Storm preparations complete, anxiety comes alive in the wait

By BABITA PERSAUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 1998

hris Callison has always been a planner. That's why she has been running all over town for size D batteries. That's why she loaded her cart with more baby food, soup and tuna cans than normal.

More coverage from the Times on our Georges site.

That's why she has been collecting cell phone numbers of relatives and friends, just in case the phone lines go down.

Her philosophy: "A hurricane is the one natural disaster you can prepare for -- so why not?"

Callison, her husband, Rick, and 9-month-old son, Clayton, are not unlike other families in Hillsborough County preparing their homes and themselves for evacuation. They have the same frustrations and anxieties. They have the same concerns.

Chris, 34, is glued to the Weather Channel.

"I know they show the same thing every half-hour," she said. "But I still watch."

Rick, 35, worries about their belongings and their modest Beach Park home, which is in Zone A on hurricane maps. He is anxious about the wood floors he laid plank by plank. All that work might soon be under muddy water.

"I know insurance will pay for it," Chris said. "But we are still just going to be sick about it."

Like many families, the Callisons started thinking about Hurricane Georges Tuesday when Chris noticed that most of the water was gone from the grocery store shelf.

She said something clicked in her mind then. This was serious. She put 10 one-gallon jugs in her cart and told her husband, who came home that night and nearly tripped over the jugs: We should prepare.

His first comment was, "Well, there goes my fishing trip." But it didn't take long for him to become just as concerned about the hurricane as his wife, the planner.

"Any other time in our lives would be different. We would ride it out," Rick said. "But now we have a child."

"I think the destruction of Hurricane Andrew is still fresh in people's minds," Chris said.

So at home, the two lift the washer and dyer up on blocks, they stock up on perishables. On Rick's list is to store lawn furniture, board up windows as much as possible, elevate chairs onto tables. On Chris's list: buy flashlights, batteries and diapers.

If preparations at home weren't stressful enough, there also were preparations at work. Rick, a construction project manager, had to make sure sites were ready for high winds. Chris, who works in the data center at Time Warner, has been told: The center cannot go down.

The Callisons plan to comply with a mandatory evacuation ordered Thursday night for Zone A homes. They're headed to a friend's house in Brandon.

But with all the preparation, there is still a feeling of helplessness.

"What can we do?" Rick asked. "We really have no control over the weather."