After much deliberating, and several changes of plan, my son and his family decided to get out of Miami and head north yesterday.
I was so relieved. While they had made very good plans and had prepared to weather through the hurricane, they finally decided that it was too risky to stay. Their apartment is only 4 miles from the ocean, and on the top floor of a four-story building. With the predicted wind strength, damage to their building and particularly the roof was a real concern and the final straw on the camel's back.
So they packed almost all their clothes and shoes, important papers, food and anything of any importance to them into the car and headed north. The entire back seat and trunk was full, so the three of them were all in the front seats. They must have looked a sight, but who cared at that point?
They were lucky. I-95 was moving freely, and they got off before Orlando traffic hit, and headed west on secondary roads, with me navigating by map and phone for them, as the gps only wanted to send them to interstates. They hit very little traffic, made it to I-10 and Tallahassee by 10pm.
They found gas with no problem, but a place to sleep turned out to be impossible. I was up searching online for them until 1 a.m. when they finally decided to just sleep in the car. Can you imagine the three of them packed into the front of a compact car? They called this morning and said the night was "interesting." I bet it was :) They were up and on the road again at 5a.m., with a destination of Panama City in the Florida panhandle where they have a room booked for the next two days as well as some friends staying there too.
They are continuing to monitor the storm, though, in case they need to go further west or north. Fortunately it looks like Miami may miss the major damage predicted earlier so perhaps they will be able to return home within a few days. If not, they are least out of the way of the worst, and for that this old granny is extremely grateful--even though it makes me feel guilty because there are so many others now facing what I feared for my son.
So prayers for Florida and especially for those who cannot evacuate for whatever reason. Let's get this hurricane over with, and then see what can be done to get things fixed. This country is incredible at jumping in and helping.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
I am so glad to hear this! I have many friends in Florida as well..praying everyone makes it through safe & sound.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter-in-law's sister left yesterday heading to Fl! With her young family....I think they've lost their minds. They had a vacation planned so she & her husband are taking their 4 young children (all under 6 yrs old, two in diapers) to northwest Florida. When my son told me I was shocked. I asked my daughter-in-law how their mom felt about it & she said she wasn't very happy. So now we're praying for them as well. I do so hope they won't regret such a foolish decision.
What a relief that must be for you! :)
ReplyDeleteHope they got far enough away, it's going further west than originally predicted. There are virtually no rooms anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how thrilled you must be to have them out of Miami. It would drive me nuts to have my kids there. Such a crazy thing with these two hurricanes on top of one another...and all the forest fires on the west coast. Quite a difficult month for natural disasters.
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