Hurricane Ian

 WEEEEEEEE!

So.

Good news / bad news.

We have a hurricane a'comin'.

Likely to hit the west coast.

The west side is the best side.

And we will be to the east side of the eye.

It's likely to grow to a Cat 3 or 4.

The good news is Jim is getting his FIRST

deployment as a licensed insurance adjuster!

He is SOOOO excited!

The bad news is that means there will be 

damage and destruction in its path.

But the good news is that if they have insurance

(which is required in Florida...)

they are going to get "new" stuff.

So there's that....

Hurricanes happen.

You prepare.

You plan.

You buy insurance.

And you look for the bright side.

Business for the construction people.

Business for the insurance people.

Business for the big box / little box stores.

New stuff!

Not generally loss of life. 

Unless it spawns a tornado.

Or a freak accident - but those happen 

without a hurricane.

Anyhow.

I don't dislike hurricane season.

Bring on being a Relief Society President

AND married to the emergency prep guy.

Whole new ball game.

Our ward council turned into an emergency prep

meeting yesterday morning.

We opened with "Master the Tempest is Raging"

and went from there.

The men in the room were all "who has a chainsaw"

and "how do people know who to report to".

We broke the ward into 4 quadrants and have assigned

zone leaders in each quadrant, but had not yet

assigned members to each zone.

Enter the women.

The YW Pres and I were sitting together

listening to the guys.

We looked at each other and said 

"this needs a woman's touch...". Lol.

So we volunteered to do the paperwork.

(She is a techno wizzz. She does all of Kyle's

advertising on social media - if you haven't seen

his Instagram account - check it out - she's good!)

BuffaloLandClearing on Instagram and Facebook.

Anyhow.

After church Rod and I hooked up my 2 screens

and his 1 laptop and away we went.

We got all the people assigned into 3 of the zones

and Treesa took the busiest, most compact zone.

We tried to set them up geographically so the

leader is within blocks (if possible) of all the members

in their particular zone.

Our neck of the woods is more spread out.

But there's nothing you can do about that.

Anyhow.

We got it all finished about 9:30 last night.

This morning (or after I quit at 9:30) 

Treesa put the finishing touches on it and made

it pretty.

This morning I added another column

(Leaving - yes/no;  Need Pre-storm assistance - yes/no;

Can you assist after the storm? - yes/no HOW; 

Post storm damage?)

and some colors to the leaders names to make them

easier to locate quickly.

Now we send them to the leaders and HOPE they 

follow through and contact each of their 6-10 

families in their zone.

MANY of the members are lost sheep.

Inactive, possibly moved, whatever.

That's another benefit of a hurricane.

We reach out to EVERY member on the list.

We find lost sheep.

And "most" of them are happy we did.

(And some aren't.)

Anyhow.

It was a BIG job.

I split the master list into smaller ones so

each quadrant leader has his own sheet.

(That way it is less complicated for them, 

but also they have less chance of screwing the

whole thing up! Oh me of little faith... lol)

So it will be my job to daily (at least)

update the master based on the info they are 

gathering and putting on their sheets.

But I'm sitting in front of my computer all the time

anyhow...

We never evacuate.

So.

That's done.

Now I have to make food for my family for

their lunches this week.

And I have to make dinner for the missionaries

this evening.

And I have to teach tonight.

So any other chores need to get done this morning.

I'll keep everybody posted.

But we are pretty sure this one is

basically a "dry" run.

With a LOT of rain.

The wind over on this side won't be more

than a good afternoon thunderstorm.

(probably)