Hurricane Irma Evacuation. Ep7

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Speaker 1: Hi. This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of four, an author, journalist, and speaker. And this is Sarah hart Hunger. I'm a mother of two and soon to be three, and a practicing physician. We are two working parents who love our careers and our families. Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. We are doing a special mini sode this week. As Sarah just coined the phrase, we are in a slightly different arrangement as we're recording this. Normally record them on the days that Sarah is off from work. But she has been away from her job for the past week almost I think, because of Hurricane Irma, and so she has had the experience of evacuating from Miami Beach trying to find a safe place to be with her two small children. So we're gonna do this episode mostly about that experience. So Sarah, we're all glad to hear that you are safe and your house is safe too, right, our house has seems to have survived. We haven't been back yet, but the reports are in that nothing major appears to have been smashed or you know, knocked over. We did have an enormous palm tree in the front yard, which was always something that was like bothered us, like what if that were to fall in the house, And it did fall, thankfully, it fell like across the street and didn't hit anything, which I is like, we're super super thrilled because that was very, very lucky. But the house largely appears unscathed and we did not have flooding, which is awesome. Yeah, that is wonderful. That is such a blessing because I know you've been very concerned about that for the past week. Did you talk us through what happened with the ordered evacuation and how you made your decision to leave? Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, I just have to say this whole thing was so much less straightforward than I expected it to be. So we've only been in Miami, miamib specifically for four years now, four years and one month to be exact, and this is the first time we had anything close to this. But I had always told Josh, who is my husband for those who are just joining us now, that if we got a big hurricane, I wanted out of there, and he was totally fine with that. You know, there are some people who may take pride in kind of experiencing it or writing it out, but he was cool with that, especially with our young kids. So when it happened that we started to see Irma's show up on the NHC National Hurricane Center website, I got worried. Probably I think it was a weekend prior, so it was like, not this weekend, but a week ago. I started mentioning it. We had some family event where I was like, hey, it looks like that might hit us, and everyone's like, ah, too early. Whatever. And the week went on and it became very clear that IRMA was actually headed and at that point it looked like directly towards the southeastern tip of Florida, which is where Miami Beach is, and that it was enormous. So we kind of started thinking that we were gonna need to get out in some fashion. I guess with a hurricane, the thing is you don't know exactly where it's going to go, and we didn't have a great plan or a clear obvious place, like we didn't have mainland family with a big, dirty house. We don't have people like, you know, halfway up the state with the generator. So all of a sudden it was like, wait a second, we have to outrun this thing. We don't actually know where it's headed, and we have no obvious destination. So that was much, i don't know, less straightforward than I imagined it to be, rather than just like, oh, you have a flight to Philly, because the truth is, by the time everyone is thinking about getting a flight to anywhere, it's kind of too late. I had actually started researching it like insanely on Tuesday, I think. Now the storm really didn't hit until that following Sunday, but by Tuesday Wednesday, we knew it was sort of headed there, and it was. It was. It was like, by Wednesday morning, gone, no flights anywhere, especially if you wanted four of them, which is what we would have needed, what you would have needed, and so you decided to drive out. But that's not simple either. I mean, for people are like, well, why don't you just get in your car and leave? I mean everyone was on the roads. I mean we saw the photos of the back bumper to bumper traffic coming out of Miami, and then there wasn't any fuel either, right, I mean, that was another that was who would have even like that would never have crossed my mind. But the fuel issue actually made the traffic issue so much more harrying and terrifying, because you know, you know how far a tank of gas would normally get you, but you don't know how far a tank of gas is going to get you if you're barely moving, and if you're barely moving and everyone else is going in the same direction. And really the problem with Florida is that there's really only one way out. You can't like scatter in all different directions unless you have a boat. You've got to go north. There's a little bit of variation, but everyone's going the same way. And when we started to see the gas stations were half out of service, and then there began to be this frenzy where every station had like extremely long lines. That was terrifying. I mean I literally made us stop every every hundred miles, like our tank would go from four hundred to three hundred, and I'd be like, if there's anything we can get gased now we should do it, and we all agreed and we did it good. Yeah. Yeah, well that's smart, I mean, and we don't understand that as Americans because we're accustomed to there being a service station, you know, every five minutes, and no one would ever be out of fuel. That's not something you'd ever experience. But if we have listeners who've traveled, you know, in the developing world, I mean, there are parts of Africa, for instance, where you have to fuel at every station because if you don't, you won't get to the next one. And that's just something we don't appreciate as Americans until we come to a situation where stuff breaks down like this and so, and you were also trying to figure out as you are leaving, you were changing your plans as well. Yes, we did, I say. One thing we did right was we kept it very flexible and we created a lot of options for ourselves. So we booked a hotel in Okalla, which is halfway kind of, It's like about an hour and a half or so north of It's between Orlando and Gainesville, basically, so two thirds of the way off the state, I would say, And but we knew that, you know, we'd like to just be able to have stayed there. But when this we also kind of thought, well, if the storm is going to head up toward there, because that was one definite possibility that we would need other options. My sister lives in Carrie, North Carolina, so to the east and the northeast, and then we decided, you know what, let's book a refundable hotel in Birmingham, so that if this storm is going northeast, we can go to the west instead. But that ended up kind of backfiring because the storm was headed to North Carolina. At one point we drove all the way to Birmingham. We woke up the next morning and they were like, never mind, storm's coming here, which the cone was over Birmingham exactly so, which wouldn't have been that big of a deal. And it wasn't that we were so afraid that that Birmingham was going to get a terrible hurricane. We were in a pretty secure hotel. We knew it would be a tropical storm, but we felt like that would make it incredibly slow and difficult to get back if we were trying to get back in the same direction that the hurricane is going forward. This has been a pretty epic travel though. I mean, just so our listeners understand, I mean, it's not over. It's not over. They got to get back. But you guys left at what eight thirty on Wednesday night? Wednesday night, got in its three thirty AMA into Okalla, and that should have taken like four and a half hours. It took seven. Then from o'calla to Birmingham, we like we left the next day at around one pm and got there at like one am. That was Thursday. We did stay in o'calla for the full day on Friday, and again Birmingham. Yes, in Birmingham, thank you, which was great. By the way, I love Birmingham now, it's awesome. I want to go back. And then we kind of woke up a bit of a panic yesterday morning, Sunday morning, when it became clear that might be a hard way to get out, and drove the I think it took us eleven hours to get to carry which is just outside of Raleigh. So now you're with family though, right, Yes, we've been with my sister, which has been really really fun and kind of like a bonus trip. That's my silver lining. Although it's so hard to view it as a vacation. I mean, you're on someone. It's like if you knew you were like, Oh, we're going to go to Birmingham and then to visit my sister and we're going to be off from work for a week. I mean that sounds cool, But it does he sound that bad? View it that way when you're in it art least, I can't. Maybe Josh kept trying to. He's like, you're not in the moment, Like why are you checking your phone so much? And I'm like, oh, well, because I'm just not in the moment. You're right. I don't think I'm going to get back in the moment. I mean I was back to him for being able to do that, But every time my phone would buzz, I'd be like, someone hurt. What's going on? What's happening at home? Because the truth is, like, you know, there was so much uncertainty, and thankfully it seems like friends and family are okay. There are definitely a lot of friends and family with pretty major damage, like one of Josh's relatives had his car completely smashed, like by a tree, other kind of stuff like that, But lives are unscathed, and that's the most important. That good, yeah, exactly, But but it's even harrowing to think about though, as you're thinking about your house and thinking, well, you know, what would three feet of water do in my house? I mean, what would it? It would flood you know, kids' artwork that you'd never get back in photos and things like that. And by the time you know to leave, you don't necessarily have time to get all of that into a safer location. So we did. I threw like our most important files up into a really high shelf, and I did bring with us like our very you know, they tell you to bring your Social Security card and all that kind of stuff. So I brought a little plastic bag and shove that in our luggage. So we have that with us. And actually, for some reason, I wasn't as concerned about like, well, I guess I was concerned about this stuff. It was more just like our lives, that we're going to be the same kind of a thing if our house had gotten ruined and we'd be somewhere else for a long time. And you know, the potential financial damages because even for people with insurance, there are some very large deductibles when you live where we live, yeah, when you live close to the water. Yes, And just so people know, Sara, Sarah's still not home and she's recording sort of impromptu. We've pieced this together on the road here as we're wondering if our sound quality is not as good as it might normally be, that we're still still patching stuff to gather here. But how have your kids taken it? I mean, I can't even imagine trying to like entertain two small children in a hotel room for many days and while you're concerned about what's going on with the house and with family members. So how did you manage the kids during all this time? That has definitely been a challenge. I think one thing that we've done right is that almost every day that we're not spending the day driving, we tried to tire them out outside, even if that's just a local playground, and just let them run and you know, make it seem like we're on a trip and on a normal day. I think they have definitely picked up on our stress level. You know, we keep framing them, oh, this is a fun journey. To make sure our family stays safe and everybody back home is in really safe houses and that's why they were able to stay. Because the truth is, we do have a lot of family that stayed more locally because they had a more logical place to go, Like on mainland in Florida. We just didn't really have that, and all of our immediate family happened to be in that evacuation zone, so, you know, so we were worried about family, and I think our kids did pick up on that, but we kind of emphasized that everyone went to logical and safe places, and we showed them, you know, pictures of everybody out hanging out in their own storms and tried to keep it as light as possible so that because I didn't want them to have horrible, you know flashbacks of that time we whisked them away and we're terribly scared, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. There have been some tense moments, especially like if they're not cooperating and we're really stressed at some moment, like you know, looking for a gas for example, and they're talking or demanding the iPad, et cetera. It hasn't been completely easy, but yeah, getting some outdoor time every day that we can and making this as much of an adventure as possible. I guess those have been our two main stays. And how are you feeling? Because ianimes our listeners recall you are six almost seven months pregnant. Seven han, Yeah, we're coming up on seven. I'm doing pretty well. The bathroom stops, you know, I think how the bathroom stops work on this clinically dehydrated I keep. I mean, if I end up without a DVT, it really means I was never meant to have a DVT. And no, I've been pretty good. I'm starting to have some weird like tendon stuff, which I think is pregnancy related, and I think it's related to driving, because if you have your arm bench for a long time, so annoying stuff you never even really think about. But otherwise, I'm just thankful the babies inside me, because, let me tell you, that's at a million times easier than taking this journey. I don't know what we would have done if we'd had a brand new newborn. One of my friends actually did just have a baby, and she's a Miami Beach resident. Thankfully, her parents live Inland and she was able to stay with them. But I was just trying to put myself in her shoes, and it was like, just that would be so hard because how would you feed them? And ugh, diapers. I mean that's something people don't think about. Also in terms of natural disasters, is having a ready supply of diapers available. Yes, and that is huge. I found a couple places are donating diapers for like Hurricane Harvey relief. For instance, there's a lot of people who got flooded out of their homes in Houston still living in shelters, and so that's something if you're looking to donate, that's something a lot of people don't. That's a great idea because that's doable and such a necessity, such a necessity, and you know, something that makes it'd be hard enough to be in a shelter, for instance, with a baby, and then also to be feel like you're low on diapers or formula or something like that just added stress. It'd be amazing. So what's the plan now? I mean, how are you sort of taking your time getting back or is the hospital opening again? They don't want to get back my office. So I'm in a weird situation because I was supposed to attend a work conference, like a pediatric endochronology conference, this Wednesday, so like in two days in d C, so I actually don't have the only days. So I missed my patient day on Friday and I missed today, and our office was closed both of those days. I think our office is still going to be closed tomorrow. So for me the patient care part, I'm not really under that much pressure to get back because I wasn't booked with patients for the rest of the week anyway, so I was supposed to go to a conference. However, I would kind of still like to go to the conference if possible. Miami seems to be picking back the pieces. I've heard that there's power at least in some areas of our neighborhood. So what I would really really love it is if we could get back tomorrow so that I could potentially still go to my conference on Wednesday. However, I'm learning to be very flexible with this, and if that can't happen, that is also completely fine. And that's tough for a planner, isn't it Just to know that you can't know exactly. It's very tough. Now, if I had been on call or had clinical duties, I think my plans would have been different. We probably would have either stayed with another faculty member that I know that lives right near the hospital in Hollywood in a non evacuation zone, or I might have tried to proposition the hospital to see if they would just let me stay with my family in a patient room, because that way, hey, I can be there and be of help and my family's safe. So that was sort of in the back of my mind. I was thinking if I had been on call, that's maybe how I would have handled things differently. But thankfully I was not in the hot seat for this one. So if you have any advice that you've learned coming out of this, for anyone that winds up in a situation like this, anything you've learned that you wish you knew at the beginning of it, Oh my goodness. I think the things that I would say. I've learned that it's very hard to say one step ahead of the crowd. So if you have a gut instinct that you want to fly out of there and it kind of seems early, you have to do it. Because I actually I really did. I had like tickets to Philadelphia in my cart for I think Thursday morning on like I think I said Tuesday and they were still available then and then by the time Wednesday ruled around like there was no chance. So you have to know that a lot of people are going to be wanting to do the same thing, and you sort of have to be a couple steps ahead if you want to do things like books something that runs out. And the other thing is I guess to just embrace the sort of like not knowingness of it all, Like you really have to be flexible. Those cones are not set in stone by any way, shape or form. You don't know if something's gonna hit you when I think it's not, or you know, the other way around. I guess we're really lucky that Miami didn't get a direct hit when we thought they were. You know, you have to always consider that it could go the other way too. So I guess I just learned how much uncertainty is part of the evacuation and hurricane life. And I really hope that I don't have to practice it again anytime. So let's hope that's it for many years to come. Well, we're gonna do This is gonna be a short episode, So Sarah, have you got a love of the week for us? I don't want to jinx myself with my love of the week, but our car has been okay. The two heroes really of the past five days, Well, my husband gets a shout out. He's a huge hero. Actually, he's done a lot, like pretty much everything physical because I'm just at this twenty eight weeks pregnant state and there has been narry a complaint. I mean, it's been amazing. But we'll use you know, we're gonna use tangible items. So the two things I would them. He's our love of the week too. But our stroller, our double Bob. I actually was like, we don't need to bring that. Come on then, but you know, when you have two kids that fall asleep in the middle of the night you need to bring them to the hotel room, or if you need to cart a bunch of luggage a million different times. That thing is just it's just a house. It's the best thing ever. So our stroller and also my car should get a really huge shout out. I'm thinking it in advance because it's driven a lot of hours and hasn't done anything bad, and I'm going to cross my fingers that that trend also continues. Is this the Prius. This is the six year old Prius. Yeah, well it didn't even need that much gas, right, That was like you had that in your corner. The thing about the Prius is it doesn't need that much gas, but it also doesn't hold that much gas. It has a normal range, but it doesn't have like an extra special awesome range. I wish it did. Yeah, that it'd be in better sit, better shape. Well, there should be gas tomorrow. Hopefully as your start we will see it's actually configure. I'll be able to update on the next week episode. Yeah, exactly. Well, my love of the week is social media, which we've complained about in other episodes, but it is due to that that I've been able to stay in touch with people who have been in the evacuation zones, who've been you know, posting about their whereabouts. And it would be annoying to call everyone to tell them where they were, and so a lot of people I would have been just wondering what's going on, And yet they can post and then you can say, okay, good, that person's safe. This person's safe. It has been amazing to have access to that. It's funny to think that, you know, even twenty years ago we didn't have that, and so yes, the Internet takes away many things, but it has some wonderful aspects to it as well. So I think that's my love of the week. But anyway, thank you all so much for tuning in. This has been a very short, special mini episode of Best of Both Worlds talking about Sarah's evacuation from Hurricane Irma. We will be back next week with our usual topics. Thanks for tuning in, Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the Best of Both Worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.