Hurricane 🌀

I am reflecting on Hurricane Irma, the only other hurricane I have lived through since moving to Florida, as Hurricane Ian approaches. At that time I was still married. This time around I have been single for 4 years. We evacuated to the panhandle then. Today my girls and I are riding it out in place at the townhouse I bought after my divorce, with all 5 of our pets, one puppy, two kitties, a Beta fish & a fluffy little white hamster.

I noticed after Hurricane Irma how the winds of a Hurricane can blow away that which no longer serves. For me it clarified that my 20 year marriage had come to its end. Within 8 months I was divorced and on my own for my first time in my adult life.

After Irma I developed a hurricane plan that involved leaving town and only returning when power returns. I did this once in 2019, leaving with my kids to shelter with a friend in Minnesota. That hurricane (Dorian) petered out. But the tricky thing about an evacuation plan is that you really don’t know until the last minute. The last place I want to be is out on the road in the line of storm fire with the potential of running out of gas.

So…here we are, my two girls (10 and 12) and I hunkered down with our pets. I had considered evacuating by flight, exploring various options, band had made arrangements for my ex to take the puppy and for him to bring kids to check on the other pets. But I was returning from Mexico late at night two days before the storm and everyone I was talking to and traveling with was planning to stay. Once you decide you are kind of bound to that. In this case, the strength of the storm and the path changed so that now we are expecting landfall of a category 4 hurricane pretty directly within the next hour.

I spent much of the day yesterday charging devices, cooking food, filling basins with water and bringing in my lanai (patio) furniture. We are as ready as we can be. At the time I write we still have power.

Last time, our first hurricane since moving to Florida from Denver, I remember the back and forth leading up. We had no pets at the time which makes it a bit easier to evacuate. Just like everything else in my married life I delegated all decision making to my husband. He studied the weather and came up with recommendations. These varied from moment by moment from evacuating first thing in the morning, then suddenly pulling the trigger to leave at night, driving through the night on back roads and arriving in Panama City for breakfast. The whole time we were there at a nice Holiday Inn resort I was so worried because at the time our livelihood was comprised of 6 rental houses which happened to be situated in the direct projected path of the hurricane. These houses were not only our family’s source of income but our entire college fund and retirement. I would go down to the gym in morning and watch the coverage and feel so nervous and helpless. Not one of those houses was covered by insurance. Our everything could have been decimated. Fortunately that did not happen. But the fact that it was a distinct reality woke me up. The winds of change began to blow in my life, pushing me to question my happiness and potential of life.

This time around I feel empowered taking shelter in my own house, tucked away with two of my kiddos and the pets I’ve acquired for them. I know I have done everything within my power to secure our safety, except possibly installing our shutters which was simply beyond my physical ability and my handyman who lives in the same neighborhood said it would not be safe to install in the rain and his family does not have theirs up either. It makes me happy to watch my girls peacefully playing with their cats and snacking while we wait. My older girl and I had a conversation about how God is in charge of the storm and He made us so what do we have to fear.

In short, this hurricane underscores the greatness of peace and strength I feel since being a woman on my own.