And the good news keeps rolling in...

Alert 2 doesn't sound as scary (for an American girl) as it should. Category 4, Code Red, Terror Alert Level Severe (Red) - these things immediately stop me in my tracks. Alert 2, when hearing it, just doesn't have that same affect. However, seeing theposters in every storefront window and the various warnings about the next 2 days makes Alert 2 hit home.

We could be in big trouble here.

They've evacuated much of the Old Town and relocated the residents to Villa Adriana and Padre Semeria. They've been working around the clock, as I've written, to clear the debris out, by we are humans and can only do so much. The damage is so severe, it's impossible to get to all of it in a week. Several streets in the Old Town haven't been worked on enough for example, Via Buranco, which was evacuated totally. Vernazza

was evacuated as well, but the whole town. This means that even a moderate amount of rain has the capacity to destroy everything. The water has no way to drain and nowhere to go. It's not safe for people to be there, so they've been moved into the New Town and up here on Semeria with us, where, I can't stress enough (this is for you, mom) we're safe. Also, thanks to the Red Cross hearing my ongoing "salad and vegetable" prayer, we're covered for quite a while as our delivery of food today consisted of a mountain of produce. A mountain of stuff in general, as most people noted, somberly, that we might not be able to get anything for a few days. We might not even be able to leave our houses.

In addition, we're restoring to normal disaster protocol, which I'm glad to know is global. Carry all medicines, identification, flashlights and radios, have bottled water on hand, don't drink tap water, and, above all, if it starts to rain, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE. Again, we've done so much the past few days in terms of preparing for this, I feel only a little bit petrified. That fear isn't for our safety, but for all the work we've done and the mountain of work we still need to do. I can't imagine adding more to that pile. We just need time to breathe and recover, and I really don't know if we can handle this happening again, especially when we're still digging out the first disaster.

We had internet throughout the last storm, so I feel confident that we will still have it this weekend. It's a quiet Friday morning here of my neighbors and I popping our heads out on the terrace to look at the sky. The rain is supposed to start at 4 and continue through Sunday morning. The wind, however, right now, is very strong, and though there is a bright sun peeking through the grey sky, this wind and the black clouds in the distance are indications of what is to come.

Again, say a little prayer for us here in Monterosso.