Preparedness, a phone call and a warning to look to the skies. Hurricane Éric approaches.

After last year's hurricane hit St. John, I had sworn that  I'd be prepared for the next hurricane season.  I had put off the upgrades to the Wireless transmitter and generator and we had paid for my laxity with much damage.

 Not this year.  I looked over my new equipment in the attic with much joy.  It had been late to arrive, some of the components being shipped from far away Caledon with some additional apparatus that was originally of Seraph City origin. I only had just finished the final installations, though it had been ready at half power (still more than last year) last week.  But it was worth the expense and time.  This hybridized transmitter ought to be able to reach such far away lands as Cala Mondrago, Babbage, Caledon, Europa Wulfenbach, Winterfell, perhaps even Bay City, the Blake Sea, or Neufreistadt.

I decided to temporarily put the operator station near my desk with the telegraph key.

That should work well enough, for the time being. As I walked past the clock and barometer, which showed a "change" reading, the telephone rang.

Allo?

Ah, yes, Miss Creeggan of St. John?  Weather Bureau here, we've received some reports of heavy tropical storm activity reported via Mondrago, and vessels under way to the south of St. John. So do keep an eye on the sky, that's a good girl. 

"Merci, M'sieu, will do." I replied to the obvious dolt who didn't know better than to condescend to me.

As I hung up the phone, the telegraph began chattering away feeding the paper tape and radio began squawking on the St. John Corsairs frequency.

Allo St. John, This is Corsair Capitaine , reporting a très mal storm 'eading Nord.  Navigateur thinks landfall will be . S'il vous plaît préparer, repeating land fall in 4 days estimate.  If my eyes are right, it looks like a ouragan. if you can hear this, but avec la grâce de Dieu, you will.

I rushed to the transmitter and replied:

"Ms. CC at St John here, transmission recieved, bless you Corsair!  4 days warning! Mon DIEU, 4 Days!  Get your ship to safety Capitaine, make port at Cala Mondrago or Half Hitch dock on the Blake."

The Capitaine replied:  Je obéis mon châtelaine

 I headed outside to look at the sky.  It was beautiful, but soon wouldn't be.  4 Days, Blessed Be.

 I headed back inside to the desk to check the list of this years Hurricane names, ah, this one would be "Éric", with the accent mark. Time to send some messages out, THIS time it would do some REAL good... 4 DAYS warning, thank the Goddess.

STEAMLANDS UNION TELEGRAM
SELENA ANANSI WINTERFELL
MOSSEVENO TENK NEW BABBAGE
TOTALLUNAR ECLIPSE STEELHEAD
DESMOND SHANG CALEDON
LUCIEN BRENTANO MARIKESH MONDRAGO
KLAUS WULFENBACH EUROPA WULFENBACH
HURRICANE ERIC APPROACHING ST JOHN LANDFALL IN 4 DAYS REQUEST ASSISTANCE ADVISE HEAVY CAUTION
MS. CC CREEGGAN FOR GABRIELLE RIEL 

I then realized that I might make good use of that air raid Siren I picked up on the Iron Cloud.  Sandbags, I'm going to need more sandbags.  I returned to the Telephone and key and spread the word to the good people of St. John.  We'll see how tough that Hurricane will be when we can prepare.