09:44 – We’re already getting rain from the outer bands of Matthew. Half an inch (1.3 cm) overnight. Depending on Matthew’s track, we may get anything from another inch or so down to nothing. Lori just picked up the mail. Her daughter is home from UGA in Athens, Georgia to await developments. I suspect most kids from colleges near the coast whose family homes are inland and within driving distance are home for the weekend, many of them with friends or roommates whose family homes are too far away to make it practical to drive home.
We cleaned, sanitized, and dried 44 three-liter bottles, which we’ll be filling with bulk staples over the next few days. We used the double kitchen sink, with each side filled with six or seven gallons (~25 liters) of water, with dish washing detergent and half a cup (120 mL) of chlorine bleach added to each side. One unanticipated side effect was that our white porcelain sinks are now pure white. Scrubbing with abrasive detergent gets them reasonably clean, but chlorine bleach diluted one tablespoon (15 mL) to a gallon (4 L) of water gets them really clean. Our hands were also a lot cleaner than they’ve been in years. Having them in that solution pretty much constantly for an hour or two probably killed every microorganism that had been on them.
In the interest of getting to know more people in the community, I called the 4-H representative yesterday and asked if they needed volunteers. She fell all over herself encouraging me to volunteer, particularly once I told her about my background in science. The woman who actually coordinates volunteers was out of the office for a week-long training session, but she’s going to call me when she returns.