We are total newbies at this. Our place is completely put up, the furniture on cans and nothing loose. You can see the furniture up in the living room in the picture above with the boarded up window behind them. This is fast becoming an obvious overreaction this early. At 4:15 we went over to Kathleen and Keith's and they are all boarded up and we actually had to climb over a board that they have up over the door because it faces the road and opens in rather than out like the middle units. But once you get inside their house it looks completely normal. They haven't put away anything, taken down anything from their walls or moved their furniture or anything inside. It was very reassuring to see two people who went through the harrowing experience of Ivan being so calm. We drank some cranberry lime tea and talked about the Humane Society and just normal stuff. They laughed when we told them about what we had done to our place but said it was normal for people the first time to do what we are doing and it is better to overreact than under react.The winds are blowing but no rain since the little shower at 1 p.m. The funny thing is because we are so boarded up we cant see anything so all we have is what our imagination tells us unless we want to open our door which isn't going to be an option soon. When we get our own place we want to get the hurricane shutters like our neighbors who have plastic in the shutter to see out in the middle. At least they can see what is going on.
We found out that over 108 flights have left the island in the last day but that they are having to move some 7000 tourists to shelters that they cant get off the Island. Reaffirms that we made the right decision not wasting our time at the airport yesterday or this morning waiting in long lines for planes we weren't going to get on when we have a safe place to ride it out and needed to get it prepared. We have seen the best in people, apparently at the airport they are seeing the opposite. The folks at the airport are fighting in line, literally throwing luggage at each other and generally displaying the worst of human traits as they wait to pack the flights with the few precious seats in each plane.
The important storm tracks will come after the storm is past Jamaica so hopefully the mountains in Western Jamaica will deflect it even further south. Keep an eye on the NOAA site it is the best one for updates.
Love to everyone,
Scott and Katie.
