Tropical Storm Fay 2
August 19th, 2008 by ComputerBob
Yesterday morning, the powers-that-be were predicting that Tropical Storm Fay was going to creep up the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State, gather strength from the warm Gulf waters and become a Category 1 hurricane — before barreling right over us. And I began to receive the first of what turned into scores of email messages from a county mailing list, telling me all of the organizations that were going to be closed, meetings that were going to be cancelled, and people who were going to be evacuated because of Fay.
So, early yesterday morning, I borrowed my excellent next-door neighbor Mike’s cordless drill so that I could use it with my drill bit that’s made for spinning wing nuts. Then I started to board up our house with our aluminum hurricane shutters. A few minutes later, Mike came over, and the two of us worked together to finish the job in a few hours.
It took a lot longer than I thought it would take, but as we worked, we thought of ways to make the job go quicker in the future, like leaving the anchor bolts in the bottom rails in-between installations, and using a marking pen to mark where each bolt goes — plus writing (inside the upper-left corner of each opening’s top rail) how many panels and screws each opening requires.
When we finished, the whole house was secured in a manner that exceeds the Sunshine State’s most stringent Miami-Dade standards for hurricane protection.
But tropical storms — like the best-laid plans of mice and men — often go awry. So, late last night, Tropical Storm Fay made landfall on the mainland much further south than had been predicted. And then began to move in a northeastern direction, instead of hugging the Gulf Coast.
Today, it will be hot and humid here. This afternoon, we’ll have some gusty winds, with a very good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Just like every other Summer day in the Sunshine State.
Though boarding up our entire house yesterday feels a little bit like running to help the boy who cried wolf, I’m still glad we did it. I’d much rather be unecessarily prepared for a hurricane than any of the alternatives.
Now I just need to figure out how many hurricane panels I want to take down, to reduce the feeling of living in a cave, while leaving the majority of them up.
After all, we still have 3 1/2 months of hurricane season to go.
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