ST. AUGUSTINE , Fla. – A group of St. Augustine residents concerned about approaching Hurricane Matthew comforted each other with a watered-down version of a hurricane party at Hurricane Patty's Wednesday night.
They are all legitimately worried about the dangerous hurricane, but they also showed their moxie by making the best of the pre-Matthew impact.
"It's a hurricane party at Hurricane Patty's," Lorri Beck said.
Beck was one of the locals in St. Augustine who tried to make the best of the situation Wednesday evening by spending time with loved ones before more pressing matters demanded her attention.
"Hurricane Patty's is a great place to come. We got lots of friends here," Markus Broadus said.
Some of the discussion played out over food and beverage, with a lot of locals saying they felt secure staying put, despite the mandatory evacuation ordered to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday for Zones A and B in St. Johns County.
"We're on this side of the intracoastal -- big difference. We're a few miles out -- big difference. But who knows?" Broadus said. "But we have people coming over and we're taking in friends and family and animals and everything. So they're coming to our house because it's the place to come."
But the restaurant itself closed once the crowd left. The owners said they are obeying the evacuation order and they did not want to put any employees at risk.
"We got water. We got gas. We filled up our tub with water for the dog. And we got our boat removed out here and put it into the St. Augustine Shipyard," Beck said.
Across the San Sebastian River from Hurricane Patty's is a marina.
The marina, which is near the south-side of St. Augustine, is a little better protected than other marinas, but many families and boat owners were still preparing ahead of Hurricane Matthew.
Sean and Elizabeth McCarthy live aboard a boat at the marina and had prepared to hunker down inside their home on the water. But late Wednesday evening, they started considering whether to evacuate.
"We're checking on or with some friends who are in the area to see if there's some options for us. But we don't know at this point. We just found out about the evacuation order just a few minutes ago and so we're trying to sort it out," Sean McCarthy said.
Other boaters at the marina were helping each other tie-up and secure their vessels.
"We live on the boat. And, really, the best thing you can do is tie-up the boat as well as you can and hope for the best. So we've got all the bilge pumps going and all the automatic switches and stuff and we just hope for the best," Sean McCarthy said.