Ernesto Approaching

With hurricane season well underway and, so far, significantly less when compared to last year's record season (the whole alphabet of names was gone through and storms were being denoted by greek letters), it was ultimately only going to be a matter of time before a storm/hurricane developed that was going to hit the US mainland (I believe predictions suggest that there will be three such storms this year compared to 7 last year). Anyhow, this week, the first of the season appeared on the horizon - Tropical Storm Ernesto. Whilst Ernesto was a hurricane earlier in the week, this was for a very brief time - a matter of hours, and was as it hovered around Cuba. However, as Ernesto passed across towards Florida, concerns that he may strengthen were not realised and he eventually made US landfall sometime last night down at the South of Florida.

Being here in Charleston, we're always on tenterhooks when a hurricane crosses Florida lest it swing back over across the panhandle and head our way, but this time is different. Predicted courses have Ernesto heading up Florida before swinging slightly bacak out to sea and then brushing past Charleston - predictions suggest the 'eye' will pass within 50 nautical miles and so it looks like it'll be a bit wet and windy from tomorrow evening onwards. However, fear not - it appears that Ernesto will likely not gain strength before he gets here. The general sense is that there will be some rain, probably some flooding of roads here and there but it won't be all that bad. However, to be safe, i'm following the standard procedure - making sure to have extra bottled water, lots of tinned food, making sure important documents are safe etc. I've also secured a ride further inland, should a mandatory evacuation be called (it's not likely). Rest assured, we're all going to ride this storm out.