This weekend, Hurricane Matthew tore into the East Coast of Florida, leaving property damage and a million Florida residents without power in its wake. This isn’t my first Hurricane. In fact, it’s at least my sixth. But Hurricane Matthew marks the first Hurricane I have faced as an adult. The experience is vastly different.
As a child, I knew the importance of filling up the bathtubs full of water. My brother and I would drag the furniture into the pool as to keep it from becoming a series of projectiles. We would go fill up gas tanks, buy water and snacks, and board up windows. However stressful this may sound, as a kid, it was actually a lot of fun. Schools shut down, and it was somehow exciting to be doing something so new and different.
As adults, we tend to carry that nostalgia of excitement into our conversations about hurricanes. We plan hurricane parties and boast about how much alcohol we stocked up on. For the past 12 years, Florida has been mainly unscathed by the force of tropical storm force winds. But something was different with Matthew. As the storm grew closer, we realized just how powerful and devastating it could be.
And then, the childhood memories that we repress start coming back. We remember Hurricane Andrew and the vacant lots that were once trailer parks just hours before. We remember seeing those homes stacked on top of concrete houses a mile down the road. We remember the lives and homes that were destroyed.
And then we panic. Stores in Orlando quickly sold out of non-perishables and bottled water. Home depot began to sell out of boards. Floridians in Central Florida haven’t had a scare like this in a long time, and many of us were on our own for the first time. There weren’t parents to hold our hands in the closet while the highest winds passed overhead.
Orlando was lucky this time. The storm wobbled to the east in the final hours of its approach, keeping the most dangerous winds oversea. However, I hope this is a wake-up call to all young adults residing in Florida as it was for me. With Hurricane Nicole looming in the Atlantic poised to strike, we must be more prepared to keep ourselves safe when tropical systems hit. We cannot afford to be caught off-guard.