People Get Ready

I really thought that hurricane Helene would be the last major hurricane of the season. The destruction that it caused was massive and I couldn’t imagine that we would have to worry about another storm this late into October. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Hurricane Milton is supposed to make landfall later this week as a category three storm. Although it will not cause the destruction that Helene did north of us, it does look like a pretty nasty storm for our area.

With the storm making national news and the map showing it going right through Ocala, I had gotten a lot of texts and phone calls from friends and family to make sure that we were ready. I really appreciated everybody’s concern. As this was our fourth major hurricane since we moved here last August, getting ready for a hurricane was not quite as scary as it was the first time. Thus today, I was happy that I could text this to everyone:

“It is amazing to me how prepared the state of Florida is for hurricanes. We have been getting warnings all day. Ocala will have wind gusts up to 80 mph and 8-12 inches of rain. We have our hurricane pack ready, cars fueled, battery operated generator charged, will bring in all of the outside furniture Tuesday and fill the tub with water on Wednesday. Doug's work is closer to Orlando so they will get hit harder. They are closed on Wednesday and Thursday, so he will be home for the storm. I'm nervous, but we should be fine. Fortunately, we do not have to evacuate. I’ll keep you updated! Thanks for checking!”

I was proud of us for taking it seriously. Phil called tonight to let us know that there was no gas available in our area of town and that I-75 was at a standstill with evacuees. Thus, filling up early and Doug staying in Lake Mary tonight were really good decisions. Once he gets home tomorrow, we are going to treat it like a mini “staycation” complete with movie nights, games and plenty of snacks. Hopefully, my positive attitude works and by Friday morning everything will be back to normal.