To Stay or To Go????

Ruben's the man that's always on top of the weather. He's got several different resources at the office, so they can be prepared for a hurricane before one even develops. He's been tracking this storm in the Gulf all week. At the present time the storm is only a Tropical Depression, but that could change at any time depending on how the storm progresses. At present, it is modeled to be coming our way. Weather Underground estimates it to hit us sometime between 8pm tonight and 8pm Saturday, with winds ranging between 39 and 73 MPH. While the picture below from The Weather Channel shows it not hitting us till sometime between Saturday and Sunday. Hmmmmm, which one do we believe????
So anyway, the question is, should we pack up a few items and head north? I believe that Ruben is boarding up the office today as preventive measures - and certainly it goes to show that we will be bringing all the BBQ and patio furniture indoors. But by the looks of the neighborhood, it seems that no one is prepping for a storm, which has me both confused and worried. Or maybe they know something which we don't, as most of our neighbors have lived here for over a decade. Most of them never even left for Katrina, and sustained little to no damage during that storm. Which has me asking, should we panic and hightail it out of here, or hunker down and ride out the storm?

I'm not sure what to do. I know that we are well stocked in non-perishable items in case of a storm. However I'm sure we could certainly use more batteries, flashlights and candles - not to mention any items we neglected to think of. Yet, many sites advise that should you leave, you should take with you all valuable and non-replaceable items - such as hard drives, photos, and important documents to name a few. Good lord, do you have any idea how many photos I have? Not to mention with just moving here, we are no where near organized enough to be able to find all those items. I certainly pray that we have a very sturdy roof, as I have heard from countless neighbors that we definitely possess a structurally sound house. That said, I am not as concerned about the house as I am about the roof leaking, or being blown off!


I really hope that this storm is not all that it supposedly cracked up to be! I can deal with wind and rain, but please NO NO NO hurricanes!


Now I must go, Lisa B is on QVC, and I'm drooling as I type!