Dry scrub land, 33 gorgeous beaches, turquoise water, a sleepy town and sunshine is what you'd see upon coming to Anguilla, a tiny (36sq mi) Caribbean island in the British West Indies. With hurricane Omar approaching the flurry of activity is unlike anything I've seen here before in my 2 1/2 years living here. The lines at the ATM, gas stations and grocery stores are hours long and most ATM's have run out of cash, the stores are out of batteries and kerosene. People all over the island are installing hurricane shutters or are boarding their houses shut with Omar, currently a severity 1 hurricane, expected to make landfall tonight. The sun was never visible today with the cloud cover growing darker by the hour but until just a few minutes ago there was barely a breeze and no rain, which has meanwhile began to cover the island. The sound of airplanes has ceased with the last private jet having left the island earlier today, all commercial flights have been canceled and all ferries have stopped operation early this morning. All schools and businesses shut down at 9am and power is expected to be lost shortly, which means project "eat all perishables" will commence shortly. I'm having ice cream for lunch, what about you? (Franziska is an IT consultant, a Swiss native and moved to Anguilla with her four kids and 10 suitcases 2 1/2 yeas ago. Live hurricane updates and observations are available at http://twitter.com/franziskatanner)