Hurricane Matthew – Preparing and Living Through the Storm

Hurricane Matthew – Preparing and Living Through the Storm

Floridians are hurricane experts. We know how to prepare. We are always vigilant. But it has been 11 years since South Florida has gone through the drill. Maybe we have become lazy. I know my wife called me lazy on more than one occasion as Hurricane Matthew began to bear down on us. We knew it was out there more than a week in advance and we began listening to our favorite meteorologists (everybody in hurricane country has a favorite meteorologist). You can tell when they get serious when they start to raise their voices a little bit, when their jackets come off, when their ties are loosened, when their voices get a bit hoarse. These are all signs that the threat is real.

Here, we were waking up for the second day of Rosh Hashanah on Tuesday. The cone of danger was clearly targeting us. My wife announced that we had to put gas in the cars immediately. The storm was still 2-3 days away. Off to services we went. She later put gas in her car. The 2:00 update had put Broward and Miami-Dade Counties under a Tropical Storm Watch, meaning within the next 48 hours we could possibly see tropical storm force winds. To seasoned veterans, that is an ordinary afternoon thunderstorm. But, Palm Beach County and north were under a Hurricane Watch. One small wobble, and the hurricane would be headed our way.

Later that afternoon, I took my daughter to the airport to go back to New York. I assured my wife that I would gas up my car on the way home because the TV news shows were showing breaking news of long gas lines all over town. Of course, I did not fill up my car. When I got home from the airport, the 5:00 update was out. The Hurricane Watch had been extended southward to the Broward/Miami-Dade County line. We would likely be hit by a hurricane within 48 hours. Now, we had to plan. My wife’s first thought was that we had to run to the bank and withdraw as much cash as possible. I sat on the couch and waited for the Vice Presidential debate. That is where I was accused of being lazy. I told her that there would be cash in the ATM tomorrow and I didn’t understand why hoarding cash was necessary. But, that is what the TV people always tell us to do, so we do it. We discussed our preparedness plan. At some point Thursday, I would move the outdoor furniture in and close the shutters. We discussed where our important papers were. The office. That led to a discussion as to how safe the office is. Therefore, I was to either scan the papers or bring them home. The only papers of any value in the office is our insurance policy, which the insurance company has and I have the agent’s number but I won’t go into that with my wife.

Wednesday morning, my alarm didn’t go off (am/pm problem Jerry Seinfeld) so we watched the 5:00 a.m. update at 5:45. We were now under a Hurricane Warning. That meant we were likely to experience hurricane force winds within 24 hours or less. Our plans had to be put in place within 12 hours. We discussed flash lights. We have many. Do we have batteries? We had not touched our hurricane kit in years. In fact, we had pilfered the batteries from the hurricane kit over the years. No batteries. What are we going to do? I would have to find more batteries. Frankly, when it gets dark, I would prefer just to go to sleep, but, for some reason, we need light. Off to work we went. I promised to stop for gas. My wife insisted that I would be stuck in a gas line for hours. The gas line at the gas station I stopped at was all of 2 cars. However, gas prices had jumped about 23 cents a gallon in the last 2 days. The gouging had begun.

By 10:00, my wife’s office had announced they would close at 5 and would be closed Thursday and Friday. We decided to close Thursday and would see what happens Friday. I went out at lunch in search of D batteries. 4 stops later, no D’s to be found. Fortunately, I did find working lanterns with working D’s in our house before I left. Still need some more D’s for a couple more flash lights and lanterns if possible. But, at least we wouldn’t be totally in the dark when the power goes out.

Shutters started going up at the office around 3:00. I decided to leave the office at 4:00 and start implementing our plan. My wife thoughtfully picked up steaks, burgers and hot dogs which we would put on the grill when the power goes out. Though we had lots of wine and whiskey at home, I stopped and bought a 12-pack of beer. Something about a hurricane makes me want beer. I think it is the heat that follows. Then, because there is no power, you have to drink it all before it gets warm. After Wilma in 2005, all the neighbors sat in front of our houses with our grills and beer and had a block party. Also, I made a mental note to ask my wife if she wanted to stock the freezer with ice cream. The first thing you want to eat when the power goes out is ice cream. Can’t have that spoil, right?

I started my work at home at 4:45. It really isn’t too much work, but it was the first time I had to do it without the help of my kids, both now living in the northeast. I got started on the task long before my wife got home from work. The order of things to do is very specific. Start by closing the shutters that require a ladder. Done. Move outside furniture and trashcans inside, starting with the garage, leaving room to park 2 cars. Done. Continue by carefully stacking remaining outdoor furniture in living room (after carefully placing blankets and sheets on the floor). Done. Close remaining shutters that need to be closed from the outside and do so before it gets dark. Done. Squeeze the cars back in the garage. Done. Finally, close remaining shutters that are closed from the inside the house. Done. I was finished in under 2 hours with 3 bloody knuckles to show for it. Not bad.

We would now be stuck in a dark house for the foreseeable future. Our plan for the evening? A couple of steaks, a bottle of wine or 2 and as many episodes of House of Cards as we could watch before the wine kicked in. Resolved not to watch forecast updates all night as hysteria would begin to kick in during the overnight broadcasts. 2 episodes later, and about 10 phone call interruptions from concerned friends and family, we were done. But one last thing to do – make sure we had books to read on our Kindles. Done.

Thursday morning and the forecast had changed. Matthew was still bearing down on the coast, likely north of us, but still at Category 4 strength, so we could expect hurricane force had winds arriving sometime in the afternoon. But the cone had taken an ominous turn. The projected path suggested that the darn thing was aiming to take a second strike at us after the weekend. For some reason, the meteorologists weren’t focusing on this. They were too busy screaming at us to evacuate. Governor Scott was telling us that we were going to die if we didn’t do what he said. And I was looking for information about a potential second strike. If it came back, even at weaker strength, the damage would be much worse. I remember communities that have taken 2 hits in a relatively short time, usually from separate storms. The battering from the first storm was bad enough. But because of the initial damage, the second hit was usually devastating. Resources were thin and defenses were weak.

But as the day progressed and we huddled in our fortress, nothing happened. Sure, it was windy and rainy, but we Floridians are used to wind and rain. The local stations were all in with breathless reports of scattered power outages and random trees down. Young, excited reporters were stationed on the beach interviewing brave souls who disregarded the Governor’s dire warnings and wanted to see the action first hand. Since there was no action happening locally, the local stations cut to Nassau which was experiencing a direct hit. Again, reporters had to stand outside to give us a live look at what “could” happen if we weren’t prepared. They showed us street flooding, downed power lines, a gas station that had suffered some damage. They cut to footage of Haiti which always gets hit and, because of its extreme poverty and lack of any infrastructure, suffers tremendous devastation. But locally, we were experiencing a true non-event.

By 8:00, the Hurricane Warnings were finally down graded to Tropical Storm Warnings and South Floridians were declared to be “off the hook – this time”. The Space Coast, however, was now the clear target. My wife and I simply continued our House of Cards binge watch, and opened another bottle of wine. At some point, I tired and turned to Thursday Night Football and the Baseball Playoffs. We discussed plans for unwinding. In the morning, I would open up the downstairs shutters and we would wait to hear whether Matthew would return before opening the upstairs shutters and putting the patio furniture back outside.

And so it was. I awoke before sunrise and spent 15 minutes opening the shutters. The yard had some leaves and downed branches, but no more than we would following a typical summer thunderstorm. By 8:00, our lawn service was out cutting the grass. Life was back to normal. I received word from the office that the shutters were down and we would be open and we all returned to work. My wife got an extra day off as her place of employment previously announced the 2-day closure.

What did we learn from this experience? I hear many people expressing frustration. They are frustrated that Matthew did not hit after they went through all of the preparations and after all the stress and excitement. Are they nuts? Had the storm hit South Florida, insurance companies predicted a potential $200 billion loss. This was a Category 4 storm. Sorry for the inconvenience, but a miss is a good thing. What we learned is that we have not lost our hurricane preparedness skills. It is not a bad thing to test them out once in a while as we were certainly out of practice. I would gladly do this every year only to have the storm veer off at the last minute each time. We have seen our community suffer tremendously in the past and we have seen too many communities suffer each year. So the lesson is always be prepared, always be diligent. And most importantly, keep your spirits up. Once you know you have done everything to keep your family and your property safe and enjoy the time together.