FLORIDA HURRICANES

I was recruited to oversee the building of a rehab hospital and to serve as the administrator in South Florida in 2004. Before accepting the job, I asked the HR Director how often they had hurricanes.  She said there had not been a hurricane in Boynton Beach in 50 years.

After being landlocked for many years, I thought living next to the beach would be pleasurable and give me a chance to work on my tan when not actually working at a job. Armed with the knowledge that South Florida had not had a hurricane in 50 years, I rented a condo on the Intracoastal.  It was within walking distance of the beach and the hospital. Little did I know then that being in charge of a hospital means you're never NOT working!  The joke was on me.

I drove with my dog to Boynton Beach from Dallas.  A hurricane had hit Florida and parts of Alabama before my trip across the southern states.  We had to detour through areas of Alabama that had sustained severe damage.  After many hours, we reached my condo and unpacked the boxes waiting for us.  It was a slow process, as I had injured my back while packing for our cross-country move.  I was in a lot of pain, but the opioids were helpful.  When the TV was unboxed and plugged in, I was shocked to hear that another hurricane was due to land in 24 hours.  My area was under mandatory evacuation, which explained the eerily absence of people in the complex.  Since it was a new condo development, there must have been a lot of condos still left to be sold.  I was wrong.  They had high-tailed it out of Dodge.

I hired some guys to install metal shutters on my patio door and two windows.  It took them about 20 minutes to relieve me of $300.  Even though my daughter had started calling to beg me to go to a shelter, I refused.  I didn't want to leave my dog in the condo because the shelters didn't allow pets.

The pain medication I was prescribed enabled me to sleep through the hurricane.  When the day broke, I ventured outside to a lot of debris blocking walking paths and streets, but there was no real damage.

The hospital took a year to build.  We had only been open a few weeks when a Category 3 hurricane named Wilma hit the southwest coast of Florida and turned eastward.  The eye of the storm passed directly over us.  I had gotten to know the contractor in charge of building my hospital and had remembered that our windows were rated to sustain 140 mph winds.  For the entire duration of the hurricane, I stood at our large windows and watched as the wind blew metal siding and other debris past my window.  I thought that at any minute, I would see the Wicked Witch of the West flying high above us as the wind blew everything past our third-story window. Wilma did quite a bit of damage to the area, but it wasn't devastating.  My condo was without electricity for 3 weeks.  Since I spent most of my time at the hospital, it wasn't much of an inconvenience.

A few days after the hurricane, I ran into the contractor.  When I told him it was fascinating to see all the debris flying by the windows, he commented that he was happy they held, as they were rated for 120 mph winds.  We had wind gusts over 120 mph.  I was fortunate to have been unharmed.

There were more hurricane watches and warnings during the 12 years I lived in south Florida until my retirement three years ago. Hurricanes always seemed to occur on the weekends. We always had to be at the hospital 12 hours before the storm was due and stay there while the hurricane was active.

I left behind many wonderful friends in South Florida.  I implored them to visit me in Texas before  Hurricane Michael was due to land, but they all stayed in their homes.  Something about a pending disaster makes a person want to stay at home because they always feel safe despite warnings. There's also an element of desensitization, as there are lots of hurricane watches in Florida that amount to nothing.  This one seemed different.  My heart was aching for them as I closely followed Michael's path.  I have this nasty habit of wanting to protect those I love, even though they are far away and don't really want nor need my protection.  Unlike those living in the coastal areas in the panhandle of Florida, they luckily survived Michael.