All those hunkered down now, in following safety measures , will be ok.

I know so many of these counties.

Kissimmee is but one of many of them I am familiar with. Being very careful....all should be ok.

Her observations are that the hurricane is not yet as violent as our wintertime “Taku Winds”. I reminded her that the worst is likely yet to come.

I assume your taku is some sort of straight line wind possible accompanied by snow or rain nearer the coast.

Hurricanes tend to have a three part punch not counting storm surge, localized flooding or spin up tornados. The heavy rains that preceed the eye and continue for the entire duration turn the ground into a sponge. The winds are varying in direction as the eye approaches then passes. You can have heavy constant going in one direction for most of a day just to have it reverse for the rest. This soft ground and one two wind punch plays hob with anything with roots in the ground.
Strange things hurricanes, I've experienced several coming up from the gulf across Birmingham. The last one was Opal. She was a fast mover and was still cat 1 when she got to Birmingham. I was out in that one pulling security on a hotel construction site. Then you get ones like Danny that parked itself over Mobile Bay for a day and blew itself out over south Alabama. Mobile got battered.
Now in Atlanta I'm in somewhat of a sweet spot as most of the gulf ones pass to the north up the appalachians and the atlantic ones are turning hard north as they approach the Georgia coast.
Though we have had one hit the slot that took it straight up Georgia a few years back.