TheBanyanTree: What I'm afraid of

[NancyIee at aol.com]

Since I have lived in Florida, lo, these many years, I well know the fear, 
preparations, outcomes of hurricane threats. I watch the slow, mapped, trek of 
these named storms as they come acroos the Atlantic. Then, it is Russian 
Roulette whether they veer northward off the east coast of the country, or duck down 
and come into the Gulf of Mexico.  Our town has avoided a direct hit in 100 
years. However, I know that our luck clock is ticking, so I moved deep inland . 
. where last summer one came right up the spine of the state and flattened 
many of those little, poor, rural towns on the edges of swamps. We were lucky 
again, and only lost one or two of the 100 or more pine trees on our land.

The big debate here is farm animals: do we tuck them into the barn, which 
could tumble down and crush them all, or leave them out and let their natural 
instincts hopefully save them?  I left my hardy horses out, and the young stock 
in. No harm came to any, though we heard of dairy barns blowing down with the 
cows inside, and horses left out to run frantically into fences, or get hit 
with flying debris.

Keep your storm tote packed. One cannot have too many flashlights.  And, have 
a battery-powered radio so you know what's going on elsewhere. And water, 
fill your tub and buy bottled water for drinking. The tub water can be used to 
wash up, flush the toilets, and provide animals with water. Plus, you already 
have a safe room to ride out the worst.  You might calla friend living far away 
where you can hie to if things get too bad or they evacuate the area.  We 
chose to ride out the storm, but had friends in Tennessee whee we could run to if 
needed.

The storm itself was a screamer.  We kept hearing a deep droning, and learned 
it was from the thrumming guy-wires securing the radio tower a mile away. The 
trees whipped, branches flew, our lawn chairs ran away, and our pig gave 
birth to ten piglets, which is why the lawn chairs ran away. I was out in the 
hurricane, midwifing piglets. In the mud and driving rain and howling winds, I was 
giving mouth-to-snout resuscitation to struggling piglets. The sharp drop in 
barometric pressure caused the sow to go into labor a bit early.  We saved all 
but one, and named them all Wilma.

We were without power for a few days, which meant no water, since we have our 
own well.  We had minimul flooding in the low parts of the land, but no 
damage n the buildings, except one small roof leak which was later repaired with a 
bucket of hot tar.and some caulking.

Good luck. A coming storm can be exciting and fearful. I will keep you in my 
prayers.


NancyLee