By Linda Conlin, ABOC/NCLEC

Watching the reports about Hurricanes Harvey and Irma reminded me of “Tropical Storm” Sandy’s collision with Connecticut in 2012. My neighborhood was under evacuation order, but I had to go to work for a few hours to make sure that the offices in our ophthalmology practice rescheduled patients and had disaster plans in place. Then, I raced home.

We never had to evacuate before, and it’s funny which things you think about. While I grabbed for insurance policies and other “important papers,” my husband gathered food, water and other essentials. What clothes do you pack for riding out a storm? Nothing fancy, for sure. One last look around, and we had to go. It was hard to leave the house where we raised our sons without knowing what we’d come back to. What would be gone and what would be left?

We parked the older car on high ground, thanking heaven for the hills we curse in winter, and left for the hotel room we were lucky enough to get 25 miles away. By that time, I-95 was closed so we threaded our way along an increasingly watery Route 1. The road was eerily empty as we watched street signs sway and traffic lights perform acrobatics on their high wires. Finally, we reached the hotel and checked in with a harried clerk.

Now what? We verified that everyone we knew was safe for the moment, checked for the nearest stairwell, watched more of the ceaseless weather reports, and looked out the window to confirm what we heard. Eventually we made our way to the hotel lounge where we joined others seeking to calm their nerves. Chatting with hotel staff, we found out that they were directed to stay the night, away from their families. Clearly, they had made hard choices. Finally, we were able to get some sleep.

In the morning the hotel still had power, thankfully. We skipped breakfast and joined the rush of people checking out to get back to their homes. A man in the elevator had a plastic trash bag with the “essentials” he’d brought, which included about a dozen rolls of toilet paper. I joked with him that under the right circumstances, he could have made a tidy profit selling them. He smiled and shrugged and noted that everyone has their priorities.

We headed for home on the reopened I-95. The once familiar stretch of road was hard to recognize. There were empty places where trees and billboards had lined the highway. Home at last, it was still standing and dry. Some downed branches and no power seemed like minor inconveniences. Everything was going to be OK, and we realized how fortunate we were.

That experience has me barely able to imagine what people in Texas and Florida are still enduring, but we can help. Optometry Giving Sight is having their annual World Sight Day Challenge on October 12. In addition to their global initiatives in providing vision care to bring the gift of sight to underserved communities, this year donations will also support programs to provide eye care to people affected by the hurricanes. Please join the Jobson Optical Group in supporting this fundraiser. Visit the Optometry Giving Sight website to make a donation. The gift of sight may be the most valuable gift to give.