Hurricane 101

After the events of the last few weeks, I feel like there should be some sort of class on hurricane planning/evacuation/preparedness/wine consumption/etc. And I know somewhere there probably is such a thing that exists. I also know I probably wouldn't have paid it any attention if offered - until now. Don't get me wrong, as far as natural disasters go you do get a lot of advance notice with a hurricane, so for planners like me that is excellent. It's not like I could have woken up on Friday morning and thought, "Hurricane, who woulda thunk it?"

I mean, on Tuesday before Hurricane Matthew, the in-laws arrived for grandparents day. We greeted them in the driveway with, "Hi! Glad to see y'all. We may have to evacuate." Welcome to Savannah. By Tuesday night, school had been cancelled the rest of the week. We made plans to leave on Thursday, but by mid morning Wednesday our plans had changed to leave ASAP to beat the inevitable mandatory evacuation notice.

So how in the world do you decide what to take if you know it might not be there when you get back? Crazy how what's important gets narrowed down super fast. I grabbed important documents, pictures, baby books, my big camera, and then packed up the dog and kids. The cat got voted to stay on the island by the hubs who also had to stay for work. Then off to middle GA we headed to let Matthew do his thang on the coast.

We hit up the fair (which is one of my favorite things) with the grandparents, and I will admit it felt good to be back in Macon. It was home for a long time, and it feels more like home than my hometown. Thankfully, we boarded the dog in Macon, so we were able to spend the days away from the hotel. Most of our adventure was documented on "the Facebook" or Instagram, and it was fun for a few days. Then, it was time to go home only the storm hadn't even happened in Savannah yet. By Saturday, I headed to a friend's house to wash clothes. She and her family left as we got there to head to the beach, and my kids had a playroom full of toys all to themselves. I was able to sit down, do my Bible study (because let's face it, by that time I REALLY needed Jesus), and not entertain kids for a while. It was like a little slice of heaven. Sunday we were able to have some time apart again while I got to see a friend and the boys got to play with her son. Again, wonderful slice of heaven. Monday, we visited the hospital where I used to work, had lunch at Lane's Orchard, went to Pineola Farms where we got married, and then we had one last dinner out during our "hurrication" at Applebee's. I'm not even gonna lie - I was about to have a mental breakdown during this meal because by this time, the kids were tired, I was tired, we were all tired of hanging out together, etc, etc, etc. Connor piped up and said, "Mom, I love Macon. It's so fun. We should move to Macon." Well, damn. Glad you've had the time of your life. Mama's gonna need medication by the time we get home, son.

Thankfully, we escaped without any damage to our house. Many houses around us weren't as lucky. Friday was honestly scary. The news reports were not looking good at all. Talk of storm surge was all my ears heard. Pictures from our neighborhood dock were pretty scary at high tide before the storm. Flooding was looking more and more likely. I couldn't watch the weather channel by that time because Jake got really stressed by watching. So, after the kids went to sleep, I turned on the TV in the hotel to check to see if the forecast was still as bad as it seemed. Indeed, it was. I stopped watching, turned off the TV, laid down my phone, and begin to pray. My prayer wasn't about stuff, it was about having peace in this situation and safety. Not even 5 minutes later, I looked around at those little sleeping faces - the ones that were annoying the stew out of me a few hours earlier. I knew my husband was safe at the hospital. Granted, I was concerned for the cat, but I figured she would be okay. It really hit me then that everything else was just stuff, and for the first time I realized that nothing else really mattered. If the house flooded or got crushed by a tree - would it suck, yes. But, instead of being overcome by anxiety at the what if's I started picking out new finishes and paint colors in my head. I slept quite well that night. God is so good.

Power came back on at our house Monday night. I had already decided that even if we didn't have power we were going home. It was TIME. We came back home, and as we crossed the bridge to the island I was shocked at the devastation even though much of it had been moved or partially cleaned. The road to our house was pretty slow to avoid trees and debris still in the road. It was crazy. We rode around a few days later and looked at the damage. As we passed by a boat that had been smushed by a huge pine tree, Jake looked at it and said, "Damn." Oh, snap. As my head spun around, I tried to stay calm as I asked where he had heard that. He said TV. I have no idea what show he saw, but I'm incredibly thankful he didn't look at me and say, "You said it." The potty mouth long ago went to the wayside, but in my sleep deprived state during the hurrication there's no telling what I might have said. Whew.

Here's what the hurricane taught me:
1) What is really important. People that I love, my fur babies, a few (really a few) sentimental things. Everything else really is just stuff.
2) I'm not meant to live in a tiny house. I see the shows. I know it's a "thing". I am not meant to live   in a hotel sized space with 3 children. Me and the hubs (maybe even an animal) - maybe. Add children to that. No, siree.
3) These kinds of things bring out the best in people. It was cool to see all our neighbors helping one   another, the city of Savannah rallying to help those most in need, the chainsaw brigades, the linemen that worked around the clock, etc. It made you want to be the best you.
4) It drew attention to just how fickle we are. Right after the worst of the damage had been cleared, school was close to resuming, power was back on, and life was almost back to normal everyone returned to the way they were. Even here in our neighborhood of huge, beautiful homes the neighborhood FB page was ablaze with complaints about a pile of debris in the road. Did it need to be moved? Sure, it did. But instead of offering to help, everyone just complained. It struck me that     if the biggest thing we have to worry about is a pile of limbs in the road how lucky are we? I really wish that we could keep the post destruction attitude 365/24/7. What a blessing we would be to everyone if that were the case.