Something Wicked This Way Comes...
- Katie Rae
- Jan 7, 2018
- 6 min read
It has been exactly 122 days since Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc all throughout the tropics, it's hard to believe that it has been that long when it feels like the hits just keep coming. Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and catastrophic hurricane, the strongest observed in the Atlantic since Wilma in terms of maximum sustained winds. Also the most intense Atlantic hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina, and the first major hurricane to make landfall in Florida since 2005. Bursting through Cudjoe Key (exactly 17 miles from my home) with maximum sustained winds at 130 mph the Category 4 storm turned these beautiful islands into something out of a horror movie.
Let's go back to the beginning, the days leading up to the hurricane were some of the strangest times I think I have ever felt. I don't know how to explain it other than feeling uneasy, as though you were hiding a whopper of a secret from everyone. We all knew something was coming, we just didn't know what. The strangest part was that everyone on the island, even the tourists were so nonchalant about the whole situation. I mean I know you're on vacation but don't you watch the news or have a smartphone that is going off with updates every four seconds? We had guests at the hotel that were checking in the day that the island was going to be evacuated. That I truly believe didn't even know there was a hurricane on the horizon, and we weren't allowed to let them know about it either. That is unless, we for sure got an evacuation notice for the island. It made me almost feel shady for putting on such a performance, then a few hours later having to be the one to go out and tell them they were going to have to find a way off this island because we have started the evacuation process. The Florida Keys take 3 days to evacuate, on Day One all tourists must leave the island. Now this is a harder feet than you think it would be, within minutes of the evacuation being posted, flights were full, all rental vehicles were gone, and people had already begun to panic. I had guests paying other guests to give them a ride to the mainland, guests trying to book private charter planes (at the cost of $5800/2 people) and several guests crying because they thought they were going to die. Thankfully we successfully got each and every guest at our hotel off the island. Day Two & Three are set for Residents to Evacuate, Zones 1,2 & 3 go first (Key West-Marathon) and then 4 & 5 (Long Key-Key Largo) follow after. Now these days usually run pretty smooth, but let me tell you make sure you are prepared.
Everyone watches shows like the Walking Dead & Last Man On Earth, you know on those shows when they go in a grocery store it looks like it was ransacked by a pack of angry wolves and you can just tell something bad is about to happen. I never thought I would live through one of those moments, but I did. I have never been more afraid than I was standing in that store on Day Two, holding on to my cart for dear life as people were rushing all around me, trying to steal things from each others carts, just taking bread slices from the packages...not even grabbing the whole loaf. Aisles and aisles of empty shelves, people fighting over toilet paper. You know the moment in the movie Mean Girls when the cafeteria turns into a scene from Animal Planet...This is how I felt it looking upon these people whose primal instincts have gotten the best of them as they pillaged the store in order to get the supplies they needed to survive. As the time past we knew the island was going to run out of gas quickly, we got in the car and set out to find a gas station that wasn't run dry, we got in line and waited 1.5 hours in order to get 3.5 gallons of gas and every time we used the car we waited in that long line of distraught islanders, filling up 30 gas cans at time, just to keep that tank full.
As we were getting prepared for the storm so was everyone else on the island, shops closed down, restaurants weren't open, houses and businesses all started to board up tight. Soon Duval which normally is packed, was a ghost town. We drove down the empty street in awe, never would've thought that we would see it without a spew of drunk people on every corner. My hotel was preparing for the storm as well, I was one of the last employees to leave and sitting at the front desk with boarded up windows answering crazy phone calls about canceling reservations for December 2019 was surreal. Usually sitting at my desk I can look out the back window and see dolphins jumping in the ocean, today my view was plywood and power tools. As the day came to a close I said my goodbyes to those courageous souls who were going to brave the storm in the Mansion and we left.
Now picture this...you just got done with work on Day Three and you get home, you know it's time to go. You have packed everything in your car that you feel it's absolutely necessary that you take with you or you just couldn't live without. As you stand there staring around your house making sure you didn't leave anything of importance behind, you can't help but think you are forgetting something. Your mind is running in circles, the 'what if's' are really what kill you. What if it floods? What if the windows blow out? What if it's gone when I come back? What if I can't come back? The not knowing is what is truly scary, the actual hurricane itself I think is less terrifying. After we came to the conclusion we were ready to go, and went through our checklist for only the 900th time, we turned out the lights, got in the car, and drove away from our brand new home into the unknown.
Expecting the traffic to be bad, we were pleasantly surprised at the time of night we left at there was almost no people on the road, we chose what I would have to say was the smartest decision to take Alligator Alley towards Naples instead of going straight up like most others did. At some points during we were the only car on the road, and unlike the other direction we actually found a couple gas stations that still had some gas left! Thank god for my mother whom I called every 3 hours in the middle of the night begging her to find me a gas station that was open and that had gas because my internet didn't work and signal was quite hard to find. I mean that's what moms are good for right! We finally arrived in Orlando where we had planned to ride out the hurricane, we unpacked and napped. When we awoke we didn't have a good surprise...the storm had once again shifted course and was now headed directly for us again! With our families worried and us worried about my brand new car we chose to move up even higher. So once again we packed up all our things, got in the car and set on route to Chattanooga, Tennessee...which was the next closest hotel that was available. This drive was not quite as easy as the first one. From Orlando to Atlanta what should have taken us 6 hours took us 13. Luckily my dad was in Atlanta for a meeting and we got to stop shower and take a nap in his hotel room for a couple hours, before having to get back on the road and head to our hotel. From there what should have been less than 2 hours took about 5 to get to where we needed to be. Once we arrived we were beat, we didn't even unpack we just went upstairs showered and passed out.
Every time I had the chance I was watching the live webcams to see how the island was surviving the storm, I watched as they slowly one by one shut off because they storm was getting worse. What a weird feeling to watch live as your home is being destroyed, as you sit by at a hotel in a different state waiting to see if everything and everyone you left behind will be ok or not. A few last minute texts to the couple of friends that stayed behind on the island to make sure they were still okay and then nothing...
"There's a storm a blowin'...a whopper!" - Wizard of Oz
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