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Watch out for tornadoes too

Jack Belich is Assistant to the President at the St. Petersburg Times. He shares his analysis and observations on Hurricane Charley in this online journal.

Friday, 11:58 a.m.: The leading edge of Hurricane Charley is likely to produce tornados--andthe National Weather Service at Ruskin has issued a Tornado Warning forHardee and Highlands Counties.

In addition, the NWS at Ruskin has issued a River Flood Warning for theHillsborough River at Hillsborough State Park at the Morris Bridge, theAlafia River at Lithia, the Littrle Manatee River at Wimauma, the ManateeRiver at Myakka Head and Rye Bridge, the Peace River at Bartow and Arcadia,Horse Creek near Arcadia, and the Anclote River near Elfers. These RiverFlood Warnings will be in effect until Saturday morning at 4 a.m.

Hurricane Charley continues to head for the Florida West Coast butforecasters at the National Hurricane Center have made a slight adjustmentto the east of the previous storm track.

That bodes well for Pinellas County but is bad news for the folks downsouth in Manatee and Sarasota Counties. At 11 am, Charley was locatedabout 145 mph or 154 miles south of St. Petersburg.

In addition, the projected time frames have now slipped. First effect ofHurricane Charley will be at 2 pm; the eye is projected to be over TampaBay at 8 pm; and the trailing edge will clear Tampa Bay by 1 am Saturdaymorning.

Highest sustained winds remain at 110 mph and strengthening is forecastprior to landfall. The storm is now moving to the north at 18 mph and aturn towards the north-northeast , with an increase in forward speed isexpected. Forecasts predict Charley will be a Category 3 storm when hemakes landfall. It should be noted that the pressure has dropped 5 MB to965 MB during the past two hours--this suggests that there will be someadditional strengthening over the next several hours.

Pinellas County authorities have closed all bridges heading west onto thebarrier islands as of 11 am. Bay News 9 is reporting that electricalservice to the barrier islands will be turned off by Progress Energy at 12Noon.