Although I currently reside in Oregon, which is literally in the opposite corner of the United States from Florida, the devastating impact that Hurricane Ian is having on that state hits close to home for me.
I lived in Tampa, Florida, when Hurricane Irma hit, in September 2017. At the time, I was a few weeks into the beginning of the last of my three years as a postdoctoral scholar and visiting instructor at the University of South Florida (USF). Irma seemed to be headed straight for Tampa, and I had to prepare for the worst.
In my second-floor apartment, I placed large furniture face down on the floor in the rooms with windows and holed up in the hallway with a stash of fresh water, dry goods, and summer sausage (which doesn’t need refrigerating) to wait out the storm and its aftermath.
