Hurricane Ida was a life-changing experience. This was my first time experiencing anything like this before. From preparing, to during the hurricane, to the damages, everything was so stressful and nerve-wracking. My situation was not near as bad as my family, friends, or people I know.

I did not evacuate for Ida. We decided to stay and prepare very well. My mother had to work at the hospital for the storm, so we didn’t want to leave her behind. We had to prepare for the worst. During the storm, it was a wild experience, from the sound of the wind whistling, to the rain and debris hitting my home and flying around. The wind was terrible.

During the storm, we did begin to have some problems with water leaking inside the house. All of the rooms had water dripping from the ceiling. This was towards the end of the storm so it didn’t get to the point where it was a serious problem.  The winds were picking up, so it caused our power to go out. Our power went out before the storm even hit land. We had a regular-sized generator during the storm, but after the storm we got a big generator that ran the whole house. We stayed without power for a very long time and also without cell service. Our service still isn’t quite right. It goes in and out, making it hard to still communicate over the phone.

After the storm we did have a lot of cleaning to do. We lost our fence and parts of the roof. When people couldn’t return to work or do anything, everyone used this time to bond, cook what we had and spend time together. That’s all we could do. They did have people giving food plates away almost every day for people who couldn’t get any good, which was awesome.

After going through this, if it’s ever my choice, I will not stay during a storm again. Even if I didn’t experience the worst, just the experience is scarring. I will never risk my life when I could safely evacuate.