I live in South Florida by the coast.
One thing I've learned from all these hurricanes is to prepare but please don't panic.
Unless you are in an evacution zone it is best to stay in your home. Believe me, I learned the hard way. I panicked and packed up all my stuff. The news was talking about Hurricane cat 5 with winds in excess of 200 mph. Everyone was terrified and trying to evacuate.
Before I left home, I had to hunt for gas. A lot of stations were sold out. I found a gas station and had to wait in a line with 12 cars ahead of me.
I got about 150 miles north of my home and hit big traffic. I traveled at a rate of 6 mph for 5 hours on the FL turnpike! The traffic was like leaving a stadium after a big game only it stayed like that for hours upon hours. I was so scared. I tried to switch and take backroads but it wasn't a whole lot better. Gas stations were sold out. I did find some more gas in a small town on a backroad. There were 20 cars ahead of me in line for the same pump. When I finally wanted to stop all the hotels were sold out, the storm was approaching. The rest stops were jam packed and the police were blocking people from entering the rest stops. I had to drive for 21 hours straight because there weren't any hotels. I was so exhausted. I kept picturing the storm coming and me and a million other people being stuck in our cars in traffic. I only drove 500 miles making it to Cordele, Georgia. I had called ahead and they reserved it. Hotels were sold out almost to Atlanta. It was pure hell. I'll never do it again.
My friends shared similar exxperiences.
My neighbor was trying to fly out. She was stuck in the airport for 20 hours with her 3 children and small dog. All the food in the airport sold out and they were hungry. Flights were overbooked or canceled. She finally flew out before the airport closed. It was the worst.
Don't panic. Stay home. Have games to play and books to read. Don't watch too much news because it will only make you worry.
It will be okay. |