Of course, a couple of years ago Hurricane Ian was supposed to miss us completely too. It was forecasted to head north and make landfall in Tampa Bay. Then it took a hard right turn and came ashore in Fort Myers Beach. Lots of people lost everything in the 20-foot storm surge. We had no power for 10 days. Fortunately I had a little portable generator, but there was no propane anywhere and I had to drive an hour south to Naples every day to refill my tanks.

I was also here back in 2017 when Hurricane Irma (my first Florida hurricane) was supposed to do the same thing - stay offshore and miss us. It also took a hard right turn and smacked into Marco Island to our south. I moved all my furniture up to the 2nd floor anticipating a huge storm surge. Got nothing. Never even lost power.

So, the one thing I've learned with these forecasts is to not trust that cone. They can usually accurately predict the speed and intensity, but where that sucker's gonna go is still anyone's guess. AI is supposed to make these models more accurate, so, we'll see.

As far as me, well, I'm prepared for anything. I've battened down the hatches and brought all the furniture and lawn ornaments in - well, most of em. The heavy ones are fine. We're only supposed to get 50 mph winds. That's nothing. Ian had 160 mph winds.

I've got a whole-house 22 kW Generac generator with a 1,000 gallon propane tank. That should be enough to run everything for at least 10 to 14 days should power go out. That was the first thing I installed after Ian. No way I'm going without power again. I also still have the little guy that I had during Ian as a backup backup.

I also have a "most of the house" UPS battery backup system made by Bluetti. That has enough power to run the important things (lights, TV, etc.) for a few hours in case the generator fails - and it kicks on immediately like a UPS which is great for those 3-second outages and brownouts we have all the time here in the summer.

The next line of power outage defense for my office are - you guessed it - standard PC UPSes. I've got a couple of these bad boys for the important stuff in my office: my server, laptop, lights, modem, and WiFi router. Those run another 30 minutes or so... if the Bluetti runs out... if the Generac runs out... so... I think I'm good for power. LOL.

I also recently purchased a 200 W solar panel and frame with the intent on setting up a whole bank of them in my yard... eventually. It's a future project, and I'm starting with one. Can't put solar panels on the roof without my insurance company dropping us (I asked). And I'm very happy with my insurance company, so no panels on the roof. But I can line them up on the sides of the house on the ground. LOL.

I've also got this portable solar charger that I keep in my travel laptop bag. Just in case. Also have one of these in my boat box for emergencies.

I had no Internet service during Ian. So with this house I got myself Comcast 2 GB Business Internet with a cellular failover. They call it Connection Pro. Since it's business-level Internet, it's almost never down. I see in the local Cape Coral FB groups everyone complaining that their Internet service is spotty with Xfinity. Nope. Not me. I think I've had 2 minor outages in the last year-and-a-half. And when that happens, the cellular failover kicks in automatically. Sure, it slows down to only 4G LTE speeds, but it's seamless and everything stays online. I won't be uploading videos on it, but at least I can work.

Got plenty of food and water (for us and the dogs). Tons of canned goods, emergency rations, and water. I've got three cases of bottled water in the garage. I've got an AquaTru tabletop reverse osmosis water purifier and a distillation water purifier in case city water stops working.

I fill up 80 gallons worth of emergency water storage containers before any major storms hit. Plus we have 10,000 gallons of water in our backyard (pool) that can be purified with the above equipment, if needed. And it's good for flushing your toilets, too. I had to carry buckets of water in the house after Ian to flush toilets because that house had well water, and with no power, the well pump stopped. Not a problem here with city water. Yeah, that can fail too, but it's a lot less likely.

Our house is brand new construction - only 2 years old. It's got impact glass hurricane-ready windows and doors. I had motorized shutters installed on the lanai so with a push of a button the big aluminum roll-down shutters are in place (and the dogs can do their business out there during a storm if need be).

I've got a digital TV antenna which I used during both previous hurricanes. In case the cable goes out - let me rephrase that, I don't have cable - in case the Internet goes out (both wired and cellular) you can plug this bad boy into your TV and pick up over-the-air signals. It was great to have during Ian.

Oh, and speaking of cellular service, I completely lost all cell service during Ian for like 3 or 4 days. I have Verizon. Fortunately, my fiance has T-Mobile. She never lost signal. We stay on separate plans in case one of us doesn't have service when we travel. It happens a lot that I'll be in a dead zone and she'll have signal - or vice versa. I don't know why they don't just Nationalize the cellular networks like they did with phone wires back in the day, but that's a different discussion.

I also just picked up one of these Garmin inReach emergency satellite communicators. Not only could it be a life safer if cell and landlines go down after a hurricane (yeah, we have a landline too), but we go boating a lot, and once in a while we are out of cell range on the boat. I carry a regular radio in my boat box, but you never know. Wouldn't want to find myself with a dead motor, drifting to Cuba. Soooo....

OK, so that about covers it. I think I'm good to go.

Plenty of time over the next couple days to record some video... I'm off to it...