A Note About Hurricane Dorian and The Mane Land

Hello, Mane Landers. Unfortunately, we’ve got another major storm bearing down on our area. In recent years I’ve been writing posts like this one ahead of hurricanes to keep you informed about how the weather may affect our coverage of Orlando City’s teams. With Dorian approaching our state, it’s time to do that again.

It is our hope that everyone remains safe as Hurricane Dorian passes through the areas in which many of you (and us) live.

With a powerful storm bearing down on the Sunshine State, we are always affected. The Pride has already postponed the match against Washington, so our club has already been affected, but it’s important for us to get through the next few days as best we can, even if we aren’t always thinking about soccer during times like this.

The weather is undefeated and should never be challenged.

As Hurricane Dorian makes its way north and threatens our state, I want to wish all of you the best of luck. Mother Nature is not a force to be trifled with, so we hope that everyone takes the mindset to err on the side of caution rather than take unnecessary risks. The weather is undefeated and should never be challenged.

I also wanted to drop a note regarding The Mane Land, not only for those who read us throughout the Central Florida area, but also beyond. While there is still uncertainty surrounding Dorian’s exact path, many of our writers could be within reach of the storm’s effects. Most of us are concentrated inland, but we could still find ourselves without power, internet, and/or cell service soon. Some of our staff members live in the more vulnerable areas along the Atlantic coast, where flooding could be severe and winds will likely be much more severe.

When The Weather Channel sends people to your area to broadcast about the storm, you definitely take notice.

The safety of the TML staff is obviously of paramount importance to me. I urge all of our staff to take appropriate precautions, including — should they deem it necessary — evacuation. I urge everyone to be wherever they’re going to be by Monday evening at the latest and then stay put. As a website, we will strive to continue to function as normally as possible over the coming days.

I will personally do everything in my power (provided I have power and either the internet or cell service, or both) to maintain the site’s schedule of features with whatever breaking news we can cover over the span of the storm’s passing and beyond. However, please be aware that the site could potentially go without updates for an indeterminate period if the storm is particularly destructive and leaves us without power/internet, or with more immediate problems that must be overcome before we can even think about sitting down to write a blog post. This may be unavoidable, but we will do everything we can to avoid it.

I will try to provide updates from The Mane Land Twitter account (@TheManeLand) periodically to let people know that we’re OK as I get reports from our staff, and what the status of stories will be over the days (and weeks, if need be) to come. We hope the storm isn’t too disruptive to our daily functions but…this is a blog and it is infinitely less important than real life. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’ll do what we have to do and get back to normal as quickly as we can.

Hopefully I’ll be able to look back on this post in a few days and laugh about having published it.

But this is a two-way community, so enough about us. Where are you located in relation to the storm’s path? What are you doing to prepare for the hurricane? Are you getting out of harm’s way, or are you staying put? How are you planning to pass the time? Let us know what you’re up to in the comments section below and keep us updated on how the weather is affecting your area.

In the meantime, I’ll give you my hurricane #LifeHack:

On the last “normal” day before any big storm, order a few large pizzas. They’ll stay good even without refrigeration for a while and are delicious, even cold. That’ll keep you from having to dive into canned goods for a day or two.

Stay safe, Lion Nation.