Evelyn C. McDonald
October 5, 2016 11:09 a.m.
As I sit not knowing where Matthew will be by Friday, I’m reminded of two other storms I’ve seen close up and personal. The first one was just a tropical storm but I happened to be on Hatteras Island, North Carolina. The elevation on the island is maybe 5 feet above sea level so the roads were awash. We were driving a British sports car so low slung that it would drown out in heavy dew. We went into a weather station and watched the instruments tracking the storm. With no idea what all the instruments, it was still exciting to see Mother Nature at her wildest.
The other storm was a genuine hurricane. I was living in Pinellas County north of St. Petersburg, Florida. The storm was a Category 3 or 4. As it approached the west coast of Florida, it didn’t seem to know quite where it wanted to go. So it sort of meandered around off Appalachicola Bay. My house was on “high” ground, at least 13 feet above sea level. So I dutifully filled the bath tub, poured a Scotch, turned on the TV, and waited.
To give you a sense of the geography, Pinellas County has one main road north, US 19. There is a road going north of Tampa Bay toward the east, and two bridges (one a causeway and the other the Skyway Bridge over the mouth of the bay). I can still recall my reaction when I heard the TV announcer say, “Pinellas County is now an island.” Both roads and bridges were impassable. Whatever else was going to happen, I was isolated with no way to get out and on the highest ground available.
Eventually the storm decided on a course and moved onshore well north of us but it was a scary night for me. Now I am on an island. And waiting. Good luck to all of us.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.