MORE: 5 things to know about Hurricane Irma’s impact on this region
The storm engulfed nearly the entire Florida peninsula, wreaking havoc from the state’s southernmost point up to the Georgia line, from the Atlantic to the Gulf coasts. More than 6.5 million homes and businesses statewide lost power, and 220,000 people huddled in shelters.
By Monday morning, Irma — at one point the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic, with winds up to 185 mph — was downgraded to a tropical storm, with winds of 65 mph.
New Tampa resident Pamela Dykes, a Springfield native and 1982 North High School graduate, made it through her first major hurricane with minimal damage, she said. She has lived in the area about 35 minutes from the airport for the last 10 years, she said.
“Everything is good with us, we kind of dodged a bullet in my area,” Dykes said. “You can’t imagine how the wind sounds. It’s like a tornado hovering over your house for a while. It feels like that if you’ve never been through one.”
SOCIAL MEDIA: FOLLOW REPORTER MICHAEL COOPER ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
The area never lost power, she said. Her home suffered some minor leaking, she said. There were tornado warnings all day, she said.
“It was just so unpredictable,” Dykes said. “There was so much pandemonium about it was going to the east side and then it was going to the west.”
It was a week-long build up for the storm, Dykes said. By the time Dykes began preparing to leave last week, it was too late, she said. On Thursday, Dykes and her family tried to get plane tickets but every flight was booked. For a short time, she couldn’t get gas either. The roads were also crazy with people attempting to evacuate, she said.
MORE: Live updates from Hurricane Irma
“I probably passed eight gas stations and none of them had gas until later in the evening,” said Dykes, the mother of three teenagers. “By then, we just decided we were going to hunker down and weather the storm.”
Many people in Springfield reached out to her with prayers and well wishes, she said.
“Until you go through something like this, you just don’t think about how wonderful the support of friends and family (can be),” Dykes said.
Former Springfield Mayor and now Florida resident Tim Ayers survived the storm and was helping people clean up their homes in Homestead, Fla., on Monday afternoon. It was the worst storm he’s ever been a part of, including the tornado that struck Xenia in 1978.
“Nothing I remember that day compares to the strong wind and rain that Hurricane Irma brought in her path of destruction,” Ayers said.
MORE LOCAL STORIES: Read the latest news from Michael Cooper
South Charleston native Curt Lemon evacuated his home in Key West on Thursday.
Lemon, a manager for a water sports company, and his fiancee, Abigail Stogdale, a helicopter pilot, watched the storm for a few weeks before it hit, he said. They waited to the last second to store the helicopter before heading north. It took him 14 hours to pick up his fiancee from the airport in Orlando before coming back to Ohio, he said.
“It was a long, long drive,” Lemon said.
He’s seen a few photos from friends on social media, but not much information has been released because there is no cell phone service or internet, he said. Also, no one is permitted to drive.
Lemon lives right in the middle of the island so he wasn’t concerned with water damage. However he lives near quite a few large trees, he said. Before leaving, Lemon had to board up windows and raise his furniture off the ground.
“We’re just waiting to hear something,” he said. “As of right now, everyone is saying don’t bother going back because they won’t let anybody cross the bridges … It’s been a wild ride. I grew up knowing nothing about this.”
Springfield resident Brian Kampman was vacationing in St. Petersburg as the hurricane surged toward the Florida coast.
He attempted to get a flight home Friday but everything was booked. He decided to help people hunker down in their homes.
“It was crazy,” Kampman said. “There were so many people at the airports.”
In Orlando, the single-family homes nearby her apartment are all flooded, said Kamya Taylor, a former Springfield resident and guidance counselor for Springfield City Schools.
She spent last week covering up her office at a school in nearby Ovido, Fla., which got hit worse than Orlando, she said.
“It will be very interesting to see how our school looks when we get back,” Taylor said.
Former Springfield resident Dino Warfield and his family sheltered in place with five other families near their home in Riverview, Fla., which is located south of Tampa. During the storm, Warfield celebrated his 57th birthday. The eye moved east of the area, he said.
“We closed all the shutters and commenced a party,” Warfield said.
Irma was the worst hurricane he’s seen after moving to Florida 22 years ago, he said.
“You can never be too prepared,” Warfield said. “It was an experience, no doubt.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
4 QUICK NEWS-SUN READS
Springfield coalition to host community forum on opiates
1st-of-its-kind center for addicts, families opens in Springfield
Clark County to move 9-1-1 dispatchers, could become combined center
Wide variation in how officer-involved shootings investigated in Ohio
About the Author