Friday, September 5, 2008

And now....IKE!!!

The hurricane season continues...It will peaked on September 10th, but HANNA is still churning over the Bahamas and now we have IKE to worry about. This is a major hurricane threatening Hispaniola, Cuba and possibly South Florida. That is something I didn't want to hear. It means evacuation! We live in a risk area, facing Biscayne Bay. Our small island is not high enough above water and the surge will pass over it immediately. The winds will be too strong for any building to take.

We weathered KATRINA and WILMA three years ago at home, but they were not major storms when they hit the area. A couple of years before that, we did evacuate when CHARLIE hit Florida. It was not fun and the preparations before we left took hours, taking everything down, securing valuables in closets and bathrooms and when we returned we needed to put everything back in it place....exhausting! Thankfully, nothing much came of that and we were relieved.

In this part of the world, it is better to prepare and know what to do and when to start, I don't argue with that. Better safe than sorry anytime, I say. So we will follow the cone of uncertainty, all the explanations of the meteorologists, the endless press conferences of county and state officials until we finally have to get in our car and leave. If IKE hits South Florida as a Cat 3 or 4, we will not be able to come back for days....and when we do who knows what will find.

So on that happy thought, I will go to the supermarket tomorrow. Try to avoid the crowds and buy what will need. I will then settle down to prepare for IKE. The couple of months when the weather is nice, the sun shines on a beautiful blue sky and there is the crisp feeling in the air, are not enough for me. The six months of watching the Atlantic, hoping that the next wave from Africa doesn't turn into a deadly storm, outweigh all that. Maybe it's time to move on.....

2 comments:

Linda Estey said...

My dear it sounds like a big pain in the neck! Please be safe and take care of yourselves!
xoxo,
Linda

Mercedes de Marchena said...

At the last minute...it seems IKE will miss us. Still all this anxiety is wearing me down. Thanks for caring!