Blowing wind

We might be in the line for Ms. Hurricane Hanna. Around 2:00 I checked the weather news and it said landfall on Friday, anywhere between Miami and the Outer Banks of NC, as a Cat 1. A straight line course puts it landing at Hilton Head, which is just a bit off from us. A bit later we saw our backyard neighbors scurrying around the yard, so Lanse went out to do the Yankee bit of "Is this dangerous? What do we need to do?", and they said they had just seen an updated report landing it on Wednesday... so if it sped up, it'd be stronger.

Needless to say, we're a bit in a panic. Per Michael's directions, we've taken down and stored the slide and swings, cleared all the stuff off the back porch, we'll bring the front garden in when the wind picks up. He said to expect power outages (that around here get fixed pretty quickly because most of it's underground), downed trees, and really scary sounds... for a Cat 1. He also said to have tarp to put on the roof if it leaks, some charcoal for the grill so we can eat, food (ice and a cooler for when the power goes out to save as much from the fridge as we can), and bottled water, and a few dollar store flashlights and batteries. He rides out all the storms, and said he'd totally help us with anything, just to signal across the yard with the flashlight if the phones are out. *heh*

It sounds like everything he suggested is for after the storm, though of course useful during it as well. But we haven't decided if we're going to ride it out or flee like Northern chickens to my parent's house... though Michael did say that if anything happened that's a small problem (like loosened shingles) if we weren't here it could become a BIG problem (leaking roof for a few days). So we may actually try to ride it out, though we haven't discussed it. I'm going to be a wreck though if we do.