 So now we're going to talk a little bit about hurricane preparedness. We've got Wayne Larson, St. John's County Director of Public Affairs on the line. Wayne, how are you today? We're doing well. Thank you for the opportunity to share our story and our preparation information. Yeah, so what are the threats to St. John's County in particular given the parts between the ocean and the intercostal as well as on the river? Well, first and foremost, we want to communicate to your listeners that we need them to be prudent and proactive and purposeful with their preparation. This do not take this tropical event likely. This is going to be a significant weather event. And to that point, we're going to anticipate significant wind activity, tropical storm winds in the St. John's County area for a prolonged period of time starting on Wednesday morning and through the afternoon hours. And then, particularly to your point, St. John's County River, that's probably the area that we'll probably see the most impacts when it comes to potential flooding just based on the path of the storm at this point. And what about St. Augustine and Valano Beach? They haven't fared well in the past. Like, how's this looking for them? Well, we're in constant communication and coordination with our partners in both cities, City of St. Augustine and City of St. Augustine Beach. We have collaborated and we're providing self-serve sandbag operations in six different locations throughout the county, including those cities. So that's one proactive step we've taken since yesterday and it's again open today. And those are opportunities for the public to get sandbags to help them in their areas and they can go to Windswept Acres Park, Solomon Calhoun Community Center, Hastings Community Center, Mills Field, Palm Valley, and North Beach Park to get up to 20 bags per person to help them secure their property. In terms of further assistance, we will announce later today that we will open two storm shelters at 5 p.m. One will be at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center at 1300 Duval Street in St. Augustine and that will be for general population and pets. And then a second location for sheltering will be at the St. John's County Health and Human Services Building at 200 St. Sebastian View also in St. Augustine and that will be for our special needs folks that needs some assistance in our community. What are some of the household items that people should stock up on? Well, again, being proactive, being prudent, being practical, make sure you've got a five-day supply of your medicines, things such as insulin and if you're diabetic, make sure you've got it in a cooler. Of course, any personal grooming items, hygiene items, extra clothing, pillows, blankets, you know, a flashlight with extra batteries. And then, of course, always personal identification information, important papers, maybe some cash on hand if you can in case electronic payment opportunities are just deactivated or inaccessible for a certain period of time, cash or check that you might have on the other ways to make payments. So again, this is the time to be prudent and purposeful with your planning and not take this weather event likely. It will impact St. John's County in a variety of ways, but most notably with wind activity as much as tropical storm sustained winds for a period of time in our community. What do you recommend for homeowners in the area with the wind coming in? Does that mean that people should be boarding up their windows? What kind of actions should people be taking? Every and any precaution they can. I will tell you from personal experience, I picked up my house over the weekend and made sure that my wife's massive wind chime was taken down off of our back patio and picked up all my daughter's potted plants, even the small, the large ones from the back patio area in the yard. Took down all the bird feeders that were hanging from different things, picked up all the things in the yard. So simple, simple steps like that to not only protect your home, but be respectful to your neighbors and those in your neighborhood because those can be flying projectiles and can pierce homes, windows, and vehicles. It can be quite destructive. So just be reasonable, be realistic with your property. And this is not just for homeowners. This is business as well. You see a lot of these sandwich boards out and signage and things of that nature. So again, be prudent, be proactive and be purposeful with your actions today to help all of us get through this unscathed. What should folks do if they lose power? Well, there's a variety of opportunities. One, if you've got a generator, make sure you're practicing safe generator operation. And that is available on our special webpage. It's available to everyone in the public, which is sjcfl.us forward slash hurricane. You can go there and find a variety of tips and tactics to get through power outages. And one of those is generator safety. You've got a generator, plus other tips with the loss of power. Of course, you can always, and an example is just a personal example. We've got a propane grill and we've got some canned goods that we plan on heating up on our grill if we need to have some hot food. So there's always options there. But go to our special webpage that I mentioned to seek information. And then also we encourage the public to call if they have any questions about any utility issues or safety issues, call our special hotline. We have a citizen information hotline that's available 247. That's 904-824-5550. That's 904-824-5550. Give us a call. Talk to us. Let us know your questions or concerns and we'll help guide you through this storm. Big question. How will residents know if and when they need to evacuate? St. John's County, along with our partners in the city of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach, will make public announcements. The easiest and simplest way that the public can stay informed with the latest information is by signing up for our instant alert. We have two platforms they can sign up for. One is St. John's Alert St. John's and they can go to that special webpage. I just mentioned sjcfl.us slash hurricane and there'll be a button there. They can sign up to get email and text notifications through our Alert St. John's Emergency Notification System or they can also sign up for our free Nixle Alerts by texting the word with no spaces S-T-J-O-H-N-S-E-O-C, that's St. John's EOC, and text that to the number 888-777. That's 888-777 and they'll get text message alerts on the latest information on any sort of sheltering, evacuations, and additional information they would need to know to get through this weather event safely. And Wayne, I guess I'm wondering this being the beginning of the hurricane season. Does this one really stand out to you? Are you scared about this one or is this one like you feel like we're going to be okay with this one? The next one who knows so? With any weather event of this magnitude, we always want to respect the possibility and potential of impacts from a weather event. We never take any weather event lightly. And again, we need everyone to be prudent and purposeful with their planning and preparation with this weather event. So not one weather event sticks out from another, we treat all with the respect that Mother Nature deserves and has earned. And so we're doing that again with this one. Wayne Larson, St. John's County Director of Public Affairs. Wayne, thanks so much for calling in today. Thank you for the opportunity to tell our story. Happy safe, and we'll talk to you soon.