I woke up Tuesday morning October 4th with one thing on my mind…. We were having Taco Tuesday at Kendall and Chad’s house for lunch, seriously had to be the best day ever right? Well, as the morning went on and the reports of Hurricane Matthew loomed the more we all became a little concerned and started taking this serious. This was going to be a bad storm and if it hit us head on we were going to be in trouble!
By noon on Wednesday we had closed the office and made a plan to close for Thursday and Friday. My car had gas, my kitchen table littered with candles, batteries, flashlights and tons of dry food. Palm Beach county had closed the schools and all government offices were officially closed to wait out the storm. This was it, we were as ready as we could be. At this point I couldn’t watch the news anymore, it was bad and we knew if we received a direct hit it would be devastating. I needed to get out of the house and of course I went to the ocean. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got there. Absolutely beautiful with a light breeze and blue waters. Hard to believe this ocean was going to be the one that would tear down my little town the next day.
Thursday morning, I woke up in a panic. My neighborhood was being evacuated. Thank goodness I had someplace to go. I grabbed everything I could, my son, our cats and took pictures of my apartment so if needed I could prove there was no damage before the storm. Being a Florida resident for the last 27 years, I knew that before we hunkered down I needed to do a beach drive by. Such a different ocean from the day before. Today she looked mad and swirled with anger from the day before. As we settle in and waited for the storm to approach, I wondered if the wind or flooding would be the worst. For some reason I’ve never gone through a Hurricane during the day it’s always been at night when its scarier.
Kendall & Chad: We had a much different hurricane story, being as it was the first one we’d had ever been in! The house was in an evacuation zone and from the beginning we both decided it would be best to stick out the storm at home with our fur babies. Of course, not one to miss out on the fun, Marco helped Chad prepare the home! Gus, being the family guy that he is headed up to Miami to take care of the Garcia clan. Thankfully, we all made it and everyone felt a huge relief of just how lucky we got! Was it scary? Absolutely!
Woke up Friday morning too quiet and surprise…..WE HAD POWER! Went outside and only a few branches down. At some point during then night that nasty Hurricane took a turn and was going to attack Daytona Beach, St. Augustine Beach and Jacksonville and then move into the Carolina’s. Whew, we got so lucky! Finally, able to turn on the news and oh my goodness did I realize how lucky we truly were. Haiti and Bahamas (mostly West End and Lucaya) got pummeled. Complete devastation everywhere, these islands looked like they had lost everything! Feeling helpless and knowing how lucky we had it made, we wanted to help in any way we could! Thank goodness Kendall had a plan!
A local family was taking donations to be delivered to The Bahamas. Bottom Line Marketing eagerly want to help so we sent over water, diapers, baby food and canned foods to help all the locals who lost so much. More than just helping we want to put the word out you that you can help too! For more information on how you can donate to the Bahamas, contact us.
Thanks for all your thoughts and sincere phone calls! And thanks for taking the time to read our Hurricane Matthew blog!