Published: Sept. 16, 2017
West Bend native rides out Irma
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
ndettmann@conleynet.com
262-306-5043
West Bend native Brenda Sagunsky watched people stay put as
Hurricane Katrina inched toward New Orleans in 2005.
She wondered why there were people who didn’t leave even
though they were recommended to do so.
Now she knows why, finding out the hard way.
Sagunsky, who graduated from West Bend West in 1993, lives
in Jacksonville, Florida, with her husband, Shawn, a former teacher in the West
Bend School District, their daughter and three of their pets.
Brenda said she and her family were “blessed” and “lucky” in
the wake of Hurricane Irma.
“Our power went out at 2:45 a.m. early Monday,” Brenda said.
“It rained all day Sunday and the wind started picking up. The fan that I have
in the bedroom went out and that’s what woke me up.
“From there, I never heard so many scary noises in my life
with all the wind whipping around.”
Their power was back less than a day later.
“There are a lot of people that still do not have power,”
Brenda said. “I work with people who still don’t have power. We’re very blessed
and very lucky.”
The Sagunskys decided to ride out the storm, despite several
warnings from authorities for people to evacuate, especially in southern and
western Florida.
Jacksonville is in the northeast corner of the state.
“Mainly money,” Brenda said when asked why the family didn’t
evacuate. “We also weren’t in a mandatory evacuation zone.”
But when Irma made landfall and covered the state of
Florida, the Sagunskys quickly regretted the decision to stay.
“Many, many times,” Brenda said.
Jason Clary, a former Daily News sports writer, lives in
Boca Raton, Florida, which is between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. He
evacuated for the storm twice.
“It was originally supposed to hit that area hard, so I
evacuated to Tampa where my brother lives,” Clary said. “I spent a few days
with my brother preparing his house in case Irma changed course, which it did.
So then I had to evacuate a second time to a friend’s place over in Orlando.
“Several million people across the state lost power or had
damage. I have friends who are still without power.”
The Sagunskys watched in sadness the damage Tropical Storm
Harvey unleashed on Houston.
“It was scary,” Brenda said.
Then, a few days later, hurricane experts informed the
public of Irma and it quickly built into one of the strongest hurricanes on
record. At one point, winds for Irma were a sustained 185 mph or equivalent to
an EF-3 tornado.
“That’s when we thought, ‘OK. Let’s look at our money
situation,’” Brenda said. “‘Can we afford to leave?’” It was a hard decision, a
very hard decision.
“In our minds, we had to weigh the options,” Brenda said. “To
think this is the biggest thing in history that could potentially get to you.
You don’t fathom you have to make that decision.
“Then how far do you go? Do you go up to the Carolinas? You
never knew exactly where to go. She covered the whole state of Florida.”
The Sagunskys thought if they could make it through
Hurricane Matthew last year, which Brenda said was a Category 3 when it reached
them in Jacksonville, they would be OK with Irma, especially after hearing reports that Irma was weakening.
“When you’re in your home, you want to stay, you want to
make sure everything is OK,” Brenda said. “There’s only so much you can take
with you. I see both sides of it. Hotels don’t take animals and we have three
animals. I can see both sides, you want to stay, but you’ve got to get out.
It’s a hard decision to make. It’s not like tornadoes, they’re over in a few
minutes. This lasted hours.”
In a way, the Sagunskys were stuck in Jacksonville because
of several factors. But Clary didn’t take a chance and that’s why he evacuated.
“Hurricanes are never anything to mess with, whether a
Category 1 or a Category 5,” Clary said.
He added, “There are areas like Key West that basically got
wiped off the map.”
After the storm, Brenda and Shawn walked through the
neighborhood to see how their neighbors fared.
“About 75 percent of the fences were gone,” Brenda said. “We
didn’t see any trees down, but lots of debris.”
She reiterated her family was lucky. But, 17 miles northeast
of them is downtown Jacksonville. Brenda said Jacksonville was in 6 feet of
water.
Once they could, they called everyone they knew to let them
know they were OK. Brenda’s first call was to her parents.
“It was very spotty,” Brenda said of the cellphone
reception. “We could only hear bits and pieces of the call.”
It was just enough to say they were OK.
“They prayed so hard that we’d be OK,” Brenda said of her
parents’ worries. “They were so nervous and scared.”
Like the Sagunskys, Clary considers himself lucky.
“Certain areas got hit extremely hard and there was
certainly a lot of damage,” Clary said. “But for many, life will go on
relatively normal after a week or two.
“For others, they’ll spend months and years trying to make
their homes livable again.
“We got lucky. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
If another hurricane like Irma comes around, the Sagunskys
will heavily consider all options.
"I would rather go through a blizzard anytime than another
hurricane,” Brenda said.
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