![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/Dave-Mackey-150x150.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Event: <\/strong>Hurricane Dorian slammed into Grand Bahama Island on September 1, 2019, with 200 mph winds. The storm and its torrential rains stalled over the island for more than 40 hours and wreaked havoc across residential areas as water levels rose 18 to 23 feet above normal. Seventy people lost their lives, and property damages were estimated at about $8.28 billion. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From where he sat<\/strong> in his two-story home on the tropical island of Grand Bahama, Dave Mackey, the president and visual producer of an online news site, was well prepared for the storm. So from there, he recorded the category-five hurricane as it pounded his home island, battering homes and trees and tossing around objects, like shipping containers, as though they were little toys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \u201cThe canal across my house was raging like an ocean,\u201d he says. \u201dI really was concerned if we would come out alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mackey had experienced and survived two hurricanes before \u2014 Jeanne, which hit the island in 1998, and Frances, which hit in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt that time, I lived in a beachside community, and left my house to stay with friends,\u201d Mackey says. \u201cNow, I chose to stay. I videotaped the hurricane and posted updates online and on social media. At best, we got 2 million views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mackey was able to avoid the hurricane because he built his home to withstand extreme weather conditions. \u201cWe have hurricane impact windows and a front door,\u201d he says. \u201dThe house is 20 feet up from the water level and it is built on 41 special pilings \u2013 heavy stakes to support the foundation, instead of a concrete foundation that can crack during the flooding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across the canal, Mackey\u2019s neighbors weren\u2019t as lucky. They lived in a one-story house, which stood only 5 feet higher than the water level \u2014 a new minimum standard set by the government to protect buildings from the impact of hurricanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had agreed to use walkie-talkies to communicate during the storm,\u201c Mackey says. \u201cLast time I talked to them \u2013 the parents, their daughter and five dogs \u2013 had climbed onto their kitchen counter to escape the rising waters inside their house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the storm kept raging, Mackey became increasingly alarmed. He witnessed the storm water washing away one wall of the neighbor\u2019s house. Part of their roof ripped off, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn my panic, I thought they were gone, too,\u201d Mackey says. \u201cAt that point, we had lost the contact, but what I didn\u2019t know was that they had been able to leave their house. This happened just before the storm water rose up to 20 feet and isolated our area from the bridge, which is the only way to get out from here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From that point on, Mackey was stranded in his house as the storm hovered over the island for three more days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt one point, I saw the water only two steps away from our front door,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew that the high tide would come around 11 p.m. I kept paying attention to the water. Hours went by, the waves kept coming in and, finally, they started to recede. Only then I felt comfortable enough to go to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the difficult conditions \u2014 Mackey\u2019s house lost electricity, the winds were so powerful that he couldn\u2019t open his front door, and there was no running water \u2014 he and his family felt safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy downstairs was totally flooded and destroyed,\u201c he says. \u201cMy \u2018man cave\u2019 with music gear, my speakers, my sound system and all of our tools, as well as one bathroom were all consumed by the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, he realized he could make use of the rainwater upstairs. \u201cMy wife and I had water-collecting duty,\u201d Mackey says. \u201cWe wiped off the rainwater with towels, squeezed the wet towels into the buckets and emptied the buckets into bathtub. This was our water to flush the toilet until we got running water again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, Mackey and his family are adjusting to the new normal, which is more isolating for them than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNinety-nine percent of the houses in our neighborhood are gone,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I come home late at night, and if there is no full moon, it is pitch black. People have moved, rented a home somewhere else for a year or so until their home is repaired. One neighbor is already back, although his house was completely flooded. Many are planning to come back \u2014 they think this was an event that will only happen once in several decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Mackey, a man in his early sixties, doesn\u2019t think that Dorian was a fluke, or simply a freak-of-nature incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDorian has given me a reason to ponder and look into my future,\u201d he says. \u201cThe global warming is real. We may be seeing these kinds of occurrences on a more regular basis. I saw a documentary that was talking about our region \u2013 the shifting of the planet and water \u2013 and asking the question: Should we even be living in these regions? Having [endured] three hurricanes has taught me that repeatedly starting over is not an easy thing to do, especially when you are not a young person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, Mackey has had to adjust his everyday life after Dorian. The electricity has yet to return because the power poles are down. In the meantime, he uses a gas generator to create energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGas is expensive \u2014 it costs $5 per gallon,\u201d he says. \u201cI just wrote a letter to the city to let them know that we are here and not getting any power. Sanitary conditions are also a challenge, because we are short of water. Flies gather up. I have to be swatting flies all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking out of his second-story window now, Mackey sees clear canal water in a beautiful, topical setting \u2013 a big change from the musty canal waters that flooded the area not long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a paradise, but a temporary one,\u201d he says. \u201dOur son and daughter would like us to move up north. But moving isn\u2019t an option for us now. The property values have really dropped after Dorian, and we do not have means to leave. And even though we don\u2019t live in fear of the next big storm \u2013 we wouldn\u2019t stay at the house during another storm \u2013 it is not worth it. Because it will come. It is inevitable.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Kirsi-M. Hayrinen-Beschloss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voices from the Future | Dave Mackey In the Eye of the Hurricane The Event: Hurricane Dorian slammed into Grand Bahama Island on September 1, 2019, with 200 mph winds.","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hurricanes","category-north-america","category-personal-climate-awakening","category-voices"],"uds_featured_image":{"id":268,"alt_text":"eye-of-hurricane","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":309,"file":"2022\/01\/eye-of-hurricane.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"eye-of-hurricane-300x91.jpg","width":300,"height":91,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/eye-of-hurricane-300x91.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"eye-of-hurricane-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/eye-of-hurricane-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"eye-of-hurricane-768x232.jpg","width":768,"height":232,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/eye-of-hurricane-768x232.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":154,"source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/eye-of-hurricane.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n