I was saving some money to move to the Gainesville area. Key West was not doing it for me anymore. Then Hurricane Irma came.

Bronson, FL

My dad has some land in a small town west of Gainesville called Bronson. Me and my wife visited a few times already and even got a PO Box over there. The town’s people are very nice. For the first time in my life, I experienced southern hospitality. The few people that we got to talk to were curious about us. Had some nice conversations at the diner. The idea was to use GI Bill, go back to college, move to the farm, get some chickens. A simpler life while deciding what to do with my life.

Here comes Irma

I used to consider myself lucky that while living in Key West for so long, I never saw a hurricane come by. Growing up in Puerto Rico, I’m no stranger to them, but there’s no place in the Florida Keys that is safe against them. See, back home, I grew up in a house made of concrete, in high ground. Sure, I’ve experienced a few months of no electricity and such, but my live was never in danger.

As Irma was making it’s way trough the Caribbean, we were getting ready to leave. I was offered to stay at the Hyatt hotel where I worked, but had to decline as my car (a small 2012 Mazda 2) is very small and would probably not survive any amount of flooding. I could not risk now being able to escape the island. We took as much of our most important belongings that we could fit in our , and evacuated the Keys, drove to the Tampa Bay area and stayed with some friends.

During my stay in St. Petersburg, FL, hurricane María made it’s way through Puerto Rico. I felt powerless. My situation was not the best, but I knew that it was nothing compared to what my friends and family were going trough back home.

After Irma

We were allowed to go back to Key West a few weeks after the storm passed. We took some our stuff, visited some friends to say our good byes and left the island a few days after. Our truck was a total loss, so it stayed there. We were able to take the camper out to a new location, but it was a loss too. Because we were living in that camper, most of our belongings in a storage unit. Placed everything we could fit in a rental truck and away we went.

At the end, it was not all horrible. We were able to move to St. Petersburg, FL. We have friends close by and things are looking good. We have some challenges in our future, and it’s not exactly what we planned, but we look forward to a new beginning.