Planning for the Unknown

is H.A.R.D.

My family has never experienced a hurricane before, so now that Isaac is on it's way, we are getting to experience all kinds of new things and a few somewhat familiar things too.

For example, things fly off the shelves here just like they do in Northern Virginia when there is a threat of snow.  We went to the hardware store yesterday and there were stacks of tarps, gas cans, batteries, etc set out for people to purchase in preparation.  And there were definitely people buying.  We even saw someone buying a generator (the biggest he could get of course).

We went to a discounted bread store on Wednesday (keep in mind the hurricane wasn't even a tropical storm yet I don't think) and there were people stocking up.  We were there to stock up too but just because it was time to do so and they have an extra 20% off on Wednesdays.  I do admit that I got a couple extra loaves of bread in case we find ourselves without power and eating lots of PB&J or PB&H.

We've been able to talk about how the track of the storm is affected by weather in other areas.  We've been able to discuss the kinds of damage usually caused by tropical storms and hurricanes and how thankfully this one will not be as damaging as Andrew (the 20 year anniversary of landfall was yesterday so it made the news). 

We are just North of the Action area.  Our rental house is even closer to the Action area.

It's all well and good to read all the emergency preparedness flyers from the various agencies, but when I was looking into my yard today I got to thinking... they say to put your lawn furniture away and other loose items in your yard.  What about large potted plants?  Will they be heavy enough?  What about the glass table top that is not actually attached to the base of the table in our lanai?  What about our grill? 

At this point, my plan is to pray, store what I can, and pray some more.  Although it's unknown to me, nothing is unknown to my God so I'm just going to leave it up to Him.