Cyclone Alfred in Stuff

Waiting for this cyclone to strike has been a bit tedious, tbh.  It's not really helping my anxiety.  I mean, I think I'm prepared as I can be with water and staple foods.  My immediate plan is to hibernate in my bathroom if it gets scary, with my secondary plan to move to a lower level in the building's staircase if my windows blow in.  They are floor to ceiling windows, so, not small, and I can't imagine it will be pleasant if they *don't* manage to withstand the force of the wind, which has been up to 155km/ph out on the neighbouring islands, many of which have been evacuated.  However, I believe those islands may be helping us, as the cyclone is now predicted to move to a category 1 cyclone before it gets to me, instead of a category 3 lol.  Phew.  I hope that is at least true.

But yeah, the damn thing is moving at 7km/ph.  SEVEN!  How the hell can air move that slow?  And with all that wind pushing it??  Blows my mind.  The damn cyclone was meant to hit us yesterday, and now, because it's moving so slowly, it's now meant to strike tomorrow morning, around 8am.  I imagine the wind will probably wake me up in the morning.  I've closed up everything in the apartment, and drawn the blinds in my room.  Hopefully that would be enough to catch any initial glass shards, but I'll be very surprised in the windows break.  I feel like the buildings across from me may just be high enough to act as good enough wind-breaks, although there is an opening between those two buildings that a fair bit of wind can go straight through.  It's 9:10pm as I write this, and I can't hear anything outside.  There was a guy doing laps in the pool this morning, so he wasn't too concerned lol.  The wind has been stopping and starting a lot all day, but nothing overly strong.  I imagine conditions will change majorly by the time I wake up or get woken up.  And if the thing is this slow, I also feel like it will hang around over the top of us for quite some time also.  Thankfully, the cyclone being over land will weaken it, so I imagine that it'll be mostly a hell of a lot of rain.  800ml is expected over two days.

All the supermarkets shut by 3pm today.  My work shut at 2pm yesterday, so I got about an hour of free "disaster pay".  Apparently, we traded over $500k in three days lol.  People panic-buying, like it was Covid all over again.  We ran out of eggs and water.  Had most other things, surprisingly, as we had quite a few deliveries throughout the day.  I had to help strip bare a lot of the fridges before I left, as a precaution, in case work loses power over the next few days.  I thought we had generators, but whatever.  My store is meant to open up again on Sunday, so that'd be right - my weekend ruined by a cyclone, followed by me having to put all the stock back on the shelves when I go in on Sunday.  Just as well I'm paid by the hour.  

I invited H to stay with me if he finds himself in trouble, as I saw he's in a flood-prone area, so I'm just hoping he'll be alright or is elevated enough to avoid it.  Of course I'd love to feel like I can protect that boy, but I think he'll be alright.  I feel like the main road that runs along my building may be under water in the morning, as it tends to during king tides.  All public transport services and shops are shut now until further notice.  I'll be surprised if any are trading tomorrow.