My Hurricane Irma Survival Story

Hi everyone! I'm new to Daily Strength, looking for other people that survived Irma is what brought me to this support group. I wanted to share my story in hopes to help others get through the tramatic event. 

I was born and raised in Florida, I've gone through a dozen major hurricanes. When I heard Irma was coming, I wasn't phased. I knew how to prepare myself and my loved ones and knew how to hunker down, little did I know that this hurricane was different. I watched as food disappeared off the shelves and gas became very hard to find a week before Irma was going to hit us. The roads became scary... people were fighting to get out of the state. My only thought was... hurriane Harvery caused the extra panic. But Florida was different then Texas... and Irma was not Harvery.

Watching the national news was not helpful at all... telling everyone we were going to get flattened by Irma and the state would disappear. Really??? Unnecessary. The local news told us specifically to not watch the national news for this reason, and they were right. Since Irma's track was going to the east, I wasn't freaking out. I've learned... you run from the flood surge, not the wind. We had hurricane shutters and were a level B flood zone. We ended up having to order canned goods on Amazon Prime! We had a generator, gas, food, shutters and portable charging devices for our phones. We... were... ready. 

Then... I woke up Saturday morning and saw the track shifted dramatically west, putting the eye of a category 5 hurricane dead over my house. I have multiple cats and a dog... my first concern was if I could save them if my roof blew off or if the house flooded. An overwhelming feeling of panic came over me, I woke my husband up telling him we had to go... now! We packed a small bag of clothes, pet supplies, and of course our furbabies. As we pulled away from the home we built less then a year ago... I cried knowing there was a real possibility that it wasn't going to be there when we got back. 

As we pulled away and headed to the interstate, another fear grew inside me. We were going to Georgia to stay with my sister, it was a 6 hour drive. Could we make it in time? Were we going to get stuck on the highway in the middle of a category 5 hurricane? Were we going to find gas? The possibility of not making it, and knownig all the hotels were booked, terrified me. I kept checking Google maps for traffic, but it was all green. Thankfully, we didn't hit any traffic on the way and only had to wait in line for gas for 30 minutes. 

I was very releived when we made it to my sisters house in Warner Robins. The next few days were rough as we waited for the storm to hit our home. Then something positive happened Sunday as the eye was just hitting Florida, the track shifted back west a little. Putting the eye to the west of my home and reduced the chances of any storm surge and lessened the impact of strong winds. Of course this wasn't good news for Orlando... As Irma continued to trample our state, our neighbors kept us informed. Our home is on a canal... and the water was gone! I've never seen anything like it. The hours seemed to go by slow as we waited for Irma to pass. 

The next morning, our neighbors informed us that our home was still standing and unharmed. The outside looked like a hurricane hit it of course. We were so very relieved and thankful, homes around us were not so lucky. We tried to get home ASAP, but the roads on the highway were bumper to bumper traffic. Traveling 9+ hours with all our animals in the car was going to be rough, so we stayed at my sisters and let the rush of Floridians get back home first. We watched hundreds of electric company trucks, gas tanks and army trucks leave Georgia and head to Florida. I sight I've never seen, but made me feel better knowing help was on the way. 

By Thursday, the traffic on the highway cleared up and we were able to leave. Pulling up to my house and seeing it still standing for myself was a feeling I can't describe. I'm so thankful for all the support and help Florida received from everyone outside the state. Were slowly getting back to normal, my heart goes out to the people that were effected the most. We will forever and always remain #floridastrong