Monday evening, 11PM, August 18:
As of late Monday it seems to look like the Fay tropical storm will be more of a 6 inch rain storm and not a hurricane with little or no effect to Sanibel Island.
Fay should not be able to reach hurricane force now.
Landfall should occur early Tuesday (Aug 19) tomorrow morning between the Everglades, Naples somewhere South of Ft Myers and Sanibel Island.
Rain bands are heavy inland (with little more than 6 inches of rain) presently Monday night along the Miami and Alligator Alley (NW direction) and a second band a little North from there in the Boca Raton area towards the NW.
(due to counter clockwise rotation from storm center, which now is 100 miles South of Ft Myers.)

Moving 9 miles an hour NNE we should see the eye of Fay cross land around 6-8 am Tuesday morning August 19, South of Ft Myers headed NE.
So no onshore wind and damaging surf on Sanibel, perhaps waves blowing away from the beaches creating lower water levels.(Wonderful shelling)
Port Charlotte and North may not even get involved.
From Ft Myers area Fay is expected to head NE towards Orlando and perhaps Jacksonville due to heavy wind pressures from the West in the Gulf of Mexico.
We do have Tornado warnings all night tonight in most inland counties due to heavy local winds (under 50 miles an hour) with showers resulting in tornado activities.
Fay will have less strength before reaching the Atlantic North of Cape Kennedy; no resources are present to increase activity.
Ft Myers had already decided to close down Tuesday (Schools-state offices- garbage and so on) and RSW our local Ft Myers air port was closed to air traffic,
Stranded passengers were somewhat upset due to the low or lacking visual storm activity, but it should ease Tuesday, call your airline.
On Wednesday Sanibel should be back to normal with some late afternoon showers to make the green stay green.
Lake Okeechobee has a very low water level and should gain from the Fay tropical storm.
We are looking forward to a nice week in Ft Myers with a few showers.

PS There was a mandatory evacuation order for Sanibel today (Tourist only).
Residents were left to a voluntary evacuation order, and I have not heard anything further about these orders, perhaps the nicer evening tonight, with no rain, yet!, made people wonder?
It will rain most of the night, perhaps up to 6 inches, and tomorrow afternoon Tuesday, Sanibel might get more of an onshore wind again (due to the Fay eye being NE of Sanibel by then), but with much lower wave activity. Again, good shelling for the owners this week.
Charley was a monster compared to Fay, August 13, 2004, 4 years ago

How did Sanibel Island and Casa Ybel fair with tropical strom Fay?

Continuing the report on August 18 (above) Sanibel was spared.
Ft Myers inland areas and on to central Florida received lots of rain, and low laying Bonita Springs is just now (10 days later) reaching a high tide flooding stage from runoff surface water going North to South flowing as a sheet of drainage water across the fields that could not find a lake or a river to absorb the more than 12" rainfall in central Florida.
Bonita Springs areas like many East coast areas had waist high water in the streets resulting from 1 foot and more of rain now flooding their homes.

We are hoping to stay clear of both Gustav and Hanna now in the Caribbean waters.
So far both storms are projected to head west, however we do not like to see another New Orleans flood so soon after Katrina.

When there is a mandatory evacuation of Sanibel, do you still have to pay the toll at the causway?

Only when you come back, Paul...... lol