This years odd weather in Belize.

I don't know if anyone else is hearing this IN Belize, but in the last couple of weeks the subject of this years weather has come up  a lot,and I get the distinct impression that a lot of the local populace are already preparing for the possibility of  big hurricane season.
In the Belmopan hardware store the guy said they were getting low on stock of tarps and heavy duty cable as people were already getting organized to batten everything down for the "season".  My builder has several clients requests to  add storm shutters to windows and doors.  The locals all seem to say this year the weather has been different and not even like  other el nino years.
Being so far inland this area hasn't previously been drastically affected for many many years, Same guy kindly gave me an emergency check list to be sure I had food and water and fuel for at least a week as if there was a direct  hit on the coast and/or Cayes then the inland runs out of stocks of most  essentials, also said the population of Belmopan will double or treble as all the relatives will come in from the coastal areas.  Looks like I  had better build up those canned and dried goods stores, and add a couple more spare Water bottles.  He gave me very precise instructions on how to use cable and ground links  to tie down any vehicles we have.
I do know how to check the Hurricane watch web sites  which at the moment are not seeming to be forecasting much.