I took several pictures like this one so I could compare before the hurricane with after.
As it turns out, this IS the before and the after picture.
I stacked the porch furniture against the wall...
And I brought the dogs' fence onto the porch so they would have a place to do their
business.
And I put papers down inside the fence. I know that none of this would have held up
if we got a real hurricane, but I thought it might work if we only got heavy rains.
To prepare mentally for at least two days in the house, I took a walk on the beach.
I had to take a picture of the sign because Gail always comments on how this
strikes her funny as a name for a beach.
The beach was empty.
It was creepy walking there all by myself with the faint sound of steel drums from a
Jimmy Buffett song playing in the distance. It had a kind of "Day After" feeling.
I thought this would be the last blue sky I saw for a while.
Last chance to be outside (I thought).
If I don't live through the hurricane, good-bye, everyone.
OK, Fay, where are you?
Storm Preparations
The day before the hurricane was supposed to arrive, it was sunny and calm. It's kind of hard to prepare when things seem so nice, but I made some preparations. I was ready to put the storm protection on the outside of the doors, but the weather updates started predicting less severe winds, so I waited.
I parked both vans parallel to the garage door to keep the wind and rain off the door. I wish I had remembered to take a picture because I think that was a good idea. I moved the vans as soon as we got an all clear, forgetting to take a picture. It took too long to maneuver them into the right position, so I am too lazy to recreate the scene for a picture.