Day 2 - Friday 30 August

I woke up to look at the morning's emails to see that our travel insurers have sent us a lounge pass as our flight is delayed, currently by 2 hours.

A second email was from our property managers which included this map - 

Looks like it'll land around West Palm Beach and then veer northwards towards Orlando! Currently they say the 'eye' of the storm will pass within 5 miles of Disney

and information as follows - 

Dear Homeowners

Hurricane Dorian is a category 2 at the moment, but has the potential to grow into a major hurricane. (If it does become a Category 4 hurricane, that'll mean sustained (i.e.gusts lasting more than one minute) wind speeds of between 130 mph and 156 mph

When to prepare

According to the weather forecast if she stays on route she will arrive here Monday, but I am sure we will feel the effects here starting Sunday. We usually receive advisories to not be on the roads hours before the bad weather comes in, so we have to be prepared now!

We will be moving all patio furniture, any loose items outside the front door or in pool area and garbage bins inside your home on Friday and Saturday.

If you have guests in your house please ask them to move all loose items inside and if they need help to let us know before noon Saturday, we will gladly help them.

All guests will be either phoned, visited or a note (see attached) left if they are not home.

Our management services such as cleaning, lawn cutting, pool service will be interrupted and suspended from Saturday Aug 31st until the after the storm fully passes. This could mean that houses where guests depart over the weekend might not be cleaned by the time your new guests arrive depending on how long a possible curfew lasts. We can only apologize for this but safety has to come first. Our cleaning teams will be back on the road as soon as it is safe to do so and curfews have been lifted.

How to help your guests

Even though the TV provides guests with the list of things to buy in case of emergency, we have attached a list that you can forward to your guests.

We will send information to Homes of America Rentals guests. Sadly, supplies are already becoming short. It is hard to get gas and water now. If you have guests in transit in Florida you may want to pre-warn them that all patio furniture will be stacked up, trash cans inside garage etc. Please ask them to not move the furniture upon their arrival.

Level of communication you can expect

We understand you will be incredibly concerned about your home and guests. We will be here for them and you in the best possible way the storm conditions will allow us to be.

As we will be extremely busy from now onwards preparing for the hurricane, we ask you to keep phone lines available for emergencies only.  We will continue to email you updates along the way. You are welcome to email us with guest travel changes and updates and we will monitor these also during the course of the storm. We will endeavour to respond to your emails or text messages as soon as we can.   Should the storm severely hit us, please note we may lose power - which means we may not have cell phone power or wifi.

Travel conditions

If you have guests arriving or departing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, we expect there to be delays and changes to their travel plans. . At this point we are unsure when and if airports will be closed. During Hurricane Irma, airports were closed 12 hours before the storm hit due to the strong winds. Please ask guests to check with their airline.

We will do all the arrival and departure checks Saturday as normal.

Hurricane Curfew

If we are impacted by the hurricane, each county may enforce a curfew. This can differ from county to county. If a curfew is enforced this will mean no one is allowed on the roads the day after the storm has passed.

The county officials instruct the curfews to allow emergency crews to clear up roads where needed. (Fallen trees, large branches, etc...)

As soon as we are allowed back on the road we will be checking your villa and will report back to you. Please keep in mind, we need to check many villas but hoping to complete checks as soon as possible.

If you have any other concerns or you can't reach your guests to advise them on the above, please let us know.

Fingers crossed Dorian changes course but at this stage it's better to be safe than sorry.

Wish us luck over the next few days whilst we prepare all your homes and guests.

Thank you for your support.