Surviving, together

“I took a snap chat video of my 7-month-old daughter and captioned it “Hurricane hair, don’t care.”

That was before the wind really picked up.

My husband had a bad feeling and wanted us to evacuate. He is a state trooper and was working the night shift the day of the storm. I was afraid that if we left and he stayed it would be days or even weeks before we would be able to get in touch with him. I wanted my family together.

We decided to hunker down at my in-law’s house. They live in Southport on 10 acres in a big brick house. We felt the safest there.

We watched trees ripping out of the ground from their roots as we sat in the dining room eating short ribs my mother-in-law had prepared for our hurricane lunch. It wasn’t until the windows started to bow in and out that the severity of the storm really sunk in.

A short time later a tree landed at the edge of the porch, shingles popped off and water started pouring in from the air vents.

My husband’s family owns a commercial fishing business and they have a giant freezer on the back porch. We looked outside and the freezer had been completely thrown off the porch door was open and bags of frozen shrimp and breast milk were flying out and covering the ground. Pops and Uncle Eric braved the hurricane to rescue the shrimp and my husband went out to save my breast milk.

My father-in-law, who we call Pops, is an old-fashioned guy. He wasn’t going to pick up the breast milk.

It wasn’t until we heard him say, “Oh God, we should have left,” that we realized this unshakable man was terrified.

We had all moved into the closet of the master bedroom. Our daughter was happy and content in her bouncer. Oblivious to our terror.

It got worse. I was shaking and crying.

When the storm finally passed, we wandered outside. Trees were everywhere. Snapped in half. We all remarked that if it was this bad here then there was nothing left of Panama City.

My husband got in his patrol car to drive to our house six miles away.

I asked him to check on our house and come right back.

Three hours later he pulled back into the drive way. I knew something was wrong. He was gone too long. He had tears in his eyes when he got out of the car. “What’s wrong,” I asked. “It’s gone. It’s all gone.”

He told me how he parked his car and walked a half mile to get to our house. Standing at the front door the house looked untouched. To his horror he opened the door to find the house had collapsed. Mounds of wet insulation covered everything. He grabbed all our daughters’ things. Her clothes and our favorite baby items. He grabbed some things he knew I had sentimental attachment to. It was such a sweet and thoughtful thing for him to do after realizing that we were homeless.

His parents gave us the home so we could have a good start out on life together. It was one of the first things Pops had bought on his own.

Once the roof was gone you could see very clearly that the floor boards were built out of World War II ammo crates that had been sent to Tyndall Air Force Base. The stenciled names and serial names were still visible.

We didn’t have homeowner’s insurance. The price of insurance on a paid off home is outrageous.

I cried and cried. My husband and his parents reminded me that it was going to be ok. We were going to get through this. Just as I dried my tears my husband got ready and headed into work his shift.

“People need help. I have to go,” he said.

Around 2 a.m. he came back to the house to check on us. Our daughter, who was normally a good sleeper, spent the night crying.

My husband said he had seen enough and we didn’t need to stay. We packed what little we had and started to drive to my parent’s house in Georgia. What we didn’t know was that we were following the path of the storm.

We cut a path through the fallen trees on our journey and we eventually made it. We hadn’t slept in two days and we were exhausted.

Once we had our daughter settled into a crib at my mom’s house. I sat down and googled ‘what to do if your house is hit by a hurricane.’

I literally did everything it said to do. Including applying for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan. We were one of the first people to apply for an SBA loan and when it was approved my husband asked, “How did you know to do this?” “Google!”

We needed to stretch the money as far as it would go. We borrowed house plans from a friend who recently built a home and that saved us a considerable amount of money. We are trying to be patient. Taking it one step at a time.

In the meantime, we are making the best of the situation. My in-law’s have been fantastic. They have given us a place to stay and this time together has allowed them the time to form a close bond with our daughter.

We are getting through this together. That is all that matters.”