10:45 am update - the cavalry arrives

Lonny has just arrived and brought with him much relief for Scott. We thought that Lonny was going to be able to get here around 7 am and help us get ready but he has had many different obligations to help with different places since he does contract work that we were a bit down the line. Scott puts a lot of stock in what Lonny says since he knows his stuff so Scott was getting very worried the later he was. We didn't have enough plywood and no way of putting it up ourselves and so we needed him to come or else we would be completely screwed.

When Lonny showed up a a trailer of plywood, like gold around here right now, and four extra men, you could tell a whole ton of bricks had just lifted off Scott's shoulders.

Scott had decided that if Lonny said it was safe, we would ride the storm out here. Lonny indicated that once we get all of the windows boarded up and everything elevated off the floor downstairs, we would be fine.

Right now I can hear the electric drill getting all of those wonderful pieces of plywood up over our windows. (We know that after everything calms down from Dean, we will be buying an electric drill, oh, and hurricane shutters.....) When you go outside today, you hear drills and saws all over the island; everyone is getting ready.

I am glad that Lonny brought some relief for Scott because his whole outlook had crashed when he saw how fortified our neighbors' houses were becoming and realized that we had nothing to protect our place. Now, at least, he has been smiling and seems more ready to face what is coming now that we know our house will be protected, we will have a safe place to stay, and we have a plan to get our car to safety.

This morning we thought we had good news regarding the path of Dean since it had moved south of us just a bit, but, after checking just now, it is back to coming right over the island. It has already reached a Category 4, and it is predicted that it will become a Category 5 before hitting the island. The hope is that it will lose some of the intensity before it actually hits us but we will keep you guys updated as the weekend progresses.

Keep us in your prayers.