Hunker Down!

The last couple of days I have been skyping or on the phone with The Boy regarding whether he should come home to get away from the hurricane that is out in the gulf or stay at school.  On Sunday, The Boy was very nonchalant about it all.  He was staying down there, his room mates were staying.  Everything was okay.  No biggie!  In one ear, out the other.  He's not concerned.

That's great (not really).  They aren't in a flood zone and are not directly on the coast.  There were no mandatory evacuations down there yet.  The only problem was that they have no food or water in their apartment.  They are on a meal plan so they go to the school cafeteria three times a day to eat, which is not very far from the apartment, unless there's a hurricane coming ashore with 50 mph winds and driving rain.

Then the cafeteria is VERY far.

Not very conducive to walking around campus to eat with debris blowing around and The Boy doesn't have a car down there so no driving.

I told The Boy that they need to go the store and stock up with water, snacks and flashlights with batteries.  His room mate has a car and even if his room mate wouldn't go to the store, The Boy could have gotten some water and snacks from the campus book store to tie him over if he can't make it to the cafeteria.

Of course, he didn't do anything.

Then yesterday evening he calls me in a panic.  Apparently, the winds have kicked up down there and he's gotten a taste of what it's going to be like when Isaac comes ashore.  He doesn't like it at all!  He begs me to come get him.  The only problem is that by now the interstate that goes down there is closed to southbound traffic.  All traffic is heading north so people living down near the coast can evacuate.

It's amazing how much things can change in 24 hours!

By then, Zones 1 and Zones 2 had mandatory evacuations.  Zone 3, where The Boy lives does not have a mandatory evacuation.  His room mate who has a car does not want to leave.  He wants to ride it out.  The other room mate who's parents live nearby, bailed out and headed home.

At first The Boy said his dad was going to find an alternate route and driving the 4 hours to get him.  Then I was going to take him back down at the end of the week.  But I guess his dad couldn't figure out a way to get down there safely, not to mention the traffic coming back north is probably backed up for hours, so that plan fell through.

I haven't heard from The Boy this morning, but he's probably still asleep since all his classes have been canceled for the next two days.  It looks like Hurricane Isaac has moved even further west and Mobile and Pensacola is not going to get the worst of it.  That's good.

We've gotten good reports from the condo association about the weather in Pensacola Beach.  Things are looking good.  Nothing really bad yet.  They expect business as usual for Labor Day.

I'm sure it still isn't going to be fun experience for The Boy.  They are going to get very high winds and heavy rain for a few days.

At this point, however, there's nothing left to do but "hunker down".  I've heard that phrase a lot the past couple of days!