When I heard that a Category 4 hurricane might hit Miami, I could not believe my ears – no one is ever ready for possible and long-term devastation.

I did not want to leave the apartment; my usual magical thinking was telling me that everything would be okay and I just wanted to stay put.  Common sense and the unending barrage of scary news on TV got the better of me, and we ended up at my parent’s house.

What to bring assuming that the worst was going to happen? There are so many books, knick-knacks, and objects associated with precious memories, choosing what to take was going to be difficult. In the end, the choice was a bit surprising – the desktop computer, the laptop, the cameras, the dog, and my little chicken. Not one book, not one photo album, not one special pair of shoes: electronics prevailed.

During the storm when electricity was out, and the wind was whistling thru the storm shutters all I could think of was one thing – we have no wifi, which meant no internet, which meant no window to the world. That is what devastation was to me.

We were very fortunate this time as Hurricane Irma hit Miami as a Category 1 instead of the predicted Category 4 storm. Electricity was out for five days in my apartment and the internet for two weeks. This was nothing compared to what Irma and other hurricanes (Harvey, Jose, Maria) did to the Caribbean and some cities in the U.S.

I made a video to record the incident, with pictures before and after Irma and the little chicken showing the hurricane supplies. The big chicken left town, but that is another story for another time.