5 Ways Floridian Millennials Reacted to Hurricane Irma
“If you have been ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now…Do not wait. Evacuate. Not tonight, not in an hour. You need to go right now.” The live stream on my TV shows Florida Gov. Rick Scott surrounded by, whom I assume to be, important people and an ASL translator. I look at my boyfriend, who is looking out at the water by our home, and start to feel anxious. If there is a storm surge we could very well lose our apartment and our lives, if we stay. It is Tuesday, September 12, 2017 and Hurricane Irma, the largest hurricane to form over the Atlantic, literally has its’ eye on Miami.
As I write this Hurricane Irma has already done its’ damage hitting both the Caribbean and the U.S. With the constant news updates, my neighbors panicking, and chatter of Hurricane Andrew, I freaked out. We evacuated, out of the state, ended up in D.C where we watched the storm blow through Florida from our TVs.
Before, during, and after the hurricane my friends and I couldn’t stop talking about the hurricane. “What are you doing?”, “Where are you going?”, “Are you safe?”, and “LOL did you see this Irma meme?” were all questions we asked one another.
That got me thinking about how Millennials deal with natural disasters. I mean, you’d expect we’d all sit at home and cry about the lack of internet and power to our parents. However, after interviewing a sized group of millennials in Florida, I learned we aren’t like that at all.
We Didn’t Follow Authority’s Instructions 100%
The weekend before the Hurricane hit, the news started to report that Hurricane Irma would hit Florida as a category 4 or 5. By Monday, Labor Day, the news reported Miami would get a direct hit. By Tuesday, the governor was suggesting voluntary evacuations.
Millennials were just like “Eh, whatever. I’m going to stay” and stocked up on hurricane snacks and liquor to throw hurricane Irma parties. We heard the news, we heard it was dangerous, yet we thought we could brace the storm.
It wasn’t until the mandatory evacuations were ordered that most Millennials started thinking “Crap, this might be serious” and started packing up to head out. However, the majority still didn’t leave Florida and drove to their families or friends’ homes around the state despite warnings that the hurricane would hit ALL of Florida.
So why would we put ourselves in possible danger? A common theme of expensive flights, a long drive, and gas shortages seemed to be the reason for many of people I spoke to. As one millennial, David Small from East Little Havana, Miami put it,
“[I] only considered leaving Florida by plane but… flights became unavailable or unreasonably expensive. Driving was not an option as I didn’t think it to be smart to join the masses on the roads on top of having to figure out gas station stop…”
This is to say some millennials didn’t leave Florida, some did and most of the ones who did had good reason.
We Put Our Family’s First
Although Millennials have been notoriously dubbed the “snowflake generation”, none of the people I talked to ran away to their parents to cry. Instead, what I found was that Hurricane Irma made Millennials realize how important their families were.
Millennials with children, or those expecting children, were not worried about their own safety but those of their children and/or children to be. Some of these millennial parents evacuated to safer areas in Florida, where they stayed with family, but the majority strapped their kids into their car seats and headed out of state. A few millennial mothers told me they were not going to let their children suffer without electricity, clean water, and worst case scenario a home.
For those who don’t have children, majority took refugee with family members within the state or out of state. So yes, some of us ran home to mommy and daddy, but some of us rekindled relationships with estranged family members and not one of us cried and said “poor me”.
We Thought About Hurricane Andrew and Harvey’s Horrors
Although we may not always do what our authoritarian government elders advise, we do listen to our elders and pre-Irma (and honestly since I have at least moved down here) all anyone could talk about was the infamous Hurricane Andrew.
Quick Facts on Hurricane Andrew:
- Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Homestead (a city in Miami Dade) on August 24, 1992.
- Around 1 million people evacuated Florida.
- Hurricane Andrew’s winds were determined to be 165 miles per hour.
- The morning of Aug. 24, 1992, a storm tide of 4 to 6 feet was measured in Biscayne Bay. Heights as high as nearly 17 feet were measured at the waterfront Burger King International Headquarters.
- The nationwide total death toll from Hurricane Andrew was 26, with another 40 people dying as an indirect result of the storm.
- The damage from Hurricane Andrew was staggering, with about $25–26.5 billion in damages in Florida alone.
- Hurricane Andrew destroyed 25,524 homes and damaged another 101,241.
TL;DR Hurricane Andrew decimated Miami
This information, and personal accounts, were being shared with millennials 24/7 not to mention, some (but very few) millennials lived through it. Take Micheal Frazier, of Pembroke Pines, who evacuated primarily due to the memories of Andrew.
“I was a baby during Andrew and my parents always told me how miserable it was for them after. They lost everything and had to start over. I lived in a little trailer for years because of it.”
Another millennial, Leonardo Correa of Miami Beach, evacuated to a friends’ home on the bay side due to his girlfriend, Melissa Raskin’s, traumatic experience with hurricane Andrew. Not a millennial, Raskin lived through Andrew as a young child and still recalls on the horrific hurricane citing that South Florida went at least a month without power. She, along with others, also had to be rescued from the debris and destroyed homes.
When you speak to someone who lived through such a tragedy, you can see the horror in their eyes and hear it in their voice. It scares you and it haunts you at night when you try to imagine what life in the middle of a disaster would be like.
Hurricane Harvey had also hit Texas a few weeks prior and those images, and stories shared through social media, also made many feel nervous. These two hurricanes and their damages got a lot of millennials to leave or at least prepare their homes.
We Lighten the Heavy Hurricane Mood with Memes
Millennials aren’t watching the news all day like our parents and grandparents. We’re surfing the web, scrolling through social media, and checking out natural disasters and world crises through hashtags.
It’s our way of communicating, person to person, our firsthand accounts and a way for us to lighten the mood. When people around you are screaming at each other over gas, water, and plywood and sirens are going off at every minute, sometimes you need a good meme to calm your anxiety.
Thanks to the internet powers that be (aka Reddit and 4chan) we got tons of Hurricane Irma memes.
Are we insensitive? Maybe, or we are just trying to find the best way to cope as we low key freak out about natural disasters and their impending doom.
We Prepared and Planned
So, although we were slower than others to evacuate we did prepare our homes and we did set up emergency plans. When I asked millennials what they learned, almost every single one said how to better prepare and plan before a hurricane.
For most millennials, this was their first hurricane as renters and owners, and so the internet and news became the go to source for “How to Prepare for a Hurricane”.
A lot of millennials found they didn’t know Miami had designated flood zones, they didn’t know their emergency evacuation route, or their safe house. Buying water and hurricane snacks was not going to be enough, and none of us could have predicted the long lines for plywood and gas.
Although most millennials I spoke to were able to get enough supplies to prepare before the hurricane, they made it clear that next hurricane season they will get everything organized in order before a hurricane hits. Small had a great piece of advice, besides stocking up on a range of foods because tuna is not a viable option all day, “Be sure to have a can opener if you’re buying food without a pull-tab”.
After all, it is better to be safe than sorry as the saying goes.
After it All, We’re Not Leaving Florida
After natural disasters a lot of people are forced to move, or they decide to leave so that they won’t face the disaster again. Those who stay have to keep Eric Olivia, from North Miami’s, learned lesson in mind, “Respect nature and be ready for anything”.
The majority of the millennials I spoke to though, are doing just that, learning to be ready for the next hurricane and not abandon Florida.
Khadija Andrews, from Brickell, said “ I believe that the city will make changes to better handle natural disasters. There are more pros than cons living in Miami, so I am staying put”.
This is coming from someone who lives in the area that was most effected by the storm in Miami. Brickell’s busy streets turned into a raging river during the hurricane, and after, glass window panels fell from the high story skyscrapers enacting a curfew.
Andrews is right though, Florida banned together and millennials helped too. They helped their neighbors pre and post Irma and those who were able donated supplies to those in needs. For most of us, it was the first time we got together with our neighbors and our community to lend a helping hand.
Yet, there are some millennials who want to leave Florida eventually, but it has nothing to do with the hurricanes. Unfortunately, Florida doesn’t offer much security, or viable home options, for millennials looking to build families here… but that’s another story ;)
*To donate to those in need from Hurricane Irma, check out these organizations providing support.
