Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Pro: 
- There is plenty of time to get the house boarded up, buy water and food.
- They boost the economy (water, gas, hotels, food, etc).

Hurricane Con:
- Duh, they cause an insane amount of damage.
- They are disruptive to our lives, way of life, and livelihoods. 
- It can feel like an eternity of time passes.

Obviously, these are not complete lists. They are my snarky thoughts as I am feeling them at the moment. I am coming out of my hurricane hole. Irma put me in a funk. This felt like the longest storm - and I was around for all the 2004-05 hurricanes and went without power for weeks! Irma drained me mentally, emotionally. She stressed me out.  

I should not complain. I know that. We made it through unscathed. I don't even know how or why. I am still shocked we never lost power. Our house suffered no damage. The only thing in our world to take a huge hit was our bank account. I am eternally grateful for this. 

Let me share our hurricane experience with you. Everyone's is different. And if you are not a Floridian, you may be wondering what it's like. So here it goes: 

Sunday (Labor Day weekend)

I am vaguely aware of some disturbance in the tropics. Actually, by this point Irma was a cat 5. But she was still so far out. I ran into Publix to grab water and ice for the boat... As I was walking to check out, I thought Maybe I should buy extra water, just in case. Nah. 

Sunday continued with very little conversation or thought directed toward Irma. We had a marvelous time on the boat with friends. 

Monday (Labor Day)

Stu spent the better part of the morning in the attic. Our TV in the family room did not have cable running to it because the builders put the cable on the exterior wall. Clearly men designed this... any woman would have pointed out that the interior wall is not big enough to put furniture on. But I digress. Back to the cable. Stu was running it because

Duh. Football season. 

So yay! Now we can watch cable channels in a  room other than the master. 

The news tells us that the hurricane has us in her sights. We are in the cone. The dreaded cone. And although we are several days out, I think it might be time to grab some essentials. 

And Publix is OUT OF WATER. 

I am astounded by this. Truly. We are nearly a week away from a possible hurricane and already there is no water. So I get the next most essential supply: toilet paper. And paper towels. 

Tuesday

I stopped at Publix on my way home from dropping the kids off to school. Thank goodness I went then. My Publix was PACKED! I snagged one of the last 4 remaining carts and headed right over to the water. I was able to get a few jugs. 

I did not overload my cart with water. I only took what I thought would be the minimum for my family of 4. My mom suggested I get Britta pitchers and filter water ahead of time and store it in pitchers. Excellent idea Mom! 

After I dropped the water off at my house, I headed to Home Depot for some propane. Recently I picked up a gas grill from Target for $40 (seriously, killer price). But I had yet to get gas for it. And at this point, the grill was still in the box in our garage. 

Home Depot was BUSY. But I managed to buy 2 propane tanks. And a really kind gentleman helped me lug them to my car. 

Next up was Target. Any excuse to go to Target is usually good by me. I picked up my first Pumpkin Spice Frap of the season. It was DELICIOUS.

My mission for Target was to pick up a Britta pitcher and some containers to store my filtered water in. Other than that, I just meandered 

around looking for things that would keep the kids busy and entertained, grabbed some yummies (see my Little Debbies and donuts), and picked up 2 flashlights (batteries included). 

Then I topped off my car at the WaWa. 

Wednesday - Friday

These days are kind of a blur. By Wednesday, we were 90% sure Irma was headed our way. Stu worked from home, but the closer the weekend came, the fewer calls he received. Stu spent the days prepping the house: assembling the new grill, cleaning up and rearranging things in the garage, hanging shutters (ours and many neighbors). We hung all the shutters except for the sliders... those we kept off until Saturday morning. Having the house closed up flares my slight claustrophobia and pushes me into panic mode. So I like to keep them off as long as possible. 

I made many more trips to Publix and Target. My last trip was Saturday morning - to Publix - to grab fresh bakery yummies and some veggies. 

I prepped our "dry box" (as my sister calls it). This plastic container houses all of our most important papers and documents. This is the box to grab and throw in the car if we need to make a quick getaway. 

Speaking of running, Stu and I talked in length about whether we should leave or not. It's stressful trying to make the "right" call. If we leave, will we be able to get back? Where are we going to go? Irma is enormous! If we stay, will we be ok? Are the kids going to be terrified?

Our decision was made when Stu found a generator at Home Depot. We felt fairly confident that we would be able to weather the storm in our newly constructed concrete block home. Then the track shifted ever-so-slightly toward the west. And we felt better about not getting a direct hit from a cat 4-5. But equally as concerned about taking the brunt of the wind (the northeast side is typically the worst). 

But (as my Dad kindly reminded me on Friday morning), I made my bed and now it was time to lie in it. 

We expected the weather to deteriorate quickly on Saturday, so we went out to dinner on Friday night. Stu and I thought it'd be nice to get the kids out of the house for a bit of fun. 

Saturday

As I said, I was anticipating the weather to be seriously terrible. But Irma seemed to enjoy Cuba quite a bit. And she was taking her sweet time getting to Florida. 

We kept the slider shutters off until just after dinner. It was essentially a normal Saturday - except that we did not go anywhere, and it was nearly impossible to find a good football game to watch.

We kept busy around the house with random chores and activities. Like putting together my new desk! 

Isn't it cute? It's from Wayfair. 

Sunday

Actually, this starts late Saturday night for us. 

Stu and I put Riley's mattress on the floor in our room. Hurricanes are LOUD. The wind makes strange, creepy noises. And we knew the kids would feel more comfortable and sleep better in our room. 

As the feeder bands were rolling in, they brought tornados (or threats of tornados). Stu and I quickly cleared out our closet, dragged Reagan's mattress in and made a safe room. It's a good thing we did, too. The kids and I spent a fair amount of time in it on Sunday. There was a few hour stretch where Steve Weagle was calling for residents in our area to get in their safe rooms. 

On our first trip in (pictured above), both kids were so nervous. Immediately after entering one said "Oops, excuse me." Then the next, "Excuse me too." Poor nervous tummies. Poor Mommy's nose. 

That was pretty much how it went:

-Hang out in the family room
-Watch the news/weather channel exclusively
-Listen to Riley complain about wanting to watch Captain Underpants on the big tv
-Eat. Eat all the food.
-Run to the safe room
-Send kids to the safe room
-Hear yelling from the safe room for Mommy to come join

I fell asleep very early on Sunday night. I think the week of stress and preparation had finally kicked my butt. I slept like a rock. 

When we woke up on Monday morning, the storm was pretty much out of our area. We contacted family and friends to see how everyone did. Most were without power, but no one we spoke to sustained physical damage - except one of my sisters. A tree broke off and fell on her roof. 

I need a vacation. A vacation from the emotional stress. These things are so exhausting. Who's with me?