Iowa won’t receive any rain from Hurricane Floyd, but some Iowa State students are warily eyeing the storm as it bears down on their hometowns.

“I started watching it on Sunday when I noticed that it was making its northwest track like they were saying it was going to,” said Melissa Horton, graduate student in geological and atmospheric sciences from Middleburg, Fla. “This is when I started paying more attention to it and talking with my parents and stuff.”

Middleburg is just west of Jacksonville, on the east coast of Florida.

Horton usually tracks the hurricanes in Meteorology 111, a weather discussion class that she instructs. Since the hurricane targeted her home state, she has an interest in Floyd that goes beyond her interest in weather.

The parents of Jessica Price, freshman in engineering, were forced to evacuate from their home in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., an island off the coast of Florida.

“If there are big waves, it would flood the island,” she said. “I was very scared when I heard that the hurricane was headed toward Florida.”

Price’s mother has been sending her Web pages about the status of Floyd. She said the hurricane has served as a wake-up call.

“Before, when we would hear about Hurricane Andrew, it was like, ‘Oh that is too bad,'” Price said. “Now it is real. There are real people down there, and now the connection for us was made.”

Middleburg and Indian Harbour Beach are now through the worst of the storm.

“I talked with my parents [Tuesday] night,” Horton said. “They did board up a few of the windows, but for the most part, they felt prepared. My mom did tell me that they had gotten a tornado earlier around 3 p.m. [Tuesday].”

Horton said the tornado didn’t damage her mother’s property.

While the residents of Florida are breathing a sigh of relief, the Carolinas and Virginia are now gearing up for Floyd.

“People are especially taking note of this hurricane because it is a very strong hurricane,” said Bill Gallus, assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences. “You don’t get a Category 4 hurricane that appears that it will hit the United States except once every couple of years at most.”

A Category 4 hurricane has winds greater than 130 mph and less than 155 mph. “Categories 3-5 are considered major hurricanes,” Gallus said.

Hurricane Floyd was rated a strong Category 4 hurricane, sustaining winds between 145 and 155 mph, until Wednesday afternoon, when the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a strong Category 3 hurricane.

“The last hurricane that struck the United States of this magnitude was Hurricane Andrew,” Gallus said, “but Hurricane Andrew was very small in terms of the area. There was only about a 20- or 25-mile zone that actually had the very bad hurricane conditions.

If Hurricane Floyd continues on its current course, it should hit somewhere in North Carolina early this morning.