This week was like nothing I have ever experienced before. School was closed all week because of the incoming Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic with winds of 185mph winds. It was a category five hurricane, projected to make landfall at the Florida Keys and come straight up the west coast of Florida. The predictions changed almost hourly but eventually the initial prediction would come true.

Irma came up the west coast of Florida and many towns had mandatory evacuations. Flood zones were faced with mandatory evacuations; thankfully I am in the 4th of the 5 evacuation zones. I stocked up on water and nonperishable food items.

Since I wasn’t in a mandatory evacuation zone, I chose to stay since I have pets, and the closest family I have is in Virginia. The hurricane came and went in a day.

Thankfully, by the time the hurricane reached St. Petersburg it had weakened from a category 5 to a category 2. I was in the second story of a concrete apartment building and my building didn’t sustain any damage during the storm, nor was there any flooding. We lost power for a few days and my Internet was out for over a week. We were lucky in Pinellas County compared to the southern-most counties of the west coast of Florida. Some are still without power and suffered substantial damage to their homes. My thoughts and prayers are with those in need here in Florida, down in the Caribbean, and in Texas.

It was certainly a unique experience and I was extremely fortunate to be in an area that wasn’t hit with the storm when it was at its strongest. Prior to Irma, St. Petersburg had not suffered a direct hit with a hurricane in over 60 years. This was a unique event for this area and hopefully it stays that way.

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