This weekend, everyone who lives in the southeastern part of this great country of ours is thinking of a lady named Irma. Me too! But to be honest I’d rather think about Irma la Douce. She has a much better figure than Irma the Hurricane. Remember that 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine? Irma la Douce (Irma the Sweet) was a “working” lady who became the object of Jack Lemmon’s affection. The rest of the movie was about the ex-cop, Jack’s attempts to change Shirley’s profession. What we need today is for Jack Lemmon to persuade Irma the hurricane to spin around harmlessly in the Gulf of Mexico.
Not that hurricanes are anything new to this native Floridian who saw his share of them while growing up. These bad ladies; Greta, Debbie, Ella, Irene, Judith, Brenda, Donna Carla, Hattie, Cleo, Dora, Isbell and Gladys all came visiting Florida while I lived in Jacksonville. That is before men’s names got merged into the mix. The big difference back in the day is that we did not have computer models predicting the paths of the storm. So it was rare that we had more than a few days warning, a few precious days to prepare.
For us kids, preparations were to go out and police the front and back yards to pick up anything that could become a missile when buoyed by the high winds. Toys, hoses, sprinklers, lawn furniture and flower pots were stored. The car was placed in the garage with our bicycles, bathtubs and all available containers filled with water, canned food stocked on the kitchen shelves. Because we had an electric range, we made sure the camp stove was filled with propane for use outdoors and that there was plenty of firewood available for the inevitable loss of power. As boy scouts, we knew how to camp out after a storm.
I thought that when I moved to Columbia, SC over 100 miles from the nearest coastline that all of that was behind me. And up until 1989, hurricanes became something to observe from a distance. My theory was that surely any storm that hit the coast would dissipate to tropical depression status before it got here. Then, along came a Cat 4 visitor named Hugo who made landfall just slightly north of Charleston, on Sullivan's Island on September 21 with 140 mph sustained winds and gusts to more than 160 mph.
It was during the overnight of September 21, 1989 when I realized that the western eye wall had passed over the house. I knew that my theory needed revising! That was my first time in the eye of a hurricane and everything they said was true. The winds died out and the stars were visible overhead. Soon enough, it was time to scurry back inside as the other side of the eye wall passed overhead and we were dumped back into the fury of the storm, this time with the winds coming from the west and south as opposed to the initial directions of the north and east.
The next morning, cleanup began with clearing all the branches and tree limbs that covered both the front and back yards. The only damage to the house was the loss of a corner of one shingle on the western facing roof. But the pain was the loss of power. We live in a little power cul-de-sac with about 50 homes on our neighborhood circuit. Despite the heroic work of the power crews, it was five days before power and air conditioning returned. The neighbors all around pooled our resources, we took showers at a neighbor who had a gas water heater and they cooked on our gas stove. Needless to say there is a fine new gas water heater in a tin shed attached to the back of the house now.
Ever since Hugo, my vigilance level for hurricanes has increased. These days I watch them come off the Cape Verde Islands and note the position of the Bermuda-Cape Verde High that determines when hurricanes turn towards the north from their westward tracks across the Atlantic.
Knock on wood: I have had to evacuate a hurricane’s path only once in my life and that occurred in 1998 when I was evacuated from Myrtle Beach, SC where I was attending a conference. The center of Hurricane Bonnie came within 70 miles of the Horry County coast. Highest wind reports ranged as high as 82 mph at the Cherry Grove pier. At the Myrtle Beach Pavilion the highest gust was 76 mph. While the eye didn’t hit South Carolina, Bonnie was close enough to cause beach erosion and an estimated $30 million in damage at flood-prone North Myrtle Beach, not far from the North Carolina state line.
As I drove south along US 17, I was planning on headed westward on US 501 through Conway and then over to I-95 and I-20 near Florence. When I reached 501 I could plainly see that the traffic was backed up for miles and that would not be a great way to get out. I opted to drive down to Georgetown and then take US 521 to Manning and then Sumter where I picked up US 378 to within a few blocks of home. A trip that would normally take a little over 3 hours wound up taking about 4 and a half. Some of my friends who took the more direct route spent over 6 hours to get back home. Although I would like to claim that as a genius move, it was more like blind luck.
I did learn something that day; why interstate highways are not designated as hurricane evacuation routes. Everyone who thinks that Interstates are faster has not had to evacuate in a crowd. Interstates become crowded and traffic slows to a standstill, tempers flare and folks run out of gas and patience. Secondary roads remain lightly travelled, although more than normal but traffic tends to move at a higher speed and there tends to be more gas available in stations that are not at Interstate intersections. From the news coverage that I saw this week, the folks that evacuated Florida for Irma have experienced that first hand.
Left: Shirley MacLaine as Irma la Douce So this morning, Hurricane Irma made landfall at 9:10 AM Eastern time on Cudjoe Key in the Lower Florida Keys, about 30 miles east of Key West, while classified as a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. After crossing the keys, she went back to sea and is skirting up the Gulf Coast of Florida. The second US landfall is occurring somewhere close to Marco Island now and Irma will move across Naples and Fort Myers later this afternoon. As expected, Southern Florida is experiencing widespread power outages and coastal flooding. For me, I’m breathing a watchful sigh of relief.
The movie la Douce ended in a ball of confusion with the lifelines of the major characters significantly altered. It appears certain that, when the remnants of Hurricane Irma dissipate somewhere in the Midwest that the lives of many folks in Florida and Georgia are going to be similarly altered. To all my family and friends who will be forever changed by Irma, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Life does go on! Oh MY!
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