Hurricane Update - Tuesday Sep 14th

Here's the latest: both Kathy and I worked today. Kathy worked until about 1:00PM and I worked until 11:00AM but then went back in at 3:00PM to do backups and shut the network down. My work is shut down for the rest of the week, as Kathy has decided to do as well. Schools are also out for the rest of week too. Kiel is working tonight at Fridays. He was scheduled to work but they were short handed and asked him to come in early. Everything in town is closing up, especially resturants so I'll bet they'll be slammed. My parents, Butch and Rose Mary came by this morning and with the help of the boys boarded up the windows on the house. They did it while we were at work and knocked it out in about a half an hour. The boys also picked up the yard and put our chairs, plants etc. in the shed. So we have prepped the house the best we know how. Kathy and Katlin washed our dog KC and cut her nails. Kathy said KC is "Hurricane Ready". For the rest of the night she is an 'inside' dog.

We will be leaving our house at 5:00AM in the morning(Wednesday) and plan to be at Ron's parents by 5:30AM. We are taking all three of our vechiles with us. We plan to leave Ron's truck and Kiel's car in Ron's parents garage. We'll then leave in our van and my parents truck for Jacksonville, Florida. It is about 275 miles east of Panama City and out of the path of the hurricane. We will be staying at the:

La Qunita Inn Baymeadows
8255 Dix Ellis Trail
Jacksonville, FL
Phone: (804) 731-9940

We have the rooms booked for three nights (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). If we need them longer we'll book them and stay. If all goes well we plan on returning Saturday morning, again anything can happen but that's the plan. Our friends Brian and Tina Franc are going to meet us at and stay at the same hotel. The Franc's live on the beach side of town and need to leave as well. They are good friends so it will help to have them along. Our now clean golden retriever KC will be making the trip with us as well (the hotel allows pets). We tried to get her in a kennel but they were all full. Also, I'll have my laptop with me and will be able to get email and update the blog. My email address is ron_cravatta@yamaha-motor.com so you can keep in touch with us that way as well.

The trickest part of this whole thing is that no one really knows exactly where this storm is going to make landfall. Trying to guess where it is going to hit is like trying to nail jello to the wall, it's almost impossible. As of the 5:00PM from the National Hurricane Center has Ivan making landfall around Mobile Alabama or the Florida/Alabama border. So they have moved it a bit more to the west, which is good news for us. However, it could do anything. Remember what just happened with Hurricane Charlie where it was predicted that landfall would be in Tampa but the storm turned inland about a hundred miles and took out Punta Gorda? That's the kind of thing you worry about. You want to be prepared but not paranoid. You simply have to err on the side of caution, which I'm willing to do. This storm is a huge monster so regadless of where it hits on the Gulf Coast, it will impact us here locally. The issue is to what degree. And that all depends on where Ivan makes landfall. The more west it goes the better for us - the more east it comes the worse it is for us.

That's all I know for now. Pray for our traveling safety and that we beat the exodus out of town(also that the big screen TV makes it through the storm). I'll probably update sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening once we get settled in Jacksonville. Leave us a comment or send us an email, we would love to hear from you. Take care and we'll be in touch...