VLOG CITY LIFE: First Hurricane in the City - Irma

I had to take down part of my 9ft shoe wall since its not secured to the wall

I felt like about 14 days ago my whole world basically stopped when I found out there was a mega hurricane that was on track to Florida; specifically Tampa. I have been through a lot of hurricanes to be honest, the earliest I remember was Andrew, and my family had to evacuate. our mobile home. On my honeymoon, a hurricane hit the Caribbean and my husband and I couldn't leave San Juan, Puerto Rico to go to St. Thomas. I even once drove home in a hurricane from Atlanta at 19, because my husband wanted to study and we were in Marietta, GA safe and sound away from it all.

It was different this time because I was in South Tampa, the place I voluntarily moved to knowing I would be susceptible to storms and flooding. To note: I regularly do not say what area of South Tampa I am in just because people can find me and I have run into some of my YouTube subscribers out here by coincidence. I moved out here for privacy from Riverview, but I can't hide that I am in fact that I am in South Tampa. I happen to live right on the water, so, I knew when a mandatory evacuation was set for my area, all of Tampas downtown, and areas that border the bay, I needed to think hard.

the day after the hurricane

I thought hard and long about what I would do, consulted my husband, my husband agreed with me. We live in a high rise condo that isn't that old and should be up to the best codes. When we moved here I actually asked if this place was concrete construction and they said it was 90% concrete and steel and 10% wood. Still, I had reservations since the news was really going on and on about storm surges and that it looked pretty bleak. I have been in South Tampa for almost 5 years the area that I am in has never flooded so I was skeptical. So we decided to not evacuate. Was I scared? Yes, I was afraid a boat would fly through our window or that the roof would blow off to be honest. There are so many situations that can happen in a hurricane and at that time they were saying it was going to be a category 4 which made it worse.

meal prep

I wracked my brain on what food to make, what food to cook, what food to thaw because I actually over buy food and freeze it. So, I spent a lot of time planning and trying to figure out what meal would taste good cold. I settled on a southern comfort meal of fried okra (but I cooked mine in the oven) and macaroni salad (made with low fat sour cream instead of all the mayo). We boiled eggs, bought water, wine, and stored extra water and waited it out. Cooking actually is something I will do when I am stressed so it made the night pass a little bit quicker for about 2 hours. Total it was storming over 7 hours and all of a sudden it was just the sound of the ocean outside my window. I don't think I have ever seen a window bend trying to fight 120 mph winds until now. Pretty much everything was shaking (which actually didn't bother me because thats normal in a high rise) and we didn't have a lot of rain, just wind.

oven fried okra

macaroni salad made with sour cream (healthier option)

A few days after the storm a lot of local businessess don't have power, but we never lost power. I felt kind of bad about that as well as the fact that the storm turned at the last minute and hit Orlando and the East Coast. I know some of my friends evactuated and still got caught up in it.

Tuesday, everything is slowly opening and I got a chance to go to Trader Joe's. There is a slight stench in the air from rotten organic food and I hear that they are running on generators. I purchased some groceries and wine and went home and cooked. 

Cuban rice and beans with baked chicken breast

Overall, it was hard to make a descion like that for my family. I thought about a lot over the course of 10 to 14 days and wondered if I would have a home to return to if I evacuated. I wondered if I left would my body go into a flare up in a shelter and I would need medical attention, and if my cats would cooperate with us. I decided even though I was in a level A mandatory evacuation area, I was in a high rise condo, one that was built in the last 15 years. I felt confident that the storm wouldn't hit Tampa at a cat 3 and it didn'tto our avail. I feel lucky and blessed and I feel empathy for everyone who wasn't that lucky. Literally, for two weeks all I heard on the news was a monster storm was gunning for Tampa (downtown Tampa and level A areas) and it was stressful.

I missed most of my deadlines for my business and honestly, everything we have now we have only had since we moved here. We sold almost all of our stuff because we moved from a 4 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom condo and I was like we spent 5 years trying to get here and it could be gone on Monday... It all worked out great for us in Tampa, but I just wanted to share my story and I feel the utmost empathy for Harvey victims and Irma victims who didn't have the same outcome.

A lot of people went through this as their first hurricane and that is scary. A lot of people were scared because they saw what Harvey did to Texas. A lot of people were just scared period and some, like me, had been through it before and it just came down to accessment.

 I couldn't imagine having a new baby through all of this. And guess what, one of my closest friends was set to give birth Monday the original day of landfall in a level A area and she gave birth on Saturday. Won't HE DO IT!