As Hurricane Florence descends on the Carolinas I am reminded of my time growing up in South Florida. Our family moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Ft Lauderdale, Florida when I was still in school and from that moment our summers were spent dodging storms like the plague.
From June to October, I remember my father stocking up on plywood, batteries, and cases of water just in case the newest tropical depression took a turn and gained strength. (Which happened a lot.) I remember my Uncle Timmy telling us about Hurricane Andrew when we first moved to South Florida.
His chilling accounts of that storm always scared me. I recall him telling us that it was one of the scariest moments of his life (and he had served in our military). My Uncle and his family lived in a high rise condo building in the heart of Miami and when the storm hit, it blew out their living room windows, which created a vacuum. Till this day I can't imagine what goes through your mind as you see the contents of your home literally being sucked out of the window. My Uncle and his family took refuge in a bathroom, holding the door shut so the door would stay on the hinges.
Thus, my family has always taken hurricane prep very seriously. Hurricane Andrew was a big wind storm when it hit South Florida as a category 5 hurricane and years later I would have my own frightening encounter with Hurricane Wilma.
When Hurricane Wilma came barreling towards my hometown, my family decided to evacuate. I, however, had just started dating my now husband and agreed to stay with him and ride out the storm.
The eye of Wilma was supposed to travel right over Dallas's Boca Raton condo so we thought it would be safer to stay at my family's home out west. For some reason (I can't even remember why) we ended up not making it back to my Mom's house before the storm hit. Somehow, by the grace of God, Hurricane Wilma turned slightly and decided not to ravage Boca Raton but instead went right over my Mom's house!
The storm created so much damage to our family's home it was uninhabitable for TWO YEARS! Two, eight-foot sections of our roof had been torn off, along with our entire screen enclosure and there was three feet of standing water on the first floor of our home. Unfortunately, FEMA and general contractors were overwhelmed for months after the storm, causing the water to produce mold throughout the walls of our home. We were not alone, half of South Florida was without power for weeks and the other half didn't have a sustainable home to live in.
It makes me sad to think about our friends on the coast, who are currently going through this hell. As we sit in our homes, watching football waiting for the storm to pass please know that our friends out east will need us more than ever in the coming weeks. I know my station will be doing hurricane relief efforts soon (so stay tuned) but in the meantime, I did want to tell you about a company that I love. Live Love GameDay has created North and South Carolina t-shirts that will benefit the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army as they help the Carolinas. The shirts are $22 and shipping is FREE!
This company is also the creators of my favorite football tee, which you can see above.
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