The Red Cross gives a valuable list of preparations for upcoming hurricanes during this season, but they missed a few. Here’s my top ten list of missed items, many of them related to the expectation of electricity going out – as ours did for 13 days and 6 hours after Katrina.
1. Assemble a tall stack of books to read.
2. Print out the manuscript-in-progress for editing.
3. Charge Kindle, cell phone, and camera batteries.
4. Clear the dining table and get out a jigsaw puzzle.
5. Harvest all the cut flowers and bring them inside for bouquets.
6. Gather gardening tools and lock them in the shed so they don’t become missiles in the wind.
7. Make weird meals from things that might spoil in the fridge or freezer. Examples? You don’t really want to know.
8. Shower today whether you need to or not. There may be no clean water tomorrow. [There’s an irony here, since more than enough comes down.]
9. Send a memo to weather reporters: (A) It is Gulf-port, not Golf-port, although people are known to play golf there. (B) Biloxi is pronounced Bi-luck-si, not Bi-lock-si. Don’t ask me why, but residents get to choose how to pronounce their own cities. (C) The Land Mass between Mobile and New Orleans is called Mississippi.
10. And most important - eat that last dark chocolate Klondike ice cream bar so it doesn’t melt.