By: Zamoya Pettigrew
Catastrophic storm hurricane Ian will go down in history from its destructional measures upon Florida. Torrential rains flooding people’s houses, damaging winds tearing down trees, and tornadoes ripping through fields left people with little to nothing salvageable when the storm passed over. An emergency evacuation notice was released 24 hours prior to the hurricane making landfall strongly advising people to leave and seek shelter elsewhere. You would think people would get the hint of “hey a category 4 (almost 5) hurricane is coming your way, maybe you should leave”, but a great deal of people stayed. Best decision? Guarantee you it was not as roves came down, power outages rose, and houses crushing to the ground became an issue all around effected areas in Florida.
Immense amount of flooding appeared to be an issue more and more as hurricane Ian picked up wind and speed. Freshman Marissa Kline speaks of the flooding expressing, “it’s just horrible because first of all its scary cause your house will be flooded and what do you do then, cause you can't fight back against water”. Ian grew stronger by the second as many houses and acres of fields were left under 3-5 feet of water destroying constructional buildings of homes and flooding fields. Because of Florida’s vast amount of open land primarily in the countryside, owners of animals had to decide if it was better idea to leave them outside or to keep them in some type of shelter. A crucial decision would result in whether their animals lived or didn’t make it, and although a good amount lived, a good portion didn’t make it. Marissa shares her thoughts on how she believes animals should have been kept. “I think they definitely would have survived better somewhere enclosed and somewhere where they could get high off the ground”. With trying to keep their animals as safe as possible, many people tagged their animals with phone numbers just in case something were to happen. Immense flooding caused masses of destruction on homes, personal items, and animals out in fields and barns.
The expectation for Hurricane Ian was something no one could have predicted, even the meteorologist. “They were probably expecting something as normal as any other hurricane storm they've had until they realized how bad it actually was when it hit land”. Sophomore Julia Carton believes. As the storm brew over ocean and land, simply a high alert to evacuate and locate somewhere else was the water in the bay’s receding. Julia shares “They probably were thinking it was really serious now b/c when water recedes like that, it all comes back at once so it was more of an chance of their houses to be destroyed from flooding.” Storm surges were now the number one thing to look out for. Experiencing hurricane storms in Florida has become a normal routine with Florida residents. You would think people would move away from Florida, but, “I think people who have lived there for a long time like it because it’s a very slow paced life and most of them are old, so they can’t really go anywhere” Julia shares. However, even though Florida is a slow-paced life, hurricanes do have an effect on residents’ mental health as they progress as most of their stuff was destroyed and will take a while to be replaces and rebuilt.
Hurricane Ian has taken a toll on both Florida and its residents. Strong winds, heavy rain, storm surges, tornadoes, and more will forever transform Florida to something new. Residents of Florida will still be recovering from a Category 4 Hurricane Ian for months to come.
Catastrophic storm hurricane Ian will go down in history from its destructional measures upon Florida. Torrential rains flooding people’s houses, damaging winds tearing down trees, and tornadoes ripping through fields left people with little to nothing salvageable when the storm passed over. An emergency evacuation notice was released 24 hours prior to the hurricane making landfall strongly advising people to leave and seek shelter elsewhere. You would think people would get the hint of “hey a category 4 (almost 5) hurricane is coming your way, maybe you should leave”, but a great deal of people stayed. Best decision? Guarantee you it was not as roves came down, power outages rose, and houses crushing to the ground became an issue all around effected areas in Florida.
Immense amount of flooding appeared to be an issue more and more as hurricane Ian picked up wind and speed. Freshman Marissa Kline speaks of the flooding expressing, “it’s just horrible because first of all its scary cause your house will be flooded and what do you do then, cause you can't fight back against water”. Ian grew stronger by the second as many houses and acres of fields were left under 3-5 feet of water destroying constructional buildings of homes and flooding fields. Because of Florida’s vast amount of open land primarily in the countryside, owners of animals had to decide if it was better idea to leave them outside or to keep them in some type of shelter. A crucial decision would result in whether their animals lived or didn’t make it, and although a good amount lived, a good portion didn’t make it. Marissa shares her thoughts on how she believes animals should have been kept. “I think they definitely would have survived better somewhere enclosed and somewhere where they could get high off the ground”. With trying to keep their animals as safe as possible, many people tagged their animals with phone numbers just in case something were to happen. Immense flooding caused masses of destruction on homes, personal items, and animals out in fields and barns.
The expectation for Hurricane Ian was something no one could have predicted, even the meteorologist. “They were probably expecting something as normal as any other hurricane storm they've had until they realized how bad it actually was when it hit land”. Sophomore Julia Carton believes. As the storm brew over ocean and land, simply a high alert to evacuate and locate somewhere else was the water in the bay’s receding. Julia shares “They probably were thinking it was really serious now b/c when water recedes like that, it all comes back at once so it was more of an chance of their houses to be destroyed from flooding.” Storm surges were now the number one thing to look out for. Experiencing hurricane storms in Florida has become a normal routine with Florida residents. You would think people would move away from Florida, but, “I think people who have lived there for a long time like it because it’s a very slow paced life and most of them are old, so they can’t really go anywhere” Julia shares. However, even though Florida is a slow-paced life, hurricanes do have an effect on residents’ mental health as they progress as most of their stuff was destroyed and will take a while to be replaces and rebuilt.
Hurricane Ian has taken a toll on both Florida and its residents. Strong winds, heavy rain, storm surges, tornadoes, and more will forever transform Florida to something new. Residents of Florida will still be recovering from a Category 4 Hurricane Ian for months to come.
