Hurricane Hideout
Thursday, 9/22/05 12:19AM
I'm having trouble sleeping and this seems to alleviate my stress a bit.
As mentioned previously, my wife's car has a hole in the radiator. I bought a new one at Autozone and hopefully I'll get a chance to install it tomorrow. The cell service here is intermittent, due to the massive call volume. According to the weather reports, the storm is about 48 hours away from landfall. I bought 4 sheets of particle board from a guy in a parking lot with a huge flatbed trailer. It cost me $72. I should have enough to cover almost all the windows in my house.
We're well stocked in the provisions department. My real worry is the wind. All the predictions locally on the news show sustained winds of up to 120MPH for my area, and I'm 70 miles inland. We've got four five gallon jugs of water, and two empty jugs.
Frankly, I'm not too sure how we'd leave if we could. The major thoroughfares are all inundated with countless vehicles from points south of Space City. A typical commute of one hour now takes six, even at this early hour.
I was supposed to attend the NASCAR race this Sunday in Dover, DE. I was supposed to have an impromptu Arrosox reunion this weekend. These things that I'd been looking forward to for months seem so distant now. Almost like I had never even planned them in the first place. My friend Jeff is going to the NASCAR race with my brother, seeing as how my father and I are staying put. Jeff is a veteran of several hurricanes having lived in Florida. He informs me that once the lights go out, so go the cell towers. I recall news reports from Katrina ravaged New Orleans that said text messages were getting through. Time will tell, I suppose.
I spoke with buKit this evening. His offer of a place to stay to ride out the storm and it's aftermath really meant a lot to me. He's promised to update the blog in the event of my extended absence by relaying any communication here. His first post was earlier today when we were having some difficulty here with the internet and cell service. More of that is sure to follow in the coming days.
As I type this, I have the local news on in the background. They've gone into 24-hour Hurricane coverage. Most of it is just speculation and not really any new info. I don't know why I beat myself up watching it. Nothing they say right at this moment is going to change anything. We're as prepared as we're ever going to be, which is better than most people can say. At least better than the ones that are staying. Nothing they say is going to alleviate the brutal traffic north. Maybe the traffic will let up, but I doubt it. And if it did, I'm not too sure if we'd leave anyway.
I'm sure it sounds moronic to anyone on the outside. I've said it myself when watching newscasts about other people in other storms. "Why in the hell don't they leave? What were they thinking by staying behind?" Until you put yourself in that position and you're faced with those decisions, you really can't say how you'll react.
I dunno.
As for now, the plan is to stay. We plan on re-evaluating the situation in the morning. Until then, I guess I'm off to bed to enjoy the last 48 hours of air conditioning that I'll have for a while.
I'm having trouble sleeping and this seems to alleviate my stress a bit.
As mentioned previously, my wife's car has a hole in the radiator. I bought a new one at Autozone and hopefully I'll get a chance to install it tomorrow. The cell service here is intermittent, due to the massive call volume. According to the weather reports, the storm is about 48 hours away from landfall. I bought 4 sheets of particle board from a guy in a parking lot with a huge flatbed trailer. It cost me $72. I should have enough to cover almost all the windows in my house.
We're well stocked in the provisions department. My real worry is the wind. All the predictions locally on the news show sustained winds of up to 120MPH for my area, and I'm 70 miles inland. We've got four five gallon jugs of water, and two empty jugs.
Frankly, I'm not too sure how we'd leave if we could. The major thoroughfares are all inundated with countless vehicles from points south of Space City. A typical commute of one hour now takes six, even at this early hour.
I was supposed to attend the NASCAR race this Sunday in Dover, DE. I was supposed to have an impromptu Arrosox reunion this weekend. These things that I'd been looking forward to for months seem so distant now. Almost like I had never even planned them in the first place. My friend Jeff is going to the NASCAR race with my brother, seeing as how my father and I are staying put. Jeff is a veteran of several hurricanes having lived in Florida. He informs me that once the lights go out, so go the cell towers. I recall news reports from Katrina ravaged New Orleans that said text messages were getting through. Time will tell, I suppose.
I spoke with buKit this evening. His offer of a place to stay to ride out the storm and it's aftermath really meant a lot to me. He's promised to update the blog in the event of my extended absence by relaying any communication here. His first post was earlier today when we were having some difficulty here with the internet and cell service. More of that is sure to follow in the coming days.
As I type this, I have the local news on in the background. They've gone into 24-hour Hurricane coverage. Most of it is just speculation and not really any new info. I don't know why I beat myself up watching it. Nothing they say right at this moment is going to change anything. We're as prepared as we're ever going to be, which is better than most people can say. At least better than the ones that are staying. Nothing they say is going to alleviate the brutal traffic north. Maybe the traffic will let up, but I doubt it. And if it did, I'm not too sure if we'd leave anyway.
I'm sure it sounds moronic to anyone on the outside. I've said it myself when watching newscasts about other people in other storms. "Why in the hell don't they leave? What were they thinking by staying behind?" Until you put yourself in that position and you're faced with those decisions, you really can't say how you'll react.
I dunno.
As for now, the plan is to stay. We plan on re-evaluating the situation in the morning. Until then, I guess I'm off to bed to enjoy the last 48 hours of air conditioning that I'll have for a while.
posted by kjungleboy at 12:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home