It’s starting to look as though Ernesto is running out of steam. Cuba apparently beat it up pretty badly (I always find it weird, and frustrating given that it’s hard and unpleasant to visit under the current regime, that while Florida and the Bahamas are flatter than pancakes, Cuba–just a couple hundred miles away–has these several-thousand foot, presumably scenic mountains).

Anyway, it’s barely a tropical storm, and will take a long time to reorganize in crossing the Florida Straights, so the expection now is that it will come ashore as a tropical storm, rather than the one or two hurricane that was predicted this morning. It’s still headed right at us, though. I’m now debating whether to shutter. I’ll still have time to do it in the morning, when we’ll have a better idea what’s going on.

[Update a few minutes later]

I should note, in deference to the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic, that this storm may still have its say. I hope that they get off as lucky as it looks as though Florida will, but the models for them don’t look as optimistic for them right now.