Preppers gotta prep?

 As I (briefly) mentioned yesterday, there's a tropical storm (Ian) on track to become a hurricane for Florida. Storm watchers are predicting it could reach Category 4 status by Wednesday just as it merges into the Straits of Florida.

Picture taken from a CNN article (1)

Unfortunately, that means it's going to be a bad storm for Southwest & West Florida since the storm is moving through the Cayman Island and Jamaica area right now, heading towards Cuba. Based on models, Havana is under a hurricane warning because it's still a tropical storm. When it passes through the west side of the island, it's going to come at an angle to Florida. How it ricochets from the neighbor 90 miles to The Wang's south, is up in the air (literally), to see what kind of weather we'll get in Fort Myers. There is a possibility that it could turn any which way, but as of this morning, the cone of concern inched a little more out into the ocean but still focused on us. 

That's not to say we won't get anything because the odds are in our favor that we'll get at least strong winds and lots of rain. Pictures are still showing my area in the 4 range, even though the Tampa area was downgraded from a 2 to a 1 this morning.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is watching a few storms out in the waters, and there's been a new public advisory notice put out for what is expected here (2). 

As of right now, my mother and I are watching the reports and staying in our unit. 

Which is exactly what we said the last time. 

The only difference between now and 2017 is the house we were at no longer exists. 

Well, it does, but the owner doesn't. Sadly, Joe passed away a year (?) later and his girlfriend Ginger has been having health problems (and doesn't live in that house, as Joe had been living in Ginger's). 

So we'll plan on staying and if we have to, we can go upstairs to our neighbor's place (yet my mom says she's going to tell the woman to come down here if she gets scared) or we walk around the corner to another neighbor's (as my mother said "before the 130mph gets us"). 

Either way, people are prepping this weekend. Lots of long lines at the pump (I went to Mobil yesterday and people were filling up their red cans while places like Costco and Sam's Club had cars parked everywhere waiting for a stall). Surprisingly, the shelves in Publix were pretty full. I think people were learning lessons from the last storm and have begun to hoard big stuff (3). 

We have gas in the cars, batteries ready for radios and lanterns, non perishable food in the pantry, pitchers of water chilling in the fridge (for now), ice made (in case we lose power), cases of bottled water and after I finish this post, I'm washing my bathtub to be able to fill it with water. I'll use my mother's bathroom for showers. 

Yes, we must come from New England (4).. we've always had it instilled in our heads to fill the tubs with water for emergency use. Power goes out and what do you do about flushing toilets or general washing? After so many hours of no electricity, you don't get water. And, if you get flood water somehow, you've got contaminated water in your house. Then what do you do? At least the cleaned out bathtub is untouched enough for you to get washed up or take a pee. 

As of now, it's business as usual. Bright sunny days in the morning, storms in the afternoon. We'll keep it that way for the next 24-36 hours, hopefully, but after that, who knows. 

I'll post when and if I can. 

Stay hydrated (in this 100° humidity).

Cheers;

See also (links):

* (1) picture from CNN article: Floridians brace for the arrival of Tropical Storm Ian, which is forecast to rapidly intensify on Sunday

* (2) Weather nerds and geeks go wild: NOAA's 8am update. 

* (3) Amazon has a slew of  "hurricane preparedness items", but the first page is loaded with lights (lanterns, candles), batteries, charging bricks for electronics, water jugs and first aid kits. There are multiple pages. Florida Division of Emergency Management / Floridadisaster.org has a prep sheet here.

* (4) Or in my mother's case, Connecticut. CT.gov / Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security / During a Hurricane has s small section about prepping, since there's a sub base in the state as well as having previous rounds of bad storms in the past. 

Can I move back to New England yet? Get out of this crazy??? I'll take a blizzard any day over watching / dreading for a hurricane.....