For those of you who don’t know, I live at the heart of where all the models are predicting the landfall of Hurricane Milton…at this point. My family and I chose not to evacuate this time. I’ve lived on the West Coast of Florida on and off since 1985. Many of the sunset and sunrise images I post on Facebook are from Sarasota County, Florida. I’ve evacuated a handful of times, and I’ve stayed multiple times too. Neither decision is an easy one.

I know it’s hard to imagine from the outside looking in, but unless you’re in it and have done it, you really can’t imagine the process people go through. I’ve seen people regret leaving and regret staying. For Hurricane Helene, I was in Hayesville, North Carolina (that’s in Western NC). I was there before the storm had a path. I was up there watching loved ones go through it down on the West Coast of Florida. It wasn’t easy. Then, of course, I had to experience the destruction around me up there, yet we just got some rain and wind where we were.

Since I’ve evacuated hurricanes before, I know what it’s like for people on the outside looking in. It’s brutal when the National news is showing the worst of the worst. I’ve thought my whole town was gone after watching the Weather Channel endlessly.

I get how painful it is watching with concern for not only your loved ones, but all the elements involved. Sometimes it’s harder watching from the outside when you’ve lost contact and you start fearing the absolute worst. At least, that’s my experience.Then when we see the worst case scenarios that do happen, it makes every hurricane that comes through after that one even harder. I GET IT! I get re-traumatized every time another hurricane comes whether it’s hitting us or not. Yes, for many that means Post Traumatic Stress. That’s not just for the people in it. It’s for the people watching from the outside too.

My family and I stayed during Hurricane Ian. There were times I was scared, but because of how our house sits and where our house is, we were able to sit safely tucked away on our back porch playing games. We lost cell service and internet very early, so I wasn’t able to keep people posted.

One of the last things people got to see is my favorite Jacaranda tree falling in my front yard. The storm lingered over us for what felt like forever. So for our loved ones looking from the outside, it was absolutely horrifying. The footage they were showing was of course the worst of the worst. We lost some screens on our lanai and we had gutter damage, but we were safe. We were just north of the eye. Hurricane Ian was a category 4 hurricane.

Our roads were flooded, We couldn’t leave our neighborhood for days, so we had no idea what was happening outside of our bubble. Our phone service remained down until we were able to get out and actually changed it. We had no idea that the flooding didn’t come from the storm surge, and we were the only neighborhood flooded in the surrounding area. They fixed the problem, and checked it again a few before Hurricane Milton planned to arrive.

We are blessed to live in a great neighborhood filled with AMAZING people. Before storms, neighbors offer to help each other, and right after Hurricane Ian, neighbors were helping each other in every way they could. We spent a lot of time talking and connecting. There was never talk of politics, just humans connecting with humans. It was beautiful. Most of use chose to stay for Milton. Some people would have preferred to leave, but they couldn’t due to money, and places that would take all their animals. By the time people offered assistance, it was too dangerous to travel. Believe me, there are a lot of issues when it comes to leaving too.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many accidents I’ve witnessed while evacuating storms. You are talking about some of the most stressed out people all being on the road together at the same time. It’s not pretty. People also can struggle to find gas depending on where they are going. If you don’t have a loved ones house to stay at, the challenge of finding a SAFE place is challenging. There are also scammers out there that prey on scared people, so you have scams with rentals. If people live in the highest risk areas, such as ones within the storm surge area, it’s usually a better idea to face all of that. It still doesn’t make the decision easy when you are transporting people with health issues, pets, etc.

Some of the reasons I felt good about staying through Hurricane Milton is I know that we are here to support each other in my community, the house did great after Hurricane Ian, and we are far enough away from a high surge affecting us.

It’s not easy making a decision to stay or go (at least for me it’s not), but being able to be hands on helping neighbors and cleaning up together is an experience you have to experience to understand. It begins immediately after. When I see it all over the world, I recognize the magnitude of what’s happening. It’s a level of compassion and connection that only tends to come during extremely turbulent times. I highly encourage people to pay attention to the outpouring of support after natural disasters or tragedies. Focus your attention on finding the heroes. They are always there.

I understand the fear of going through it and of watching it from the outside. It can be very traumatic on both sides, so please have compassion for each other. It’s scary! Feed the love, not the fear. Make sure your loved ones know you care. Don’t shame them, please! If you’ve read my work before, you know that I do my best to focus my energy on love, abundance, and peace over the energy of fear, lack, and separation. One serves us and one destroys us…from the inside-out. What do you want to project to the people you love?

We aren’t going to do this perfectly, but there is a difference between feeling fear and living in the energy of fear. The feeling of fear passes. The energy fear has the potential to grow into a monster that destroys all our relationships. That’s why when I start feeling the fear and panic that comes from making decisions like this, I focus on calming my nervous system. We can do this through things like meditation, conscious breathing, EFT/ Tapping, butterfly tapping, walking, exercising, praying, etc.

I hope to make at least one EFT/Tapping video today for people who may need it, but please whatever you do, Try to remember our calm is important whether we are in the storm or watching it from the outside. Our problem solving skills get jeopardized when we are in the energy of fear, lack, and separation. If we are having a PTSD reaction, we aren’t operating in our healthiest capacity. Our words, actions, and reactions can do more harm than good when our nervous systems are controlling us. Denis Phillips, one of my favorite meteorologists reminds us over and over again that “Rule #7: Don’t freak out.”

I will be keeping my Facebook Page updated as much as I can throughout the storm until the time communication goes dark. I’m going to try to post an EFT video there, but preparations have to come first. Then as soon as I can afterwards, I will post again to make sure the people who care know we are okay. For now, I have to get back to preparations. Be safe all, and remember to put the energy out that you want to see more of. Feed the love!

With Love and Gratitude,

Rachael Wolff