![\"\"](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/headshot_web-200x300.jpg\" "\\"Dean")
\u201cIt was pretty stressful,\u201d Li said after the storm. \u201cIt was my first hurricane experience in Florida; I don\u2019t recall what I was doing when Andrew struck.\u201d She discovered that her skills in strategic thinking, planning and community-building helped see her and her family through the storm.<\/p>\n
Putting up storm shutters on her home was definitely a challenge, she said, taking two days, as neither she nor her husband had ever done it.<\/p>\n
With the shutters up, they planned to ride out the storm at home. Those plans changed on Thursday September 7, with the mandatory evacuation order for their neighborhood and other areas of Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n
Their first destination: Naples. \u201cWe wanted to buy time and stay ahead of the storm,\u201d said Li. \u201cThat was our strategy, to have more certainty about the direction of the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n
They settled at her in-laws\u2019 second-floor Naples condo by the beach and planned to remain there through Irma\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter told us that she had so many fond memories there that she felt at ease,\u201d said Li. \u201cWe bought supplies and got a good night\u2019s sleep, woke up the next morning and got more supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that same day, Friday September 8, brought another mandatory evacuation order, this time for Naples as well as Marco Island and Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
Li was ready. \u201cForty-eight hours ahead, I had started planning, calling friends, and one in Kissimmee had kept his rental condo vacant for us to use,\u201d said Li. \u201cSo on Friday, we drove there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was there that she and her family rode through the storm. Irma\u2019s eye didn\u2019t cross into any Central Florida counties, but the region received strong winds and heavy rain. The wind, Li recalled, was the scariest. \u201cIt was really loud, and I couldn\u2019t sleep much.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is now back at her Miami home, picking up after the storm. Her house suffered some damage, she said, but nothing that can\u2019t be repaired.<\/p>\n
While picking up debris alongside her neighbors, she felt the warm welcome of her new home. If Hurricane Irma delivered a positive, Li noted, it was the sense of community she was able to build with her new neighbors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe initiated a plan: to ask our neighbors for their phone numbers, and set up a group chat to stay connected with each other if anyone needed help,\u201d she added. \u201cWe rekindled that sense of community, of seeing neighbors as friends.\u201d That\u2019s something she hopes will extend throughout South Florida.<\/p>\n
Li also expressed her gratitude for the concern of her FIU family, noting that College of Business staff and faculty had reached out to her throughout the week to ensure that she was safe. \u201cI am tremendously grateful for the kindness of our staff and leaders,\u201d she said. \u201cIrma was tough, but our community is tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barely five months into her tenure at FIU, College of Business Dean Joanne Li received an intense South Florida welcome: Hurricane Irma. The hurricane forced Li, brand-new to Miami, and her family to crisscross south and central Florida, heeding evacuation orders from both Miami and Naples. \u201cIt was pretty stressful,\u201d Li said after the storm. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":29053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4227,4147],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29061,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29051\/revisions\/29061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}