans and the lower Mississippi valley. The river is already at 16 feet (8-10' above normal for this time of year) because of the flooding across the Midwest earlier in the year. New Orleans already got 9 inches of rain this week and Barry is going to dump about 10 inches on top of that. They're expecting the river to crest at 19', the highest since 1950 and second highest ever. The combination of high river, rain, and storm surge is going to be pretty bad. Parish areas outside major levees have issued mandatory evac orders.
BTW, I grew up in deep SW Georgia above the Florida Panhandle and now live there again, and have always been pretty sanguine about anything smaller than Cat 3. Especially 100+ miles inland, the storms just don't have that much punch by the time they reach us, at least historically. After Michael, my entire perspective has changed. It was still a Cat 3 when it got this far and this area will be recovering for years to come. And it scared the bejeesus out of me while it was happening. These are not our grandmothers' hurricanes!
