David Fleet
Editor
Boca Raton, Fla.-RJ Pratt and his girlfriend Jamie Harris are safe.
The 2011 Goodrich High School graduates are residents of Boca Raton, Fla. and live in an apartment about five miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Pratt is a graduate assistant at Florida Atlantic University where he is working on a masters degree. Harris is employed by Nationwide Automotive Services.
Hurricane Irma, the massive Category 5 storm ripped through the Caribbean and made landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm the morning of Sept. 10. The storm roared north but moved slightly west on Sept 11 toward the Gulf of Mexico. Irma’s shift spared the east shore of Florida, which included Boca Raton, from the brunt of the storm.However, many local residents like Pratt and Harris had evacuated north away from the pending storm.
“As the storm was forming we followed the news and social media very close,” said Pratt. “The counties just to the south of us had mandatory evacuations. Many people were leaving in a hurry and we had friends in Charlotte, North Carolina to stay with up there, so we left.”
Pratt and Harris headed north about 8 p.m., Sept. 5, to stay with Wade Wood and Kari Wirgau also, 2011 Goodrich graduates.
“There was a lot of traffic and many, many gas shortages on the way,” he said. “You really have to scour the local gas stations to find fuel. There were long lines and sometimes you had to wait about a half hour to gas up. People were pretty good—just a lot of frustration and we did not see the price gouging anywhere. We were very lucky and found gas. The nine hour drive to Charlotte took 14 hours—but the farther north you went the traffic thinned out.”
By Sept. 11, Hurricane Irma was down graded to a tropical storm Irma as it ripped up Florida’s west coast and moved into Alabama and Georgia. The pair headed back to Florida on Sept. 12.
“The traffic was bad heading back south,” he said. “It was stop-and-go all the way to Jacksonville, (Fla). The only damage we could see were some downed trees and a lot of water in certain areas. But no real devastation.”
Their apartment complex was not damaged.
“If you go out for a walk you can find some damage from the wind or rain but everything is fine here,” he said. “Some people just stayed in the apartments and rode the storm out—but we chose to leave. The news did a very good job of informing people about the track of the storm as it moved north.”
The couple moved to Boca Roton in 2016 before Hurricane Matthew rolled on to the Florida peninsula.
“During Hurricane Matthew many of the natives told up to just ride it out,” he said. “But it seemed more natives got out of town for Irma. Either way we were very lucky and honestly we are thinking twice before we decide to make Florida our home for ever.”