Hurricane Season

Going to Florida in September always raises the issue of ‘Hurricane Season’. It would in no way ever deter me from going to Florida in September but it did hit home a little more closely when I was on holiday there with my boyfriend and two of our friends and Hurricane Floyd decided to make an appearance!

We had seen reports about Hurricane Floyd and that it was heading for Orlando but being on holiday we just sort of passed it by. As the reports increased and the severity of the hurricane seemed to intensify we started to wonder if there really was an issue. I think it was when we looked out of the window of our villa in the morning and saw other residents of the estate boarding up their windows that we realised that this was actually a serious situation. We tuned in the the weather and news reports which were saying that people in our area living in mobile homes were being evacuated. Having no experience of what to do or where to go we decided that getting supplies would be a sensible start.

We went to the local Supermarket and ended up asking someone what we should be buying. ‘Water and candles’ was the answer we were given. We got 4 big bottles of water, a large candle with 3 wicks in it and a floating torch! The boys decided that the torch was a must have!!! We also got tape to put over the windows. Travelling back to the villa was an interesting as one direction of the interstate was empty and the other was full of cars. Made us wonder what was to come. Back at the villa we taped the windows, tried the floating torch by throwing it into the swimming pool (it sunk instantly!! A great purchase!) and watched the tv for further reports.

The weather was getting worse with rain and stengthening winds. We saw on the news that Disney World had been closed for the first time in it’s history. I can still remember the images of the car parks. Completely empty apart from the transport trams chained together being pelted with rain. Very erie!! There was nothing else to do but sit and wait for the worst to hit. I don’t remember being scared but I was worried about how bad it would get and what we should do. As it turned out, Hurricane Floyd didn’t hit the part of Florida we were in as hard as had been predicted so other than lashings of rain and high winds, we woke up the next morning all in one piece. We were very lucky and when we saw the devestation that it had caused in other areas I think we all realised quite how much of a lucky escape we had had.

As I say, it would never put me off going to florida in hurricane season but I guess my advice would be just to keep an eye on any hurricane warnings and to follow the advice given (oh and don’t buy a floating torch!!! Waste of money!).

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