Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hurricane Season A Trip

Normally I write about my travels. This post is just a trip. Living in Florida means being subjected to the annual annoyances, stresses and fears of potential hurricanes. These storms create a huge stir here in sunny FL, and are often a loss of revenue to many business owners. The impact they can have on my specialty industry of tourism can be more devastating than the storm.

Having worked on a Florida Keys resort account for nine years, I have dealt with the preparatory ceremonies, including evacuations, many times. Now that my agency works with entire destinations, we also have our hands in hurricane crisis management with regards to keeping our tourists informed during and after the storm. Usually the biggest challenge is to fight the media sensationalism so travelers know which areas have not been affected. The weather images and live videos of reporters being blown across streets are short-lived in reality and often isolated to a finite area, while much of the state may not be feeling the same affects.

Don’t get me wrong, hurricanes are extremely dangerous. In fact, while I write this, we are currently in Tropical Storm Fay and I can hear the squalls of rain and wind outside. Schools and businesses are closed, and my husband has just driven to Charlotte County to report for mandatory duty. His 35 mile drive through the storm was a little hairy, with a lot of water on the streets and gusty wind. There have been six tornados reported so far this morning, but no major injuries. I can see out my sliding doors that we have lost a much loved bougenvilia tree and a screen panel in the cage.

We have walked the walk of boarding up and hunkering down numerous times. We have also experienced power outages, tree uprootings and other fairly minor damages to our home, neighborhood and businesses. We have even witnessed the devastation of a major hurricane and its affect on many of our friends’ lives. For certain, hurricanes are not to be taken lightly.

Yesterday I returned home a day early from (ironically) the 41st annual Governors Conference on Tourism. The attendance was a little disappointing, and the rooms got thinner over a 24 hour period. Understandably, many tourism leaders had to return to their respective counties to man their duties during the storm. We stayed long enough to hear some speeches on travel trends and to receive a great award – one of only fifteen bestowed annually on tourism entities for excellence and success in tourism marketing. It was the first Flagler award our clients from Manatee County had gotten, so it was a proud moment. I believe its our agency’s fourth one.

My day today will be a mix of communicating with my coworkers and clients, hoping for no power outages at my house, checking in with Gene to make sure he’s okay, watching TV or playing cards with Taryn (for her, they are the snow days of my youth), and eventually returning all the lanai furniture and plants to their normal location. And by tomorrow or Thursday, the vacationers will be back on the beaches looking for new shells washed up by the storm. Life is definitely a trip in Florida.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great blog -- so true! Those reporters in their rain coats holding on (for dear life!) to light posts when it's barely drizzling outside drive me batty.

Anonymous said...

Hey, some of us thrive on the entire sensationalism behind the "hurricane" thing. Especially when it means an extra day to sleep in. Once again we got really lucky. It turned into one of those special "spring cleaning" days for me. The amusing part of it was that even the reporters had no idea what they were talking about....again!