The post I had planned for today was to be a recap of August, which included our road trip to visit Cumberland Island, Ga, and my bout with dehydration and heat exhaustion. Unfortunately, that plan was rudely interrupted by an unwelcome visitor named Dorian. As I write this, a crew of workers is finishing up with the hurricane shutters which Malcolm began installing yesterday. 
We are breathing a little easier today, since the track seems to have shifted from a direct hit to an off-shore event, but that does not mean we will not feel hurricane force winds or have wide spread power outages in our town. That is a much better outcome than the one we anticipated two days ago. We are still hopeful that it will pull even further away in the next twenty-four hours and become a non-event for Florida.
The graph below shows the projected track on August 29. If you follow the red line, it literally comes over our beautiful barrier island and through my front door, ten miles away. The last time a storm like this hit our coast was in 2004, when both Jeanne and Frances made landfall within one mile of each other, only two weeks apart. Both of those storms caused damage to homes, massive erosion to our beaches and extended power outages across our county. Neither of those storms was as strong as this one.
The track we woke up to this morning looks a lot more encouraging. Folks further up the coast may not be as fortunate and after a week of anticipation and frustration, we know exactly how they feel.
A mandatory evacuation is scheduled for our barrier island beginning Sunday morning at 10:00 and the bridges will be locked down shortly after. We took one final trip over this afternoon to capture a few images of my happy place before it changes once again. After about twenty minutes, we were ushered away by Sheriff’s Deputy’s who informed us that the beach was officially closed at 5:00.
We have been to this rodeo a few times, most recently in 2017 when we were expecting Irma. I wrote about our preparations and the downside of living in Florida here. If there is a good thing about a hurricane, it is that we have days to prepare. Keeping a cool head, a sense of humor, a kind heart and packing a lot of patience along for the ride makes a difference when faced with this kind of stress. We are as ready as we can be. And, we have lots of wine!!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Picture Retirement 
I hope Dorian continues to veer away from you. I’m glad you’re prepared and I hope you are able to stay safe and return to find your home unharmed. Enjoy the wine.
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Dan, we just got the latest forecast and now have Tropical Storm Warnings, not a hurricane – just a lot of wind and rain Monday and Tuesday. Looks like it might hit further up the coast or possibly not.
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I hope it stays well offshore.
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Suzanne, here’s hoping Dorian continues to veer farther off the coast. I hope you will be safe with no damage where you live. We have been watching and waiting all week, too. It’s still to early here to know whether to evacuate or not.
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We are 10 miles away from the coast and are not in a flood zone, so we feel pretty good about staying in the ‘bunker,’ It has been a roller coaster ride all week, I’m sure you guys are going through the same thing. But, aren’t you in a low-lying area? Be safe.
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Yes, there was a lot of flooding in our neighborhood and nearby Tybee Island from Irma. Some areas of Tybee also flooded with Matthew. We’ve already been having higher than normal king tides this week. I’m more concerned about the flooding. We won’t know what’s going to happen until maybe Tuesday. Stay safe!
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Hoping for the best for everyone
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Alice, thank you for your good wishes. We are ready and waiting. Lots of games, food and drinks to keep us busy for the next few days. .
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Suzanne, I like your optimism and that your are keeping a cool head, a sense of humour and plenty of wine. I think I would be a nervous wreck, but then you have seen it many times and I have never experienced anything like that. So glad that it appears to be going further away from your home…fingers crossed 😄
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Hi Gilda, lots of nervous energy underlying the sense of humor, but trying to stay positive when the track changes every eight hours, literally. It is now a cat 5 and closer to shore. Fingers crossed. Tuesday night is showtime for the Treasure Coast!
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Add my best wishes to everyone else’s. I’ve never experienced anything like this so I can’t imagine the anxiety that comes from the preparation and waiting – never mind the event itself … which I hope is a non-event!!
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Thank you Joanne, it is looking less and less like a non-event and has already devastated parts of the Bahamas with 185 mph winds. This is a big one but we remain hopeful that it will take the Northerly turn that is predicted. Thanks for your best wishes.
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We’ve been following the news stories and it’s quite frightening!
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I hope that Dorian continues to behave him(or her… not sure which gender this one is)self. It must be odd to have to close up all of your windows and live in a cave for a while. If you can’t see out, how do you know when it’s safe? Best of luck to you! We will all be anxious to hear that you got through safely.
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Hi Janis, it is odd, but until we have a hurricane warning, which we just received this afternoon, we come and go normally. Tomorrow, we will pick up Malcolm’s Mom around noon and shelter in for the duration. Looking at about 48 hours inside the house, but we still don’t know what to expect in terms of wind, rain and tornadoes. We will keep the TV on for as long as we have power, and then listen to a battery powered radio. I’m thinking Dorian as in Dorian Gray, with his cold heart and ugly, ever changing face!!! Will keep communicating for as long as we can. Internet will be spotty for the next several days. Continued good thoughts please!!
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A cool head, a sense of humour, a kind heart and loads of patience is an excellent creed to follow. Sending warm thoughts and prayers that all are safe from hurricane Dorian.
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Donna, anything less than that just adds to the stress.Thank you for sending prayers.It’s going to be a long night.
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Just got back from being a little off the grid, Suzanne, I hope you’re staying safe and that Dorian is behaving better! I’m impressed with your cool head, sense of humor and “just accept it” attitude!
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Terri, that comes from being as prepared as we can be and understanding what our house will withstand. If we lived on the barrier island off our coast, I would not be so calm. Our mantra today is turn, turn, turn!! Conditions are in place for that to happen and we are hopeful. Nevertheless, the coastline will be devastated and homes will be destroyed. We expect power outages for a few days but will be fine. Thanks for stopping by today. I am soooooo bored and needed to chat.
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Hi Suzanne,
Here’s hoping we have dodged this particular bullet and Dorian makes the predicted track up the coast and away from FL. You sound well prepared. Be save in any event.
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Hi Nancy, that seems very likely at this point, but we are still in a cautious but optimistic mood. Spending some time to myself, watching the US Open and waiting….
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Suzanne, scary times. The days of anxiety preceding the hurricane itself must be hard — the uncertainty of it.
Jude
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Yes, Dorian has been quite inconsiderate these past few days. Ready to be done with this.
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Sending you warm thoughts, Suzanne, and hoping you continue to stay safe. I’ve been watching and reading about Dorian, and how it has devastated part of the Bahamas.
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Thank you for your kind thoughts Natalie.
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Stay safe, Suzanne! This Dorian is a bad one, looks like. I think you may have been passed over by now, but hurricane season is only beginning, right?
Deb
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Hi Deb, yes, it passed us yesterday afternoon. Some rain and a few wind gusts, about 200 homes without power in low-lying areas, and that was it. We are relieved, but ready to have our lives back. The Bahamas – not so good.
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You must be so relieved! Was it your plan to stay in your house to ride out the storm? Have you done so before? Warnings are great things. We lived in CA for 33+ years and endured our share of earthquakes, which of course have no warnings. So glad you made it through this one unscathed.
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Patti, we are very relieved. Unless a storm has a forecast of a category 4 early on and conditions are good for it to maintain, or gain strength, we stay. Our house is built to current hurricane codes, and we are not in a flood zone. We were in our home through Jeanne and Frances in 2004. Both of those storms made a direct hit to our coastline, just seven miles away. The homes in our neighborhood, with the exception of three that front the river, were fine. We would never be careless, but after a while you start to get a sense of these things and instinctively know whether to stay or go. That’s not to say you can’t get caught. People who are told to evacuate and don’t are just irresponsible.
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Let’s hope Dorian does not incur more damage than it has already. When I first moved to the U.S. at age twenty, I lived in Miami as I was going to school there. Shortly after arrival there was a threat of a hurricane. I got immersed in the full preparation of taping windows, radio, flashlight, survival food etc. It blew over that time, and of course since then we have seen the fury and destruction that these storms can bring. Sadly with climate change upon us, they will no doubt continue to get more extreme as will all weather patterns (heat, flooding, drought etc)
Stay safe and dry!
Peta
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Peta, that is a stark reality and I hope the world is paying attention and not just brushing this away as just another coastal storm that doesn’t affect anyone but the crazy people who build stilt houses on the coast. It affects all of us. Funny you mentioned taping the windows. We used to do that too; little did we know. With the technology we have today, we have all become junior meteorologists.
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Hi, Suzanne,
Well, we had another vacation cut short by a hurricane and, that makes three in a row. Gotta learn to stay away from the east coast in August and September, but a beach in the fall is always tempting, especially after school starts and the crowds thin. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to evacuate from Charleston and all turned out well. I hear that there is another one brewing out there. Stay safe.
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Glad you left Charleston. I think there was a lot of flooding there. I have not followed much beyond the Bahamas and Florida. The news is too depressing. Cumberland in February!!!
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Hurricanes suck! Compared to 20 years of earthquakes in L.A, our first hurricane in Texas was worse! I absolutely hated it. The constant updates really set my nerves off. I hope Dorian keeps staying away from you guys…and no more hurricanes! For anybody! :-).
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Kem, yes they do and this one sucked a lot.Sadly, there are more brewing behind it, with two months left in hurricane season.
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It’s got to be a relief that Dorian passed you by. Hurricane season sounds stressful.
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Sheryl, it is a huge relief and yes, it can be stressful. After ten days of waiting, we are finally feeling normal and enjoying our last remaining weeks of summer.
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I am certainly glad to hear all is well. We lived for years in tornado country so I understand the prep work involved in getting ready to hunker down. I do not have experience with hurricane shutters so I have a question – do you put them up and take them down as needed? I looked online, and it appears there is a variety of types so I’m just curious. As I ‘mature,’ I’m always looking ahead to maintenance requirements. 🙂
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That’s a good question Judy. We installed ‘accordion shutters’ on the second floor just last year to make things a little easier. As the name implies, they stack back against the house when not in use and are pulled and locked in place when needed. Easy peezy, but very expensive. The downstairs shutters are heavy metal panels and stay stacked in our garage until needed. They have been cut to size for each window, so sorting, carrying each panel to the corresponding window, and affixing them is quite a process. Just one window may have five or six panels. Malcolm does most of the work (I used to assist, but no more), and then he hires a couple of guys to do the larger windows. Our HOA requires that all shutters be removed from the house within ten days of an event, so yes, they have to be taken down and returned to the garage.
We are seriously considering having accordion shutters installed on the downstairs windows. With the frequency and intensity of storms coming our way, we can almost justify the cost. And, it would take a lot of the stress out of our preparations since we would not have to guess about when to begin the process, will the workers show up, etc. Many of the homes in our community have gone that route already.
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