The flight to the Cordillera International Film Festival from Orlando International Airport just happened to line up with the day Hurricane Helene was churning north in the Gulf of Mexico. My sister reported that the eye of the hurricane would be west of Port Charlotte about Noon on that day.
I caught a Lyft to the airport about 10 AM to catch a Noon flight. It was cloudy but clear when I left, but we drove right towards a wall of dark grey clouds on the trip south to the airport. Half way there it began to rain. I joked with the driver that it would likely rain for the rest of the day. I realized that I likely left a ceiling fan on at home. There was no going back. Perhaps a power outage might save some electricity?
In the airport waiting area it seemed like everyone was checking their phones to see the track of the eye of the storm. I was sure the airplane would fly north away from the front bands of the storm. I was sure of that since airplanes roar over my home daily every half hour or so, their engines rattling the windows. I had hoped that I might sketch someone else wearing a mask, but I was the only one, except several airport staff. Am I crazy? Well that is rhetorical, I know the answer, but I also know too much about the invisible damage the virus is doing to peoples vascular systems, brains and immune systems.
There was a 15 minute delay boarding, but we were assured that we would make up the time with a strong tail wind. Strangely as the plane tires left the tarmac, it was sunny out. There were a few gut wrenching bumps on the ascent to cruising altitude but after that it was a smooth flight. I watched the movie Dune on the flight north west. We flew to Minneapolis where there was a 3 hour layover before catching another flight to Reno. It felt good to be flying thousands of miles away from the advancing hurricane. It was a rather extreme form of voluntary evacuation.