June 1st marks the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season.Across Florida local communities and television stations have been holding seminars and hosting television shows to help residents prepare. PSA’s run day and night about the upcoming storm season.
Once a storm forms, regular updates on the storm’s threat and potential are made. Should one get close those updates come hourly and them even more frequent. While some stay glued to their television to see what is going on others choose to ignore them, complaining that it is too much noise.
In 2017 Hurricane Irma affected most of the state. For many it was their first brush with a big storm. Here is the story of one such person…
I sorta knew there was a storm coming. The weather guy had been yapping about it for days. I never understood why they start talking about it so soon. They don’t know where it is headed, so why get folks all riled up? Wait until it is close enough that you can be sure where it is headed. It just make sense.
Anyhow, the boss decided to close the office early. There were only a couple of us that showed up anyway. The family men had all taken off over the weekend. I guess it was some kind of holiday I did not celebrate? We made sure the computers were all backed up and that they were off the floor. We even covered them with plastic garbage bags. Like that would help. Then he sent us all home to make final preparations. Final preparations? Was I supposed to start making preparations? Why didn’t anyone tell me?
On the way home I decided to stop by Publix after hearing on the radio that the storm was now headed straight for us. When did that happen? I watch the news. Sometimes. But I turn it off when they start with the hourly updates. Yeah, yeah. Storm. Heard it. Shut up already.
You’d think they would have warned us a bit sooner.
The store was a shambles. Long lines at the checkouts, people running around like it’s the end of the world. What is wrong with them? They should have stocked up on hurricane supplies days ago.
There was no water to be found. Nor milk, beer or wine. Canned goods were pretty much wiped out as well. I finally found some prune juice and a couple cans of octopus. As an aside I do not recommend the combination unless you are a bit backed up. In that case I suggest you try it. You will clean out stuff you ate when you were still in diapers. I also scored a couple cans of tuna and a jar of peanut butter.
I was the last customer to check out. Well, second to last. There was some lady screaming at the manager about how someone stole a couple cans of tuna and a jar of peanut butter out of her cart. I hurried back to my car. It was starting to rain.
On the radio they were telling people that if they were not already out of town that it was time to hunker down. I hate that term. Anyhow I decided to swing by the home improvement store to get some stuff. They were getting ready to lock up and I had to convince the guy at the door that I knew exactly what I needed and would only be a minute.
There was no plywood of any size, shape or grade to be found. Instead I got some cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, string and double sided carpet tape. That should work.
Back home I started to board up the house. Well, cardboard and bubble wrap it. The wind was starting to pick up and the boxes started to fly. Not that it mattered. The rain kept the carpet tape from sticking to anything. This was not going to happen I decided as I sat on the toilet (seriously, octopus and prune juice do not play well together) that it was time to hit the road.
There was nobody on the roads which was a blessing as the wind and rain made it hard to keep the car in one lane. The guy on the radio said both I-75 and I-95 north were parking lots. What’s wrong with people? If they wanted to get out of Florida they should have left days ago. Don’t these idiots plan ahead? I would take alternate routes to get around the traffic. Squalls were passing through the area now, bringing heavy rain and strong gusts of wind. One of them was strong enough to push me off the road into a ditch. I called 911 and was told I would have to wait. Sustained winds were too strong. Emergency vehicles would not respond. What? What was I supposed to do? Just sit at home?
I sat in that ditch as the wind howled and the rain fell. Water started to trickle into the car as the ditch filled with water.
Why didn’t anyone tell me it would be like this?
