REFLECTIONS: A broadcast journalist covering hurricanes meets family caregiver

Watching a hurricane rip the roof from a condo building changes you forever.

Hello KIRC family.

For those of you who live or who have family and loved ones living in Florida, I will speak for the entire KIRC family when I say we extend compassion and empathy in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Courtesy: Getty Images:

Watching storm coverage come in from all portions of Florida and national news, reminds me of my own experiences covering violent storms: Hurricane Georges in 1998 from the shores of Puerto Rico, Hurricane Wilma as it rolled through Florida in 2005, and the various aftermath stories of Hurricane Katrina after she destroyed much of New Orleans that same year.

Steve Paine & Julia Yarbough/NBC6, Hurricane Georges San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1998

I will never forget being in a hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico alongside my friend and photographer Steve. We watched as Category-3 force winds peeled the roof off the neighboring condo building, like it was a sardine can! Winds then whipped the concrete and metal away like a crumpled piece of paper.

For those of you fairly new to the Keeping It REAL Caregiving family, let me give you a brief background on my career path and perspectives.

Journalist turned family caregiver

Before taking on the role of family caregiver to my aging and now deceased mother, I spent more than 20-years as a broadcast news anchor and reporter.

The bulk of my years on-air were spent in Miami, working for WTVJ-NBC6. As such, I had the opportunity to interview national and well-known figures, cover all manner of news stories and yes, sometimes move towards an approaching storm, all to keep local viewers up-to-date on important (and sometimes life-saving) information.

Because I knew I would be working long shifts, I had no choice but to prepare in advance – shuttering my house, my mother’s home, making sure there was plenty of water, propane, canned foods, flashlights, batteries, tarps and lots of bug spray on hand. I prepared for the worst – always.

No one in Florida will soon forget Hurricane Ian. Nor should they. Nor should any of us.

Watching the long lines of people evacuating, others stocking up on supplies, and still others trying to ‘hunker down’ to ride out the storm (to this day I still don’t quite know what ‘hunker down’ really means, yet we as news reporters tend to pull it out only during storms), should be a stark reminder of the importance of planning ahead for an emergency.

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If you are a family caregiver, especially to an aging individual, someone with limited mobility or another physical disability, you simply do not have the luxury of NOT planning ahead.

  • Take the time now to assess your emergency evacuation plans for fire, flood, storm, earthquake.

  • Consider what emergency items you must have on hand if you have to manage for several days without power.

  • If you needed to move in a moment’s notice, where would you go and how would you get there? Especially if you need to do so quickly with an elder or a loved one who is physically unable to move.

  • Does your family have a loved one who resides in a care facility? Do not simply wait for that facility to do all the work. Ask ahead of time, ‘What is the plan should we need to evacuate? Where will residents be moved and how?’ Then ask, does the facility even have a plan?

I’ve written about this previously and will continue to do so. It pains me to consider the alternatives.

One reason this is such a charged subject for me involves news coverage in the days following Hurricane Katrina.

Residents Fleeing Hurricane Katrina – stock photo

Scenes from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.

I had been on air for many hours. Everyone was working hard and was tired. We were emotionally drained. We may have even been experiencing a bit of shock at watching the horror unfold with Katrina, of seeing fellow Americans trapped by rising waters and no help arriving. I will never forget those images nor the feelings of despair.

Then, there was a bit of good news. Rescue teams had managed to get residents of a nursing home out safely – away from rising waters. They were loaded onto a bus, and headed towards Texas; headed for safety.

Tragically, that bus had some kind of mechanical issue, and burst into flames.

I was on set and on-air when that footage and information came in. While delivering the information, it was simply too much to process. I broke into tears. My co-anchor grabbed my hand with a strong, reassuring squeeze. It wasn’t enough to keep me going. The real-time pain of such tragedy and loss was just more than I could handle.

All I could think and feel, was that these vulnerable and helpless individuals had beat the odds by beating Katrina, only to have fate snatch them away in a horrible fashion.

I know we can’t stop all bad things from happening. But I do believe we can take steps to mitigate some of it to lessen the sting.

Please plan and prepare…

Julia