Pre, During, and Post Hurricane Irma

Hello Friends: It's been a few weeks since our last post, and we will be sharing more in the upcoming days. Nevertheless, as a South Floridian, I thought I'd share my thoughts after Hurricane Irma and everything we've learned along the way.

1. Preparation is KEY. Preparation includes everything from organizing your work calendar to organizing your home. We focused on those upcoming days on rescheduling meeting with clients to placing shutters on our home. We bought many essentials such as: flashlights, batteries, non-perishable foods, fruits, water, and ice.

• TIP: Don't overbuy non-perishable food-- think enough for three days. We made the mistake of buying for a party, and the truth is that you aren't realistically speaking going to go over 12 cans of tuna as well as several containers of peanut butter and jelly... oops.

• TIP: Fruits are a great option-- we always think of non-perishable fruits, but apples, oranges, bananas, and many other fruits don't require refrigeration.

• TIP: Create an organizational number system for your shutters-- we have designated a number to each window and organized the shutters by those numbers accordingly. It makes installation a breeze (and by breeze I mean an hour to 75 minutes).

2. Decide whether it is best for you to stay or evacuate. Many people have no other choice, but to evacuate their homes due to proximity of the storm or flood warnings, make a plan as to where you will weather the storm. Our home was in an area that according to the evacuation map of Miami-Dade County would be considered the last to consider evacuating due to the lack of flooding concerns. This was one of the reasons we decided to stay in our home. That being said, many people decided that the idea of staying or evacuating was beyond wondering at whose house they would stay at, many people decided that they needed to leave to different parts of the state and even to other states. If this is something you are considering, again plan accordingly and act quickly as availability for hotels or the likes rapidly become unavailable and roads get easily congested.

3. It goes beyond material items. The storm helped put so many things in context for us. It forces us to take a break from our day to day and think about our loved ones and our well being. Safety should be the number one concern. When Sergio and I kept deciding what to do, we thought about so many things.

• We thought about our family, with our parents and siblings considering staying in Miami, we knew we wanted to be close to them.

• We thought about our city. Miami is the only home Sergio and I have ever had-- we were born and raised in this city. Someone posted on social media about potentially losing the Miami skyline as we've known it, I kid you not, I got emotional seeing that post. When your city becomes a part of your identity, it's hard to leave it, because it's hard to leave a part of yourself. While we were concerned about our new home, we were more concerned about our city and bringing it back to its feet. Now please do not misinterpret my post, this is a personal decision and everything goes back to safety-- the idea of staying or leaving should not be something we judge others for, every person has a different circumstance and of course having young children or caring for elderly highly influences those decisions.

• And remember that material items, while a sacrifice to earn and obtain can always be earned and obtained again... you did it once, you'll do it again!

4. Patience is a virtue and tensions are high pre and post storm. As we prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, the streets and stores were chaotic. It was so easy to find others that were inconsiderate, skipped lines, or were just plain old rude. When faced with people like this, remind yourself that you can only control your behavior and your actions. It does not mean that you need allow everyone to skip, but when faced with a confrontation try to face it with grace and respect... it will follow. Trust me... I had to deal with it. Of course during the storm, find things to do with your family, but also value space. It can be overwhelming to spend all day with everyone, so respect giving space to all members of the family to continue the harmony. And lastly, the aftermath is one of the hardest since it requires restoring and at many times dealing with circumstances that we are not accustomed to dealing with such as lack of electricity. We had to deal with 6 days without electricity and the frustration level was HIGH.

5. Be a good neighbor. During these difficult times, we have no choice but to disconnect from various social media platforms and connect with others. We are so grateful we had the chance to meet and now connect with our neighbors and offer a helping hand. Life is filled with so many unexpected twist and turns and when something sets us off from what we are accustomed to it can be frustrating, challenging, but also an opportunity to reflect and connect.