Hurricane Matthew: Preparing and Protecting

Hurricane Matthew's rain bands have been over us all morning.  Although we are in central Florida, Osceola county, we will have significant impact from this storm, with high winds, even higher wind gusts,  heavy rain downpours, possible tornado, and hail. 

(Personal note: Our home is not even completely finished, we have lived in it only a few weeks, after being replaced from a microburst of tornado with huge hail end of March.  This is a very stressful time for us and our community.)

Matthew seems to be moving more toward the west to impact central Florida and possibly the west gulf coast. Last night we cleaned our yard of what might turn into a weapon or projectile when it's in high wind.  Workers started installing an irrigation sprinkler system last Saturday but the job had complications and they were supposed to return to finish Monday, but that didn't work out, so they promised to finish this Saturday.  They had dug up most of the lawn and laid some of the irrigation water lines, but left at least half of the small ditches to put the lines in uncovered, and left a lot of lines in the yard.  Those would have made true projectiles if we hadn't picked them up.  This morning we finished moving everything that could get moved by high wind to our storage shed, and on the enclosed side of the porch.  Cars, golf carts under the carport and bikes tied down.  We haven't got our back up generator for the new home yet, and of course they are all sold out, as is gasoline.  And food in the grocery stores.  When we first saw the storm path, I decided we had enough food for sandwiches, snacks, and didn't think I needed to stand in long lines to purchase more, but now we're being told power may be out for a week, or more, and we should prepare for at least a week to 10 days.  As I blog this, I'm making small meals in crock pots to put in the freezer so they last awhile even if the power goes out.  We have a gas grill and cooker we can use. 

It's so unpredictable. 

If Matthew moves more inland, I'm moving the jade inventory to a storage under the house.  I'm planning on keeping the online stores open, so if you place an order, they should be able to get shipped by Friday.  If we have electrical power.  I will ship your purchases in the order they were received.  I may be using a different source of power and computers, and you may not receive updates.  But former customers know we ship as quickly as we can.

Deep Deep Green almost Black Chinese Jade "Two Dragons Hold Pearl" Jade Bangle Bracelet

I'm wearing my black deep deep green Chinese two dragons hold pearl, the most protective piece of jade I have.

My "Hurricane" Sterling Silver Bracelet
purchase in Key West