Hurricane Irma hit southern Florida as a category five hurricane last week.

  Irma is currently the largest hurricane to hit the south eastern area of the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in the year of 2007.

  Senior Jody Kocis attends Freedom High School which is located in Orlando, Florida.

  This area was not hit as badly as the Keys by Irma, but there were still power outages.

  Due to these outages, schools, homes, and businesses are without power.  

  “While our power is underground, those with above ground had outages. All of this caused schools to be closed for a week,” said Kocis.

   While Kocis and his family stayed in Orlando, several people in Irma’s path were forced to evacuate.

    Government teacher Kevin Lawrence also has family and friends that remained in their homes in the area of Tampa.

    “Everyone boarded up. All four of the families that we know live in the Tampa, St. Pete, and Port St. Lucie area. They all stayed, they all boarded up, and they escaped with fairly minor damage. In fact, some didn’t even lose

power,” said Lawrence.

      Irma is also the largest hurricane to hit the U.S. this year with Hurricane Harvey coming in second.

   Lawrence gave his opinion on how the government should be going about dealing with the large amount of damage that both of these hurricanes have caused.

  “Well, it’s obviously impossible to prevent a natural disaster, so I think that the government does what they can do and that is forewarn, advise caution, and then provide dollars and manpower to clean up and try to get people back on their feet,” said Lawrence.  

  While Kocis’s area did not receive a large amount of damage, he is still thankful for the technology that is available in 2017 for helping his family to prepare for Irma.

  “Thankfully, unlike other natural disasters, hurricanes can now be predicted with technology, which allows people to prepare,” said Kocis.