It was a late Sunday afternoon when my family first heard the news of a hurricane forming in the atlantic. The track of the hurricane estimated hurricane Irma to reach South Florida around the weekend of September 9th. With only a few days before the storm hit, no one in my family of four knew how to brace ourselves for our first major hurricane ever.
The following monday, Governor Rick Scott announced a state of emergency to allow South Floridians to prepare for the nearing Category 4 hurricane. By the middle of the week, grocery stores were packed with people trying to buy water and non-perishables. Most aisles were clear of water by thursday.
We had gone out on Wednesday, the final day of school for that week due to the hurricane, to buy supplies and water but could only manage to buy some can foods. The uneasiness we felt grew as we wondered if we would actually be able to obtain what we needed before the storm hit.
Fortunately, by Friday, we had found what we needed to survive if the power went out for a few days. Now, we could finally concentrate on protecting our first floor condo which was prone to flooding if the raining got bad enough to pass our two inch tall threshold.
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The thought of not having wood to protect our home had us all worried. Specially after the new projected path of Irma on friday had the now category 5 hurricane hitting us straight on. Thankfully after initially only having one plank to cover two sets of balcony doors, a neighbor helped us out by giving us enough wood to cover both sets of doors and even helped screw it down.
Although we eventually got help from our neighbor, we had been anxious because prior to having secured our glass doors, we had gone out to get sand from a family friend and during this time the neighbor who had promised to help had come by the house and found no one home.
When we arrived from picking up the sand, the neighbor was taking a break because he had been helping others around the community. My mom and dad were panicking after not hearing from the neighbor in a while and my mom and dad started to argue because my mom suspected that he might have given the wood to someone else after not finding us home. Thankfully that was not the case.
We picked every cable off the floor and secured our home before heading over to my aunt’s second-floor apartment, where we would be spending our time during the hurricane. We initially considered looking for a shelter but we decided to spend our time together with my cousin and aunt due to the possibility of flooding and because we did not want to lose communication if the power gave out.
We started heading out to their apartment early on Saturday and the wind was already starting to get rough. While putting our belongings in the car, it began to drizzle and the wind shut the car door for me. Waiting for our parents to come out of the house when they made sure to pick up any forgotten items turned out to be terrifying. My sister and I hated how it felt to be in the car while a storm was near. The heavy drops of rain that landed on our car made the situation a lot worse as we sat in complete silence; the only other sound being the harsh wind.
We called our parents twice in a panic as the trees started to shake more and it was getting close to being midday, which was said to be when the hurricane would start hitting the Florida Keys. We made it to my aunt’s apartment. Safe. Well that is what we thought until we saw that the room we would be sleeping in had a window that was not stable and was not secured.
We had wanted to tape it but the tape we had brought from home was nowhere to be found. We called a neighbor who lived in an apartment upstairs and got enough tape to put on the window. However, the problem was still there: the window was shaking and some water would most likely get in. My dad did what he could with two small planks and partially secured the window.
It was late Saturday and the wind had started to pick up more; we could hear the palms of a tree hit the shaky window. My sister and I had napped in that room but after the slams of the tree against my aunt’s window got worse and what sounded like a crack on the window, we both sprinted out of the room. My dad was confident he would be fine if he slept in the room if the storm was still not as close to us as it would be when it hit Naples. My mom, sister, and I slept in the living room.
We woke up again around 6 on Sunday to hear the most ominous sound; it was a hollow sound that left the windows shaking and my heart racing. We were hoping for the best for those who lived in the Keys and in Naples. The wind was bad where we were, we did not want to imagine what what going on over there. Even worse, we did not want to imagine what would happen if it would have hit us as a category 5 instead of a category 3.
If I looked out the window, it seemed as if the sky had become pure white, the wind was so strong all we could see was white and blurs of green. We distracted ourselves watching a movie. Then the power gave out. We sat in the couch in silence as the storm raged on outside and the heat started to get to us. We tried sleeping but the hot apartment made it almost impossible. My cousin threw a blanket on the floor and slept there because the floor was cold.
After two or three hours, we heard people in the hallway and went out to look. We saw many fallen trees everywhere and the ground was made up entirely out of leaves. My cousin’s dog, May, took this time to run in the hallway and we ran with her. Although being cooped up in hot apartment with the angry wind targeting the balcony doors and windows was not the best experience, this had to be one of the highlights.
Almost six hours later at around 9:00 pm the power came back. Neighbors all around us were so happy you could hear yells coming from all the separate buildings. We heard that the water had gotten in some apartments through the windows and my aunt’s was no exception, although, it was not as bad as others. However, the roof seemed to show signs of water damage that came from the apartment above us.
The damage done could be seen monday morning. Trees were uprooted, blocking the streets and sidewalks, and leaves were still flying around. The tent in my aunt’s apartment complex’s tennis court flew off and at home the tent above the mailboxes flew off as well. Also, we saw that the football field of a school that was right behind where we live had completely flooded.
Thankfully nothing too bad happened around us but we knew we were lucky because areas near the coast got flooded and suffered major damages. After having experienced my first major hurricane, I cannot say i would ever want to see another. The only good thing that came out of experiencing a hurricane was seeing how communities help each other during times of need. That said, Hurricane Irma will forever be remembered as it is the most powerful hurricane to hit the Atlantic since 2007.
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