Florida prepares for Irma

Quin was chatting on one of the messengers tonight with her boyfriend all leading up to the hurricane going by Winter Park and he was still in good shape and had his electronics all fully charged and had gotten a few battery pack things and had them fully charged. They (Dillin and the friend and friend's dog who are sheltering with Dillin) had food and water and were well stocked. Right as the weather channel said that the hurricane was going by, Dillin lost electricity, but said that so far it was just higher winds than normal, though "nothing too scary yet" (in his words - keeping in mind that this is coming from a teenage boy and not so detail heavy) and a lot of heavy blowing rain.

Shortly after that we told Quin and Dillin to try to forgo chatting unless it was bad and if it was too late and Quin was already asleep to message Russ or me if he had trouble and couldn't get a hold of his parents for any reason. He said he would and that he was going to turn his phone off to save the charge in case he needed it for an emergency. That was at about 10:15 or so Central time and Quin went to bed shortly before 11 and hadn't heard anything and now at almost 1 a.m. central I haven't heard anything, so we are crossing our fingers that that means everything is still fine.

We have been watching the coverage pretty regularly to see what is going on. Russ' best friend has been worried about his parents condo in Naples and the pictures have looked pretty rough of the aftermath there, though not as bad as quite a bit of the Caribbean is looking. The friend's parents had a housekeeper whom they loved before they passed and the friend made arrangements with her to stay on and be a caretaker of sorts while he decided what to do with the place and they got to talking and she was saying that she was already worried about things based on what the weather reports were showing of the path and the friend told her that since his folks place was on the second floor that if flooding got bad at her house, to go to his parents condo and stay there as long as she needed. They also are without power (at least I think that is what I heard when he was talking to Russ) and doesn't know much else as to the extent of the damage - if any. He is waiting to hear from the housekeeper who said she would call with an update as soon as she was able depending on what all was going on and what safety concerns there might be for herself.

Our fingers are crossed for both Dillin and Russ' friend's housekeeper right now and we are just waiting to hear updates from everyone.