When Life Hands You A Hurricane

As you may have heard, the southeast United States was recently hit by a massive 400-mile-wide hurricane. What you probably don’t know is that we (my husband and business partner Joeel and I, as well as the Transformation team) live in Florida, on the west coast where hurricane Irma hit directly.

 

- Natalie Rivera

So, what DO you do when life gives you a hurricane? Below is our story.

For days we watched updates as a category 5 hurricane barreled toward us through the Caribbean. We stayed busy working on our courses, trying to remain calm as we waited to know what to expect. As it inched toward our country and state, it looked highly likely that it would move up the east coast of our peninsula-shaped state surrounded by water, putting us on the far side, away from the strong winds and ocean flooding. Our heart went out to the residents on the other coast who were evacuating and preparing for the storm. But, with a 400 mile wide storm approaching a 100 mile wide state, we knew we were going to be in the path too, so we, along with all of our family, friends, and other Transformation team members, prepared by gathering water and food and protecting our homes.

We planned to stay put in our home or move inland to stay with family during the storm if the wind speeds were going to be low.

But, 48 hours before the storm came, it unexpectedly turned to the west… heading directly at us—and at the time the wind speeds were 165 miles per hour.

Although the news was surprising, we had prepared in advance for the worst case scenario, so we took action.

We heard the news late at night and called all of our family to make sure they knew that we all needed to head to higher ground.

We left immediately, at 12:30am, and drove over 500 miles into Georgia. The storm was so big, even Georgia was going to be affected, but we had to get away from the strongest winds and there were NO HOTEL ROOMS available anywhere in Florida and in most of Georgia. In all, over 6 million people evacuated in the several days leading up to the storm.