Hendricks Homecenter employees Will Colley and Charles Pelton have been working out - about 20 pounds at a time.

The pair have loaded about 2,000 sheets of plywood for customers preparing for Hurricane Ivan.

Hendricks still had plywood available around noon on Wednesday.

Pike County Schools superintendent Dr. Mark Bazzell and Troy City Schools superintendent Dr. Linda Felton-Smith both called off school for Friday, as well as football games planned for Friday night.

Several area stores were sold out of or very low on popular "emergency preparedness' items like batteries and candles. Batteries may have been in shortest supply.

"We could not find reasonably priced candles and some of the canned goods we were looking for," Marilyn Ginna of Brundidge said. "We are buying supplies, putting stuff away around the house and making sure we have everything we need."

"I couldn't find any D batteries." Ruby Collins of Troy said. "I am fixing to cook something to eat and going to get to a safe shelter."

"I couldn't find C or D batteries." James Davis of Troy said. "We boarded up the big window on the south side of our house."

"I can't find a stopper for the bath tub." Nancy Campbell of Troy said.

"We have a bomb shelter at our house so we have it ready and we boarded up the windows and cleared up the debris.

Hopefully we won't have to use the bomb shelter."

"I am having a hard time finding candles," said Ben Fletcher a senior at Troy University.

"I am stocking up on water, ham, cheese and bread."

Other residents got most of their shopping done on Tuesday.

"I bought most stuff yesterday, but I needed a few more things today," Rebecca Shipman of Troy said. "We have tied down everything outside that can't be moved into a shop or building."

"We could pretty much find everything we needed because we did most of our shopping yesterday," David Sanders of Banks said.

Insurance companies are preparing themselves for the potential claims that may come due to hurricane damage.

"We started preparing last week when we noticed that a catastrophic storm may hit the area," Johnny Witherington, president of The Witherington Insurance Group, said. "We are ready to respond to our customers. We will be open tomorrow, Friday and this weekend."

"We tried to call all of our customers just to remind the of safety tips they can use." Greg Wilkes co-owner of Flowers Insurance said. "We have gone around to our businesses that have plate glass windows and have given them tips on how to tape up the windows so they won't easily shatter."

"We will have people inside and outside, some in side taking phone calls and some out side taking pictures." he said. "I think because of Opal we are taking this more seriously."

Some businesses are sitting tight and hoping for the best.

"We our keeping our fingers crossed." Bo Carlisle owner of Paradise Home sales said. "We don't know what else to do."