Red Dawn, ‘Live’ From Hurricane Matthew

By now, you guys have probably heard about Hurricane Matthew. If not, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??? For those of you who don’t know, I live on the east coast of Florida most of the year and made the incredibly timely decision to come back home last week. Just in time for Hurricane Matthew.

I’ve been through my share of hurricanes. I remember Floyd and Charley and so on. I’m used to this sort of thing. I’m used to people around here COMPLETELY OVERREACTING over storms. But things were different this time.

It didn’t hit me until Wednesday. I went to the grocery store to get some storm basics, and it was MOBBED. The water was completely gone. No bread either. (Except for cinnamon bread. I don’t know what people have against cinnamon bread.) Fine. Whatever. People were overreacting, or so I thought. That afternoon, I tried to help my family gas up our vehicles just to be safe, and it REALLY hit me. Gas stations were completely out of gas, and the few that did have some left had lines that went out to the road.

Seriously. Completely empty. No gas at most places.

So no water. No gas. People freaking out everywhere. It made me realize how completely fragile our society is. Thankfully, my dad is the pepper type. He’s basically prepared for the apocalypse. I’ve always found prepping mildly interesting, but after this, I’m going to get more into it. It’s amazing how fast society can deteriorate.

I was blessed. I didn’t evacuate, although I was right outside of an evacuation zone. However, I lost power early Friday morning and haven’t had it since. I have a small generator and was able to charge my laptop, plug in my refrigerator and make a coffee. (You don’t realize how much you take coffee for granted until your ability to make it is compromised.) There was no real damage to my neighborhood. Just a few limbs down here and there. But downtown? Different story. If you’ve ever walked downtown St. Augustine, you’d know. It floods SO EASY, and we just had a nor’easter pound us. The ground was already saturated. I went out with my dad and sister after the eye of the storm passed us, and yeah. It’s as bad as they say. Photos to come.

Anyway, despite Shepard Smith’s ridiculous warning, my family didn’t die. We survived Hurricane Matthew. I’m not saying it wasn’t something to take seriously, but his warning was out of hand. Still, my hometown has a lot of rebuilding and cleanup to do.

More than anything else, this entire situation taught me about the fragile nature of our society.  This storm hit way too close to home, and my heart goes out to my friends who lost so much.