Editor's note: A former Ada resident experienced Hurricane Irma firsthand. Here's what it's like to take shelter, and live through, a monstrous storm.
Lakeland, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 10 - A good friend of mine and I pull together blankets, pillows, chairs, and a cooler of bottled water as we prepare to go to a local hurricane shelter (Sleepy Hill Elementary School) to ride out Irma, labeled the MOTHER OF ALL HURRICANES. We are both nervous and scared.
We arrive at 10:30 a.m. with the parking lots already 90% full. More than 400 people have arrived. As I drive the car to the front door of the school, a volunteer hustles a cart out of the school to greet us and helps us unload our belongings.
The volunteer with the cart hustles to the front door as the winds and rain have begun to pound the Lakeland area.
Another volunteer on a golf cart leads me to a parking place in a remote part of the full parking lot to show me where to park the car. He then valets me back to the school where we checked into the shelter.
At check in, Red Cross and county sheriff's officers greet us with very friendly smiles and rush us through the check in process. Hundreds of more people will check in after us. The fantastic organization and calming presence of these professionals was so appreciated.
We then are escorted to our room, or in this case a second grade classroom, where we slept in our corner space. A total of 15 people will share this classroom together for the next 24 hours.
In the school cafeteria we were provided a wonderful lunch and supper where all the many fantastic volunteers fed over 700 people in less than one hour. The organization and super friendly people and volunteers so impressed us both.
The eye of hurricane Irma was only hours way from crossing right over the City of Lakeland. We lost power to the entire school and the city and county at 8:30 p.m.
Sleep time was designated to begin at 9 p.m. so that worked out okay. We all felt very safe at the shelter because of the outstanding volunteers ability to calm us and there amazing organization was so impressive.
The eye arrived at 2 a.m. on Monday morning. Winds and gusts up to 110 mph with pelting rains lasted all night. As fast as Hurricane Irma arrived over us, she tracked north away from us.
What an amazing experience. And my take away from this experience is simply....THE RED CROSS AND DEDICATED VOLUNTEERS ..."ROCK" !!!
