Miami-Dade issues a mandatory evacuation. It isn’t easy to hear that you’ve been ordered to evacuate your home. Knowing that we can’t take it all with us, I came up with the idea that we could move all of our stuff up to the second floor where a 10 foot storm surge wouldn’t get to it. This seemed like a good idea at the time and required lots of man power to get it up the stairs and organized. Taking it down after the storm felt like even more work. I don’t think we’ll be doing that again. Special thanks to the muscle, Mateo, Josiah, Silvano, other family members and friends.

Mandatory evacuation orders made this The Great Move - Hurricane Irma 2017

Mandatory Evacuation

Miami-Dade County orders a mandatory evacuation for Zones A, B, and some of C. We lived in B, so we packed up and moved most of our stuff upstairs to the second floor.

Miami-Dade Flood Zone Map-
Mandatory evacuation orders made this The Great Move - Hurricane Irma 2017

Packed up & Ready to Go

Everything from the garage, TV to picture frames was moved upstairs. The hardest part of this move was the stairs. Our family worked together and tackled the problem.

Mandatory evacuation orders made this The Great Move - Hurricane Irma 2017

Young Backs

Young bloods like Mateo & Josiah used their manly muscles to help preserve our goods upstairs. Having a second floor comes in handy.

It was time to leave so we had to leave prepared.

Doomsday Preppers

I really enjoy watching NatGeo's Doomsday Preppers but I am not that dedicated like those people are. Or as crazy. I've been building my Bug-out/Camp site stash for a few years now. This kept me out of Wal-Mart trying to get what I needed.
It was time to leave so we had to leave prepared.

Have a Plan

Since we expected lots of water, these freezer zipper bags would be key to our bug-out bags. I also broke my prep into sections:
  • Camp Site
  • Medical/Hygiene
  • Financials
  • Energy/Light
  • Electronics
  • Food/Water
  • Clothing
  • Tools
It was time to leave so we had to leave prepared.

Gotta have Energy

Light and power are super important. During the storm we sat in darkeness even though it was daytime. The boarded up windows and steel shutters kept us in the dark. Headlamps are a great choice because they are small enough to keep with you. My Energizer Radio/Flashlight was fantastic. We heard the news, including the Weather band robots. Also had a hand crank batter charger built in.