The day after Labor Day 2017 was a day millions of South Floridians had to make a life or death decision. There were only two options for east and west coast residents (if they could afford a second option); either they would hunker down, prepare as best as they could and wait out the storm, or they’d get their loved ones and whatever valuables they could fit into their vehicles and evacuate, praying for those who stayed. The largest evacuation in U.S. history took place that week – 6.5 million Floridians abandoned their homes. Not only did evacuees go inland, many went out of state because the size of the storm made any of the predicted paths too dangerous to endure. It was eye opening in multiple ways and there was plenty of evidence to support the decision to flee to safety.
Just five days after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas as a Cat. 4 and the most costly storm recorded history ($180 billion in damage) causing 82 fatalities, Irma was churning in the eastern Atlantic. We were also approaching Hurricane Andrew’s 25th anniversary. The images and stories of devastation were fresh in our minds. We were due for a perfect storm.
Having grown up preparing for hurricanes, hearing stories from relatives who were lucky to live through Andrew, witnessing the aftermath of Harvey, and looking at the size of Irma (over 400 miles wide, sustained winds of 185 mph for 37 hours straight) it didn’t take much convincing to pack up and go. It was shocking and relieving to walk into our weekly conference at The M Network to find out we’d be closed Thursday and Friday to escape the storm. We had to move quickly to prepare the studio and our homes for the worst. I never experienced more stress over a longer period of time than I and many other others faced that week. Pure exhaustion overcame all of us. There was no time to rest. There was also a new dynamic that tested relationships and friendships between those who decided to stay and those who were leaving. Those who stayed made evacuees feel they were overreacting and those fleeing were scared their friends wouldn’t be there when they returned to clean up the mess. Everyone was scared and frustrated. Stores ran out of supplies. People were frantic and desperate and that was just the beginning.
Wednesday morning, we started to disassemble equipment and prepare clients for our studio closure. We disconnected edit suites, packed our cameras and lenses and last and most certainly not least, we pulled the server from the rack room to haul it up to Tennessee. None of us realized how heavy the server was until we got it half way out of its shelf. It took three people (Thom, Mark and myself) to remove it from the rack. Thom and Mark (our IT guy) had to carry it down stairs together. We were all sweating, literally and metaphorically because that server maintains our most valued items; current (unfinished) projects and years of archived media. With just enough room to squeeze the server into the bed of the truck, we were ready to hit the road.
We had no idea that we were heading into the longest traffic jam in U.S. history. Okay, that’s not true. The worst traffic jam in recorded history is known as the China National Highway 110 Traffic Jam. Ironically, trucks delivering materials for road construction to lighten traffic in Beijing caused a lot of the congestion. The highway was chronically clogged from an inundation of semi’s transporting coal due to overloaded railways and of course, the usual fender-benders. Vehicles moved approximately 0.6 miles per day for 12 days. It took most travelers between 3-5 days to get to where they were going. Another famous traffic jam happened where I’m moving – Chicago, Illinois. Cars came to a complete halt when a blizzard rolled in during rush hour on Tuesday, February 1. People were stranded for about 12 hours as snow piled up as high as their windshields. That said, our mass exodus certainly felt like the worst traffic jam in history and I can empathize with the Chinese and the Chicagoans.
We stopped just outside of Orlando (normally a 3 hour drive) to eat and stretch our legs after about 6 hours of good music and backaches. After passing cars parked along the high way stretching a mile or more, we decided to drive through the night to avoid morning traffic. My boss, his son and I spent 23 hours in the truck in totality. After the longest drive of our lives, stepping onto solid ground felt like standing on a treadmill set on low speed.
After paying off our accumulated sleep debt, we got right back to work. Hurricane Irma couldn’t stop The M Network. Dawn managed to do payroll and continue preparing for billing. Lisa pushed through in her PR and landed several interviews for our clients. Thom and I were able to edit several video projects. Grace gracefully managed her clients and prepared disaster-planning strategies for future unforeseeable events. Adrienna persisted in planning the Roofs Rising art installation for Homeless Awareness Day and our graphic designers, Gary and Jason resumed creative for current projects. The M Network motto is, “We can do anything. We choose to do good.” Maybe it should be changed to: “We can do anything from anywhere and we choose to do good.” Here’s evidence that we can do anything from anywhere:
Here in the Cabin Suite – Editing Miami Heart Gallery videos
Adrienna’s family continued painting houses for Roofs Rising even when the electricity came back on!
Dawn’s new back-up work station in Tennessee
Hurricane Irma was a wake up call for all us at The M Network. It reminded us that God is in control. If you can fit your loved ones, valuables and a few sentimental items in your car, you’re going to be more than okay. Another realization that surfaced during the evacuation was that life can change in an instant. That unfortunately would be the case for Florida Keys residents. With the devastation Hurricane Irma caused, 10,000 residents were displaced from their homes. There were a total of 134 fatalities spanning from the Caribbean islands, to the U.S. some of which were caused by the evacuation and others by terrible mishaps related to Irma. All of us at The M Network were very lucky to return to our families, friends and our homes still in tact – with a few exceptions to water damage and many dismantled trees.
So Hurricane Irma is the reason I’m moving to Chicago. Okay, that’s only partially true. I fell in love and realized if I can work remotely from a cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere, I can live in a big city with my boyfriend and continue doing good work with the company I love. And so my journey begins. I’ll blog about my adventure and what it’s like to work remotely. I’m turning to Dawn and Gary who can give me some pointers because of their extensive experience working from home.
