Predictions are unpredictable

We started out the evening last night with a phone call from the superindendent closing school for Monday and Tuesday. They will make a call after that to let us know further instruction depending on the storms path and how bad we are affected by it. They opened emergency shelters this morning at 9 AM, and they use a lot of our schools for those shelters. I was sort of thankful at that period of time, because I loathe Sunday nights. The racing to get dinner ready, baths and prepare for a week of school is exhausting.

A few hours later Escambia county called for an evacuation of zones A B and C. I looked up our address, and we of course are in zone C. Alright, sooooo what's that supposed to mean? Disco has to stay here to work, but we need to leave our house??? I've had a handful of people, some close friends and some acquaintances, offer up their houses to us in case of evacuation. I can't say how much I appreciate you all! Being new to all this, and living in a house full of media skeptics, we decided to sit put and see what the heck all this means. I of course once again went over my flood anxiety with Disco, and he reassured me that if it headed this way we would just stack all of our belongings Harry Potter's room of requirement style. We went to sleep knowing nothing, me being a little anxious, but also knowing that what we would hear in the morning would matter more than what they had to say at that time.

Gas stations were already announcing shortages, but that they had more tankers on the way. Disco spent the day at work yesterday securing property and anything that could be considered a projectile. Most everything outside the house with exception of the plants we already placed inside storage. We have food, water, a generator, and the kids are home for a few days. And I must add having all this "crap" nonperishable food that I normally wouldn't buy in the house is driving me bananas. I don't buy it because I want to eat it. All of it. All the time. Proof that food can be an addiction if you eat the wrong things.

Anywho, we wake up this morning to them saying that the storm is heading straight towards New Orleans. We are all but out of the red zone right now at this moment. There are a LOT of pissed off people in this area right now. Those people I said were in mission mode and panicking yesterday, are now bitching that they spent their money meant for bills on supplies and gas because the media freaked them out. Others are saying that with past history, they still have no clue where this storm is going and how strong it will be when it hits landfall. Ivan turned when they didn't expect it to. Some storms have bounced back and forth off the coast before they actually make landfall. Again, this is all hearsay I've read on this here internets. The county has now stated that the evacuations still stand, but they are not mandatory, just a suggestion at this point. I have no personal experience with hurricanes, but I'm beginning to chalk it up to just like everything else, things get blown way out of proportion. In the end this is mother nature. Tornado's can't be predicted, and their paths can't be pinpointed. Tsunami's have been predicted, only to amount to nothing. And do I even need to talk about the predictability of earthquakes? So why are people so upset that there is speculation of where the storm is going to go, only to have it not come to fruition?

Disco said that this amounts to The Weather Channel's Superbowl. They are selling ad space like no other during this storm. And it's a little true. This morning they cut Jim Cantore off as soon as he came on screen for a Hotels.com commercial. You know, just in case you need to evacuate, that's the place you need to make your hotel reservations through. The moment we found out the possibility of the storm making landfall here, they were airing natural disaster clean up company commercials. Here, write this number down just in case you need it in a week.

On a random side note, I've been thinking that I would like to get a print of the satellite image of Isaac to frame and hang in the house. Is that weird?