BRADENTON BEACH – Thirty two-year Gulf Drive resident Lynne Budzinski did not leave her home during the 2024 hurricanes, but this year she is well-prepared to do so if necessary.
Budzinski, who has five parrots at her home, has their transport cages ready to go in the event of a future evacuation.
“Here’s something people need to think about. Evacuating for a storm is not going to visit friends for a day or two,” Budzinski said. “You go because you think you may have nothing left when you come back. If you think you won’t have anything left, you have to take what you need to get by for at least a month or so. For them (the parrots) that means the big cages.”
She said she began getting ready in August, by constructing smaller hurricane transport cages. The larger cages will be disassembled for transport and then reassembled.
“So, once they go in those little cages I have to come in here and take these apart and they have to go out also, that’s a day,” Budzinski said. “I have a place in town I can go. It would be me and five birds. I can’t take the larger birds in their big cages. If a storm comes, I have to clear my van out to get the birds and their cages in there.”
“I can do an evacuation by myself,” she said. “You have four or five days max to get it all done.”
Reflections on 2024 storms
“You know how they say the sound of running water is soothing? Not when it’s going by your window,” she said.
Budzinski said water was at her door during Hurricane Helene, but never came into the house.
“There was one point about 10 o’clock I asked myself, ‘Have I made a horrible mistake by staying?’ ” she said.
“I came out the next morning, I had two cars sitting here and they both started,” she said. “Everything had this slick sort of slime. It was so slippery. It was like walking on greased glass.”
With declining water pressure, Budzinski said she spent the first day after the storm hosing her yard down.
She said the sand in the alley behind her house was about 2 feet high, and she dug a ramp to get the cars up and cleared the entry.
“Mother nature dumped a sand bar on us,” she said.
Budzinski opened an accessory apartment in her home to friends who were unable to remain in their homes.
She said her asthma symptoms became worse following the hurricanes.
“It got to where I couldn’t… it was so hard for me to walk around my house without resting,” she said. “This was due to the stress.”
Preparing for future storms
“Unless they’re predicting a direct hit, I won’t be leaving,” she said. If it’s coming up the coast, I’m not going to bother.”
She has 12 2-liter bottles filled with ice, so as they melt, they can be used as drinking water.
Her storm shutters are ready on the ground next to the building.
She is prepared for power outages.
“In that situation if your power goes out and you have a lantern, get a big piece of white paper and hold it behind it, as a reflector,” Budzinski said. “You can light an entire room off of one lantern.”
