Hurricane Ivan Update - Monday Sep 13

The purpose of this blog is going to change for the time being. I'm going to use it simply as a communication tool to let everyone know what's going on with the hurricane and what we are doing and what will be doing. Here's the latest as of 6:00PM Monday night. Keep in mind that hurricanes can and do change quickly. Right now Ivan is predicted to make landfall in Pensacola sometime early Thursday afternoon. Pensacola is 2 hours west of and about 120 miles away, which is good news. The bad news is that were are right hand side (east) which is considered the 'bad' side of the hurricane. They say the winds are worst on that side as the whip around the hurricane. Frankly the hurricane experts are unsure of the exact tract. So as time passes this can and will change.

At 5:00PM the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in our county called for mandatory evacuations of homes in low lying areas and near the water. The evacuations are to begin tomorrow at 11:00AM. We do not live in a low lying area or near the water. If/when we evacuate, which we will probably do, it will be voluntary. The public schools in Bay County have canceled school for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The primary reason is to use them as shelters for people who have no where to go. So they need to get the schools ready to be shelters. All county offices will also be closed with the provision that can be reopened if storm takes a more westerly track. This will be reevaluated at 7:00AM in the morning and a final decision will be made. I (Ron) have to work tomorrow and depending on how the storm tracks, make a decision to leave tomorrow night or very, very early Wednesday. They say we can expect Gale force winds by 11:00AM Wednesday.

Right now we don't know where we are going to go. We are still thinking about and discussing it. It all really depends upon what track the storm takes after it makes landfall. It has changed a couple of times, so we are just going to wait and see. We would like to go only a travel a few hours if possible but to some place out of the storm track. We'll talk to my parents and decide what is best. Once we leave I'll have my laptop with me so I can make post to the blog and let everyone know where we are, how to get in touch with us and what are plans are from that point on. But as of tonight we are going to stay home, get ready, pack and decide what we are going to do. We'll keep you updated as to what is going on. Take care and stay dry.