In the thick of the hurricane! [View all]

[Akoto]

Hi all,

Surprised I still have power and internet, but I'm in South Florida, in Port Saint Lucie. We've come into the thick of the hurricane and it's roaring outside! We did dodge a bullet by Irma shifting west, though, or we'd have taken a much worse direct hit. Metal shutters on everything, so all we can do is wait and hope for the best. I'm a native, 32 years old, and I've been in every hurricane we've had since I was born. Going to have to start keeping a record soon!

We had planned to leave last Thursday. We even had the RV fully packed and ready to go, but when we saw the traffic, we decided to stay out of concern that we'd end up stuck on the interstate. Not where you want to be in a hurricane. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we had a spot reserved for the RV in a park now more in the path since the shift west.

I hope that all pull through well. On the east coast, at least, personal experience and local TV reporting (which is 24/7 right now) is showing lots of wind and debris/light poles down, but not much structural damage to houses and such. I feel for folks who are in the Keys or on the barrier islands, but the authorities begged and begged them to leave, with good reason. In general, I'm hearing first responders are now off the roads everywhere, but my area will be the last to get clear of the storm and should be within a few hours.

At least I have some games on my iPad and pizza bites. If I'm going to go out, I'll do so in a lazy and unhealthy fashion, as I would've hoped for.