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In Sarasota and Manatee counties early Friday, the preparations and apprehension escalated with each passing hour.
By sunrise, barrier islands like Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island were ghost towns, and law enforcement officials blocked off bridges to all westbound traffic.
In the scores of low-lying mobile home parks that dot U.S. 41, residents boarded up and left. Still, some stayed because they had no other place to go.
Along the Tamiami Trail and in the neighborhoods near the Manatee River, people spray-painted messages on the plywood tacked over windows: "Hello Charley," "Charley Be Kind," and "Who is Charlie."
At his small home in Palmetto, only blocks from the water, 35-year-old Brady Nelson prepared to ride out the storm with his three children, 8, 12 and 18, and his dog, Cleo. He said they had no choice.
Nelson, a painter and avid fisherman, said the bass will be in his yard. "I'll be able to catch them out of my house."
On the emptying streets of Bradenton, Terry Dubay sweated hard in his Warren Sapp jersey as he lugged a gallon of water and a garbage bag full of belongings as he walked the mile from his mobile home to the shelter at Manatee High School.
When he finally trudged up to the school, he found a shelter brimming with people - old, young, black, white, Hispanic. Gray-haired women read Danielle Steele novels. Sleeping bags clogged the hallways and classrooms. People spoke in English, German and Spanish.
The sky grew dark as noon approach. Inside the shelter, people lay on air mattresses or watched the Weather Channel.
A sign over the gymnasium read: Manatee High School Hurricanes.