Every summer in Florida starts with a prayer that there is no major hurricane. I was happy as August also passed with no storms this year. Just as I was enjoying the Labor Day weekend, we got the news that Hurricane Irma has turned into a category 5 hurricane and is going to hit Florida in a week. I had absolutely no clue how to deal with this kind of situation. My friends in USA just told me to tune to local news and act as per their advice. This turned out to be the best advice which helped me throughout.
I started preparing for the storm and stocked non-perishable food, water, fruits, torch, etc. To gather these items was not easy as shops were going out of stock. We had to go early morning to shops so that we get essentials such as bread, water, and batteries.
There was lot of uncertainty about the path of Irma: whether it will hit the east coast or west coast of Florida. The state government declared a state of emergency. Mandatory evacuation orders were given for southern Florida as the first landfall was predicted to be there. Tension was building up for me.
Up until Wednesday, we were relaxed as all the models predicated its going to be on the east coast. I was following the local news channel. People in Tampa also started evacuating. News reporters mentioned on Wednesday evening this is the right time to evacuate if you want to. I was clueless about what to do. We just checked flight tickets but the prices were really high. One of my friends told us about some airlines offering cheap tickets for people trying to evacuate at the last moment, but Sachin was firm not to evacuate, so we remained calm. Thursday morning news update showed that path moved little towards west with lots of uncertainty. We checked the flight tickets again but by that time all flights were sold out. But we did not panic as the hurricane was predicted to go over land and its severity reduced by the time it hit Tampa.
Friday was the worst day. The morning update showed Irma has gained speed and it has shifted more to the west. Mandatory evacuation orders were given to the coastal area of Hillsborough county. (which is my county). Now the tension started building. Sachin was continuously following news and I was working since I had to complete my deliverables on time. Evening update was scary showing a continuous shift to the west. One model predicated chances of a second landfall in Tampa Bay from the west coast. I was clueless what to be done. I started asking opinions of my friends. They were equally clueless. I called up one of my American client colleague for guidance. She said she will decide to evacuate or not after the 11 pm update. The 11 pm update was more scary. I told Sachin we will evacuate next morning and go to a hurricane shelter. Hurricane shelters were going to open 8 am on the next morning. After making our bag ready for evacuation with all important visa documents, some clothes, and food items, we went to bed. After a few minutes, my friends called up and said they are evacuating to Atlanta (North of Tampa in the state of Georgia) and asked whether we want to join them. And we happily joined them. We got just one suitcase and our laptops and started our journey. To decide at this time to evacuate was also risky as there was lots of traffic jam, gas stations were out of fuel, and there was a high chance that we get stuck on road when the storm hits us.
Bhagwan ka nam leke sab nikal pade. It took us 12 hours to reach destination which normally takes 7-8 hours. We did not have a place to stay in Atlanta when we left. We had one number of Art of Living volunteers somebody had shared on Facebook. They were volunteering to provide accommodation for hurricane stranded people. We contacted them, and in few minutes they replied with an address for us to go to. Saturday morning 6 am we reached Georgia. We started to look for hotel accommodation near the city. Most of the hotels were booked, and the available placed were getting filled before we could book them. Luckily we got one room in a shared house on Airbnb. The owner was offering it for free of cost to hurricane affected people.
We reached at Atlanta on Saturday Afternoon. The room was good, and the owner, Wenwen, was very helpful. She had two dogs. The dogs were extremely friendly. The restaurants and grocery shops were nearby the house so we could manage our stay at ease.
Sunday night the hurricane was going to hit Tampa Bay with a wind speed of 110 mph. We were following live updates on our news channel online and praying for our homes to be safe. We woke up Sunday morning to know that all is well in our community. So were happy about it. Now we had to plan our way back to home. Hurricane Irma had turned to tropical storm and it was heading towards Atlanta. So we decided to start our journey back to home on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, we checked flight tickets, but Tampa airport was not operational. We were lucky to get bus tickets to Tampa on the same day. Very soon even bus tickets were sold out. The bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm. We planned our day accordingly. Just before leaving for the bus, we called the bus station to check if the bus is on time and they informed us that the bus service is suspended for Florida and won't be operational until weekend. We cancelled our tickets and again started for looking out for other options. Just then Tampa airport became operational and we could book flight tickets for the same night. Though we got tickets, we were not sure we will fly back until we get the boarding tickets. At 11 pm, we landed in Tampa and reached home half an hour later. We were happy to see our home in the same state as we left.
Although the entire week the life was tough but it did not feel that bad as there were many helping hands. The help and understanding offered by everyone was very overwhelming. I am falling short of words to express it. And I am highly impressed by the disaster management in USA.
