My mom and I fully moved to Florida fifteen years ago, and have been lucky enough to never experience a hurricane. As intriguing as hurricanes are, I don't think that anybody truly ever wants to go through one themselves.
I came home last weekend to see my family, and news of a hurricane was starting to circulate. It reminded me of hurricane Matthew last year. It seemed as if Matthew was coming right towards my town and everybody was starting to panic. It was my first time seeing how people reacted to a hurricane warning, I was in shock. Lines for a gas station seemed to be miles long, and a trip to the grocery store took almost an hour.
When driving through my neighborhood, it seemed like nobody lived there. Each house was completely boarded up, and many driveways were empty. After shutting all of the shutters, we sat in complete darkness just waiting. I went to bed, and was expecting to wake up to an absolute mess. It was a miracle that Matthew did not go through where I live, it took a last minute turn.
It showed us how scary it can be, you don't know what can possibly happen. The weekend passed and our house went back to normal. All of our shutters were taken down, people started coming back, and the neighborhood seemed lively again.
Before I drove back to school last weekend, my mom said that she expected to see me again. I got into my car and said she was silly, I wouldn't be coming home again for a few weeks. The news of Irma was quiet at first but over the past few days has become the focus on every tv channel and social media network. My mom called me numerous times, asking me what my plans were because the storm seemed to be getting larger. I was fully prepared to handle this hurricane in my apartment until my complex sent out a mass email.
The email from my apartment complex pretty much said that they did not have any generators so if we ran out of power, we would stay out of power. It also said that there would be no maintenance crew to help incase of a problem. It took me a minute to realize that my roommate and I would be on our own, possibly without power and with no help incase anything happened. That terrified me, I would be facing my first hurricane without my family so I packed a bag and headed back home.
When I pulled onto the turnpike, there were only a few cars going south. The lane going north was bumper to bumper traffic. It was scary to see everybody trying to get out of the state while I was driving further into the state.
I have been home for three days, and have witnessed pure panic. Every gas station around my town is completely shut down due to running out of gas completely. Certain gas stations have blocked all of their entrances so people know that they really don't have anything. The grocery store is constantly restocking all of the shelves, and the lines stretch throughout the aisles.
All of our shutters are up once again, and the light from outside is only coming in through one door. Boats are lined up like sardines in marinas and along peoples front yards. The anticipation of the storm seems to be more scary than the actual hurricane that is coming. After boarding up and collecting all the needed materials, it seems like all you can do now is sit, wait, and watch this hurricane come.