Batten Down the Hatches

Here she comes. After months of various hurricanes threatening us, and then changing paths and not hitting us, we are about to experience our first hurricane. The cone of uncertainty has Hurricane Ike coming straight at us, so unless it makes a strange turn we will be affected. For those of you who have never experienced hurrican preparation then me fill you in. Here are the main things you have to worry about:

1. Fill your gas tanks- you might think if you aren't evacuating this seems like a useless thing to do, but the reason for it is for after the hurricane. If the power gets knocked out, or other things, you may not have access to very many gas stations. You don't want to be one of hundreds of people lined up at the few gas stations in order to get places. We filled our tanks last night.

2. Only evacuate if ordered or recommended to do so. You're in the most danger if you are in storm surge areas on the coast, or in flood areas. Otherwise, you are pretty safe inside your house. If you are not ordered to evacuate you should stay put to allow those that have to evacuate can do so quickly. We are not in these areas and therefore we are staying put.

3. Check your supplies- obviously you need to make sure you have enough water for everyone, plenty of food that doesn't need cooking, and a hand crank can opener. We are set on these items. Plenty of bread, peanut butter, tortillas, fruit, and other items to eat. Plus plenty of water- refrigerated, frozen and room temperature.

4. Cover windows- we are in apartments and aren't in charge of this.

5. Bring in all outdoor furniture, toys and tools. We have very little on our deck, I've already moved in our lawn chairs. The only thing left is our satellite dish.

6. Be prepared for power outages- this is our main concern. I have bought batteries for our two flashlights. We have a bunch of candles and matches. We also have a battery powered radio ready for information. Too bad without power the apartment will get rather warm- not much you can do about that.

That is pretty much all that is required for this hurricane excitement. The only other thing is obviously stay away from windows during the hurricane. I'm trying to figure out how to make the bathroom a comfortable place to sleep since it is actually supposed to come between 2 and 4 a.m Saturday. We are still waiting on official word on whether Chris will be going into work tomorrow- I'm going to guess that he won't be. Other than that, I am doing as much as I can think of to prepare us for this hurricane. I'm washing dishes so they are all clean in case of a long power outage. I'm cleaning the house so we have a comfortable place to sit around in all day. And any other things that come to mind. I'm a little nervous to experience my first hurricane, but I think we will get through it just fine. Any property damage to cars is nothing as long as Chris and I are okay in the end. We will keep everyone posted after the hurricane on how it goes. Don't worry about us, we are prepared.