Hurricane Ian 2022
Documented by Odalis Miakelle Llopiz
On the night of September 28, 2022, Category 1 Hurricane Ian approached at a swift 9 mph northeast with winds at 74 mph heading towards the city of Orlando. The media was filled with pictures and videos about the disaster left behind on the west side of Florida. The anticipation kept us up at night checking and visually measuring the flow of the river. Around 3:27 AM I woke up and ran to the living room to take a glimpse of my favorite site in the morning but instead of looking for its usual beauty, I encountered something different. The river has overflown, I quickly ran to my room to take a peak of the front of the building and encountered a swap filled with cars. Everyone in our home was up at this point. We walked outside and met some of our neighbors. We were informed that their homes were flooded. They were staying with another neighbor. We were stunned. We looked outside and saw the car lights turning on due to the submergence of water. It was now 4:00 AM a prayer was said and we went to bed. At 6:16 AM my brother and I were fully awake. I went outside with a blanket and saw the rest of the neighbors outside on the second floor. We all spoke about the situation and got to know each other in spite of this tragedy. At this time we still had electricity. We all waited together while the fire rescue came. At first we were certain that we were going to stay like many others on the second floor. As the time went by it was 11:00 AM the power was out for about 1 hour.
In many communities in America neighbors don’t get acquainted. Tragedy seems to get the job done, in a way mother nature came in and taught each of us lessons. I learned many lessons from this experience. The main lesson that stood out to me was that people need people. We need to communicate and build relationships with each other. If I spoke and built relationships with our neighbors they may have felt more comfortable knocking on our door and asking to come in. In the morning I did the best I could to help out, we had neighbors come in. They gave us so much information on the steps to take after such a tragedy. After everyone in my building that wanted to leave and be rescued left we went inside and absorbed what just happened. I went into my mothers room and looked outside the window and saw the boats pass by filled with people. Something happened to me and I started to cry. I had mixed emotions, I was amazed by these men that were rescuing us and the fact that our lives will never be the same. Our neighbors lost their homes, their mode of transportation. Forced to leave it behind and go somewhere temporarily with just one bag of necessities. While we were being rescued we experienced cold rain and wind.
My family didn’t want to leave at first, we were determined to stay at first. I admit I folded first, the power went out, the firemen were saying it’ll be days before the power would come back. I was like why would I sit here? I can be useful at the shelter, bringing some resources. I told my family and they were telling me no you should stay. Nonetheless I was on the boat a few minutes later asking questions to the fire rescue. My family called and said they were coming too. As I was in the boat I spoke to more neighbors, we traveled and the boat was filled with about 10-14 residents escorted by 3 firemen.
We were informed it may be weeks before we will have power and that our entire homes may need to be ripped apart and redone. More information came out and we may have power 10-5-2022. Today is 10-4-2022 the water has significantly gone down. It's a tragedy every day we go in there there's people outside doing the best they can to clean and salvage what they can.
Looking Through My Eye:
“Here we are Laly on this boat. Do you feel the magnitude of this situation.” At the moment I didn't realize the tragedy I experienced. I took it lightly, I take everything lightly until I don’t. I can't get mad about mother earth being she. Through it she. This also highlights our tax dollars and communities. This is the time to help. This reminds us that as a community we are stronger, we can persevere. We tend to separate ourselves for individual reasons but at the end of the day, people need people. Our government has FEMA in place for these emergencies but this organization can cover only so much. Stronger communities will be very impactful all year round, not just in times of tragedies. As a human, as a living being I know that we are all one. If I want to be heard, loved, and supported I know others want the same. A strong community listens to the concerns of all persons in the community. A strong community shows unconditional love to all its peers and we are all each other's peers. A strong community lifts each other.