Welcome to hurricane season

Well, our first real storm is upon us, Tropical Storm Fay. It's our third season here.

Schools are closed for the rest of the week (after only 2 days in session this year), work is closing at 12 for the rest of the week for me (no word on A's office closing yet) and the news media is in hyperdrive. A is also in hyperdrive monitoring the weather both on television and the aviation weather service. The path of "Fickle Fay" is changing by the hour, so it's unknown when or where it will hit and how strong it will be, but we know it will hit us. We've got plenty of food and drinks, some flashlights, lanterns and candles. In 2004, our area was without power for 3 days. When we moved, we gave up our gas range and water heater, so it looks like we'll be eating and washing cold if we do lose power. On the bright side, I do get several paid days off work and we'll have some lovely candlelight dinners.

It's interesting to me to see all of the buildup. Having spent most of my life in earthquake country, we never had warning of an impending event, just after (it took me about 6 months to stop waking up in the middle of the night with earthquake dreams). Here, the local channels canceled all programing at 4am and went to 24 hour weather coverage. Every 30 minutes is a report with the updated closures and path projections. I think it adds to the hysteria to have it constantly on. But at the same time, I can't look away.

This might be a little stronger than the washing away I mentioned in the previous post...