Hurricane Irma

Unfortunately, in Florida, there is a hurricane season. It lasts from June 1 to November 30, and everyone here is used to it. So used to it that Floridians do not take threats too seriously unless one speaks at least of a category 4 hurricane.

Florida and Jacksonville were hit by Hurricane Matthew last year, and while some are barely getting to the end of their reconstruction, Irma arrives. Hurricane category 5 when in the islands, Irma falls back to a category 4 hurricane before hitting the south of Florida, but being 500 km wide, impossible to escape it.

We are lucky not to be in an evacuation zone, so we are mainly preparing for days without power and/or stuck home.

The watchword: get prepared and stock up.

Flashlights, batteries, cans of food (and a manual can opener), snacks, plenty of water and drinks.
Fill the tub with water to continue flushing the toilet. Have enough toilet paper, as well as wipes and dry shampoo (life saver).
Charge tablets, laptops, e-readers, portable game consoles, mp3 or anything else that will keep you busy a little bit, and especially mobile phones. Get a radio that works with batteries to keep abreast of events.
Renew your prescriptions/check that you have enough medicines to go through a week.
Scan important documents and send them to yourself by email.
Take pictures of all the rooms of the house and valuable possessions.
Cut the sick trees on your property because they will not resist, and insurance will not pay for the damage they will do on your house!
Fill up your car with gas in advance (because the pumps are quickly empty!), in case of a last-minute evacuation order.
With a bag ready for the same reason.
Write a love letter, BECAUSE WE NEVER KNOW.

On Sunday evening, a little before 9 pm, we lost power at home. Since I have a fair fear of wind that goes back to childhood, I really had to reason and above all to occupy myself, to think about something else. In the light of my MacBook, I finished what I was doing when the power break occurred, and I went to bed. I managed to fall asleep but the violence of the wind woke me up at around 3 am, and I could not go back to sleep. I remained lying down in bed, but with my headphones on and music loud and cheerful enough to cover the noise to a maximum. It was more effective than I thought, and I stayed calm. I even ended up sleeping an hour or two around 6 am.

The next day – and the following days, we checked out the damages. Mainly fallen trees in our neighborhood, and power and cables lines on the ground. A few streets away, the houses were flooded. Apart from a bump on the roof of the patio due to a big fallen branch, we had no damage to be deplored! We stayed for 5 days without electricity, while the city was trying to resume its normal course. Schools and government buildings, as well as a lot of restaurants, shops etc. stayed closed. Many companies have had to wait several days to recover power as well. There was however a good organization regarding the re-stock of food stores, completely cleaned out before the hurricane. Some areas of the city, on the other hand, will need more time to rise up.