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MADEIRA BEACH - The last time a storm this powerful made a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area, William Mangold was there to witness it.
It was 1921.
The 90-year-old St. Petersburg native remembers the storm blowing the shingles off his family's roof but leaving the inside of the house undamaged.
As he watched his grandson, Xenos Mangold, hustle Thursday to secure his 28-foot charter boat from the coming storm, William Mangold smiled.
"I've seen them all, from the '21 hurricane on, and I don't really like them," he said. "It's been building up. It was only a matter of time."
Across the Pinellas County beaches, residents stocked up on supplies, tethered down belongings and tuned in to reports tracking the path of Hurricane Charley.
The Category 2 hurricane - possibly a Category 3 by landfall - was making a beeline Thursday for Pinellas.
Dean Dusenbery has lived on St. Pete Beach since 1957, surviving years of storms and near misses.
"This has been the first one that's really scared me," said Dusenbery, 65, as he bolted panels onto his two-story home.
At the Madeira Beach Municipal Marina, boat owners tamped down screens, doubled up the rope holding their vessels and hoped for the best.
R.J. Linburg, 56, lives on his 42-foot diesel trawler with his dog Cheeseburger. He moved from Michigan a year ago to enjoy life on the water. Like his lifestyle, his attitude Thursday was determinedly laissez faire.
"If it goes, I'll move somewhere and try something different," he said.
Erran O'Donnell, 33, and his family worked all day to protect Delisheo's Pizzeria Americana, their John's Pass Village restaurant.
"I hope to God it doesn't come through here," O'Donnell said. "This is our livelihood here. We want it to just go away, go out into the gulf and just dissipate. We don't wish this on anybody."
Shortly before 2 p.m., Patti Haney, 49, was trying to check into the Don CeSar Beach Resort.
"Hurricanes don't scare us. We're from Massachusetts," she said.
Don CeSar general manager John Marks said Thursday that guests were making their own decisions about whether to leave the hotel. If he is ordered to evacuate guests, he said, he will.
In Madeira Beach, waves crashed and the wind whipped through the palm trees outside Wits End Motel. Inside, calm ruled the day. The clerk booked reservations for future weekends. The owner waxed philosophical.
"There's not much you can do," said Darren Nardozzi, 45, whose family has owned the motel for 30 years. "Am I going to go out there and fight the storm? No. That's what insurance is for. . . . It's Mother Nature. You're at her beck and call."