The Calm After The Storm
There is always the calm before the storm, and the calm that follows a storm or should I say the relief after the storm has passed. I am talking about hurricane Irma that just hit Florida.
Being a Floridian for 25 years, I have encountered many, many tropical storms and several hurricanes. In 2004 we were hit with 3 hurricanes in a row, almost within weeks of each other. I had a 2 year old child then, and that was scary and difficult. Power was out for a long time each time we got hit with a hurricane.
Then it was quiet ! No hurricanes for 12 years ! Until 2016 when we were hit with hurricane Mathew. I didn't remember a heck of a lot from the past and in 2016 when we had to face a hurricane it was very, very, scary. I don't remember being so scared before. My daughter was 14 then. A far cry from the 2 year old that doesn't even remember the hurricane. This time she rode out the hurricane with me and it was scary. We lost power for a day, but we survived !
This year in 2017 hurricane Irma threatened us a good week before she actually hit! It was named the biggest most powerful hurricane in the Atlantic basin with wind speeds up to 180 mph. Certainly a hurricane that your eye was to be kept on.
Then the worst happened. Instead of circling somewhere over the ocean and dissipating, we learned that Irma was heading right for Florida, right for us. And because of the wide , big and huge hurricane, nobody and I mean nobody in Florida was to be spared .
Some fled, some stayed, but we watched and we waited.
Then Sunday came, Sunday was the day the hurricane was to hit us. It was supposed to hit us at night. What worse outcome to be ? A huge hurricane striking at night. My daughter and I hunkered down and watched the news coverage all day Sunday and into the night Sunday. The power flickered a tiny bit around 10 pm and we looked at each other and thought here it is, we are going to loose power. But a small miracle happened, we never lost power once throughout the storm ! A miracle ! My backyard neighbors and to the side of me all lost power for 2 days. But not my street ! I still don't believe it. My daughter and I stayed up until 4 am Monday morning, it seemed the worst worst was almost over and we were just to exhausted to stay awake. So we slept, and when I woke up at 9am, it was still windy but the power never went out ! By then Monday morning we realized we had made it , we were going to be okay ! We still had to endure high gusty winds until about 3 pm that Monday, but the worst was over and we had made it !
There was obviously some damage to the house as relentless 65 plus mph winds that lasted 18 hours or so, blew pieces of shingles off, and tons of tree branches scattered all over the place. Many trees had snapped in half and fallen over. We lived through tornado watches and warnings one after the other during the hurricane , I think there was about 30 or so ? very scary. The tornado watches and warnings were as a result of the dirty part of the storm passing over us. That is the right side of the hurricane. The left side is the clean side or calmer side.
So you see with this hurricane we faced so many scares, so many challenges but for some reason I was the calmest I have been in a long time. Maybe because I am learning that there are some things that are in Gods hands and being calm is the way to make it out of a hard, tough or scary situation.
And all the prayers from family and friends of course, so for everyone that prayed for us, thank you, prayers help.
Being a Floridian for 25 years, I have encountered many, many tropical storms and several hurricanes. In 2004 we were hit with 3 hurricanes in a row, almost within weeks of each other. I had a 2 year old child then, and that was scary and difficult. Power was out for a long time each time we got hit with a hurricane.
Then it was quiet ! No hurricanes for 12 years ! Until 2016 when we were hit with hurricane Mathew. I didn't remember a heck of a lot from the past and in 2016 when we had to face a hurricane it was very, very, scary. I don't remember being so scared before. My daughter was 14 then. A far cry from the 2 year old that doesn't even remember the hurricane. This time she rode out the hurricane with me and it was scary. We lost power for a day, but we survived !
This year in 2017 hurricane Irma threatened us a good week before she actually hit! It was named the biggest most powerful hurricane in the Atlantic basin with wind speeds up to 180 mph. Certainly a hurricane that your eye was to be kept on.
Then the worst happened. Instead of circling somewhere over the ocean and dissipating, we learned that Irma was heading right for Florida, right for us. And because of the wide , big and huge hurricane, nobody and I mean nobody in Florida was to be spared .
Some fled, some stayed, but we watched and we waited.
Then Sunday came, Sunday was the day the hurricane was to hit us. It was supposed to hit us at night. What worse outcome to be ? A huge hurricane striking at night. My daughter and I hunkered down and watched the news coverage all day Sunday and into the night Sunday. The power flickered a tiny bit around 10 pm and we looked at each other and thought here it is, we are going to loose power. But a small miracle happened, we never lost power once throughout the storm ! A miracle ! My backyard neighbors and to the side of me all lost power for 2 days. But not my street ! I still don't believe it. My daughter and I stayed up until 4 am Monday morning, it seemed the worst worst was almost over and we were just to exhausted to stay awake. So we slept, and when I woke up at 9am, it was still windy but the power never went out ! By then Monday morning we realized we had made it , we were going to be okay ! We still had to endure high gusty winds until about 3 pm that Monday, but the worst was over and we had made it !
There was obviously some damage to the house as relentless 65 plus mph winds that lasted 18 hours or so, blew pieces of shingles off, and tons of tree branches scattered all over the place. Many trees had snapped in half and fallen over. We lived through tornado watches and warnings one after the other during the hurricane , I think there was about 30 or so ? very scary. The tornado watches and warnings were as a result of the dirty part of the storm passing over us. That is the right side of the hurricane. The left side is the clean side or calmer side.
So you see with this hurricane we faced so many scares, so many challenges but for some reason I was the calmest I have been in a long time. Maybe because I am learning that there are some things that are in Gods hands and being calm is the way to make it out of a hard, tough or scary situation.
And all the prayers from family and friends of course, so for everyone that prayed for us, thank you, prayers help.
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