5:00 a.m. 08-29-06
Everything's ready. The TV stations are on full storm coverage for Ernesto, and they're running clips of the usual preparation stories; cars lined up at gas stations, people pushing shopping carts loaded with bottled water and Pampers through the supermarkets, guys in wife-beaters putting up plywood, officials from Florida Power and Light saying they're ready, all the while running crawls of school closures, and off in one corner, the radar loop of the storm's progress across Cuba.
Right now the weather's calm, and it's pretty warm for 6:00 a.m. -- 82 F. We have, of course, a Tropical Storm warning with a Hurricane Watch inland. It's supposed to get nasty tonight with rain bands and winds up to 45 mph.
But for now, it's quiet and the only difference between this and any other day is that I'm at home on a Tuesday morning.
Update: Here are a couple of pictures of the clouds that are preceding the arrival of Ernesto:
Around 7:00 a.m.
