'It's nerve-racking': Sask. residents brace for Hurricane Irma from afar
Regina man worries for family, Saskatoon man worries for home and friends in the hurricane's path
Saskatchewan residents with family or property in the path of Hurricane Irma are watching the storm's progress with concern.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center has predicted Irma will remain at Category 4 or 5 as it passes Haiti on Thursday, nears the Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night, and skirts Cuba on Friday night into Saturday. It will then likely head north toward Florida.
Regina's Robert Murchie is worried about family members in Florida. His father runs a swamp tour business with Murchie's stepmother and half-sister.
He has anxiously waited for hurricanes to pass through the state before, but watching this system is particularly taxing. Last August, his mother died and his stepfather died prior to that.
"They're the last part of my parenting family, so it's nerve-racking. It's stressful. It's hard to keep the emotions in," he said.
"My dad has been very positive, but none of them have really been predicted this big before."
The storm is expected to reach the state Sunday.
"I'm probably pretty calm. It's just kind of the calm before the storm," his father Rob Murchie Sr. told The Morning Edition from his home near Orlando on Thursday.
Not planning to leave
He said he has been "packing up all the little things that could be missiles" and said they've got a strong set of concrete bathrooms stocked with basic necessities should the weather become dangerous.
"If it gets to look like we're really going to get slammed, we go in there and lock the door and let whatever happens, happen," he said.
"You come outside and look and hope everything is still there."
He said the worries of family far away are the hardest to handle in the aftermath.
"That's the worst thing," he said. "Power's out, you don't have cellphone service, you don't have anything for three or four days, so everybody assumes the worst."
In 2004, Hurricane Charley lingered with sustained strong winds for 12 hours. It was "like having a tornado sit over your house and just keep spinning," Murchie said.
"That whole week was probably one of the worst weeks I've had to deal with, but it's very hard now."
Murchie doesn't plan to leave the area. He's worried he won't be able to return home immediately after the storm passes and is concerned about his business.
His son plans to make the long drive to Florida if the predictions of intense damage come true.
Turks and Caicos condo
Anthony Bidulka of Saskatoon owns a property in Turks and Caicos, and spent several years visiting the island prior to buying the condo that sits on the shoreline of Grace Bay.
The hurricane is expected to reach the island Thursday.
"There's almost sort of an odd sense of guilt, having a part-time home there, that we're not there to help," he said.
His biggest concern is the people, particularly the staff who work around his part-time home.
"To think that before they can go home and take care of their families and their homes, they have to look after ours."
They're the ones securing furniture, pulling the hurricane shutters closed, grabbing sandbags and caring for foreigners, Bidulka said.
The management company has sent him regular emails to keep him in the loop. Bidulka said guests received a harrowing message on Tuesday that told them to leave immediately, to go the airport and try to get off the island.
"That would be a shocking thing to have happen," he said.
"You're supposed to be on a beautiful holiday and all of a sudden you get this thing slipped under your door."
Bidulka isn't sure what will remain of the place he has come to know so well.
"With something like this, I don't think there's any telling what will happen," he said.
"Is your building still going to be standing? Is this going to pull off a roof? Is this going to just rip hurricane shutters off the side of a building?"
with files from CBC Radio's Morning Edition