Hurricane season 2010 has been a mild one so far, with four storms and only two of them really amounting to anything. We just had Hurricane Danielle, and now, proving that behind every successful woman is a guy with a goofy name, we have Hurricane Earl. Earl becomes a Category 3 storm sometime today (August 30), and even though it appears that he will only strike a glancing blow off the Eastern Seaboard, rest assured he’ll still leave his mark with all the subtlety of a dog doing his business on a neighborhood fence post.
As if that weren’t enough, we have tropical depression Fiona warming up in the Atlantic Basin bullpen, so things could get really interesting from this point forward.
If you’re living in the path of these storms, be prepared to move….fast. Have an evacuation route planned and (I can’t stress this enough) make sure it leads to higher ground. Make sure somebody out of town knows where you’re going and have appropriate contact numbers to let them know you’re okay.
Have your “go bag” ready, with food, water, medical supplies, radio with extra batteries, clothes for several days, cash, and anything else you need. But just bring what you need…you should be able to travel light, and while the 52” big screen is nice, it’ll just slow you down.
If you have time, batten down your house, board up the windows, trim your trees, and clear rain gutters and downspouts (cause they’re gonna be real busy real soon!).
Shut off all electricity and gas to your home. Before doing so, fill the bathtub with water for bathing, flushing toilets, and cleaning. This water is not for drinking (which I’m hoping goes without saying, since we just used the word toilet).
Basically, the word for the day children, is to pack up and head for the hills, there’s a storm a comin….tomorrow we’ll look into what happens when you return to where your home used to be…..oops, um, I mean, return to your happy home….yeah, that’s it……
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