Well, this morning was our go/no-go time for evacuation, but we made our decision last night -- we're staying and riding Irma out at our church, which is open and outfitted as a shelter. It's a sturdy Quonset hut with lots of windbreak (also known as seven acres of jungle) around it. I spent part of yesterday afternoon nailing plywood over its windows and we moved some of our supplies into the common pool there last night.
Main contributing factor to the decision: We still don't know where the storm is going to go, or how strong it's going to be when it gets there, but as commenter mrjarrell pointed out in comments on another post, our planned evac destination -- Tupelo, Mississippi -- was actually in the storm's late "probability cone," and even though it would be weaker by the time it got there, we would be trading hurricane conditions for tornado conditions. We thought about making a boogie more due west for Gulfport, Biloxi, New Orleans or Baton Rouge ...
... but, you know, screw it. We've got reliable shelter and good friends available here, versus harried travel with no certainty that trading one location for another would end up being an improvement. Also, we would have been leaving about now if we were evacuating. Staying, we've got another good eight hours to continue prepping the house for a hit, and then a three-minute drive to get to the shelter well before even the outer edges of Irma start approaching.
So: I will be online, here or at the shelter, as time allows and until after power goes out, cell towers go down, whatever, and back on as soon as humanly possible after that. All of you who are also in the storm's path, here's hoping you make it through in safety and in health.
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