Do you live in South Florida? Did you go through Hurricane Irma? Read all about our adventure through Hurricane Irma in The Joys of living in South Florida: Hurricane Irma Edition!
This weekend marks three weeks since Hurricane Irma passed through our area. And although our area got through it with minimal damages and most importantly, all of our friends and family were safe and sound during Irma’s chaos. I am still not feeling back to normal and I asked myself WHY?
Before we continue, I want to personally thank Verizon wireless for keeping us connected through Hurricane Irma. All the pictures you see here within were taken with my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S8. Finally, thank you for taking the time to read our Hurricane Irma experience.
Well, look let’s talk about this for one second. Yes, this is not the first hurricane I have gone through. As a matter of fact, this is my fifth hurricane. However, Hurricane Irma was a completely different experience for this mom. Irma was the first hurricane we have gone through with all three kids. And yes, we were completely prepared.
The Joys of living in South Florida: Hurricane Irma Edition
As soon as we knew that Hurricane Irma could be a potential threat for Florida, we stocked up on hurricane essentials such as can goods, water, and gas for our cars. And thankfully we did this as early as we did because by mid-week all grocery stores in our area were basically left without anything. But we didn’t stop there.
By the Wednesday before Irma was supposed to arrive in South Florida, this massive hurricane was predicted to make landfall as a catastrophic category 5, we knew that the next step was to protect our property and all its content. My husband got busy putting up hurricane shutters, let me just say that he worked his behind off for two straight days just to make sure our home was safe and sound.
While he did that, I got busy making sure of all of our laundry was done and put away, charging our backup external batteries, and safekeeping all those important documents and keepsakes we just had to protect in case our home was totally devastated. Let me just say that this last scenario is the hardest thing to swallow as we knew we will be riding the storm at home with our three children.
My Virgo-self just wanted to make sure everything we hold dear will be safe but time was ticking away and Irma wasn’t slowing down. So, we buckled down and did the best we could just like many other Floridians did during the hours leading up to Irma’s predicted landfall. As we made the last minute preparations, it was time to wait and hope for the best.
On the night of Saturday, September 9, 2017, we went through the last minute checks such as making sure we had enough ice in our freezer, lowered the air conditioner to keep the house cool until the hurricane made its way through our area, making sure the kids were bathed, and then it was time to wait. I barely sleep that night. However, around 6:30 AM on the morning of Sunday, September 10, 2017, I was woken by the sound of the wind. Irma was close and we had NO power!
That instant, I knew that my job was to keep the kids calmed and relax. To keep the kids busy, my husband gave each of them a flashlight and as we sat down around our dining room table, we just listened to the howling wind hitting our roof. I personally couldn’t wait for it to be over. Among the chaos, my trusty Verizon Samsung Galaxy S8 kept working and I was able to keep in touch with friends and family which really helped keep my anxiety in check. They were able to help us figure out where hurricane Irma was and how many more hours we had to endure her winds.
As soon as Hurrican Irma passed through our area and it was safe to venture outside, we did! We were exhausted, but happy that our area was spared. Hurricane Irma was so wide, it was almost the entire length of Florida and why it took almost the entire day to make its way through our area. Now it was time to clean up, not only did we had to take down hurricane shutters, we had a ton of yard cleaning to do. As a matter of fact, our entire neighborhood had some kind of yard work to do. Oh, and among this, we still had NO power.
However, we were lucky and our power was quickly restored and so was our internet service. But Hurricane Irma’s chaos was not over until we were able to get in touch with my husband’s parents and his brother & family to make sure that they were okay. Thankfully, we were able to connect with them the Tuesday after Irma and so that chapter in Hurricane Irma’s book was closed and we were able to breathe a sigh of relieve.
Now that it has been three weeks after Hurrican Irma, I feel that my normal is coming back. However, having gone through this experience made me realize how lucky we Floridians were. Now let’s take the time to travel down the road to recovery and once again enjoy the joys of living in South Florida.