Praying for Florida Friends

I had a bit of an email conversation this morning with a dear friend in Florida. She and her husband are the parents of 5 children, all young teenagers and preteens.  They were going to spend their day moving their back yard furniture and ornaments into a hurricane reinforced shed.  They have loaded up on water, food and other necessities in case of having to live in their home without power should Hurricane Irma hit them hard enough. Their city of St. Augustine, in northern Florida is in a slightly more sheltered location than some of the surrounding coastline cities and towns and so they were planning to hunker down and wait it out at home.

However, I just finished reading their local newscast item that a mandatory evacuation order will likely be in place by 6am Saturday  due to the size and strength of a hurricane that is showing no signs of downgrading as it makes its way toward them and up the east coast through Georgia and the Carolinas. 

My friends are fortunate in that they have a family member's house inland to go to, IF they can get there!  I am praying they will have sufficient time to get themselves into their vehicle and out of the way before any significant danger comes to them.  Their house is being boarded up and they had the blessing today of arriving at a gasoline station just as a tanker truck also arrived to fill up the empty underground tanks. They were first in line to fill up their vehicle and gas cans.  So, I pray that the sheer volume of traffic by Saturday morning will not hinder their flight from the storm.  

I am impressed by the way Floridians are heeding the government officials' warnings to get out while the traffic flow is still manageable. I am impressed that so many people there understand the danger they are in.  I am impressed that some of the southern Florida hospitals and elder care homes are evacuating patients and residents well in advance of the storm's predicted landfall.

When I see on tv what Hurricane Irma has done in its decimation of Puerto Rico and so many of the smaller islands off the west and south Florida coast, rendering them virtually uninhabitable and killing residents who could not find a place of safety, it certainly adds to feelings of fear for my friends.

Lord, please, in your mercy protect them and all the rest of the people fleeing the path of this storm.  Please help the families who have all ready experienced the damage, death and destruction this storm has wrought. Amen. 

Prayer and financial donations to the storm vicitms in the Panhandle and east coast areas...I don't know what else to do.