Oh. My. God.

My friend and colleague Tom Reed, whom you may remember me mentioning in connection with my adventures in San Diego during Comic-Con, is directly in the path of Hurricane Charley. This is no wimpy "big wet rainstorm"...it briefly raged at Category Four before being downgraded to Category Three.

When last I spoke to Tom he said that he had a strategy for what to do if the worst happened...he works at the local ABC affiliate in his hometown of Orlando, and apparently their facilities are fairly well designed as proof against even a monster Hurricane. Supposedly he will take refuge there.

I'm hoping he'll be OK.

The Orlando Sentinel is keeping a storm blog. If you have a registration with the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune or other Trib newspapers it will work there. If not, you'll just have to deal with the soul-sucking registration. I'm monitoring it for sure.