MIAMI — The attention of all Floridians, their fellow Americans, and the world at large was recently focused on the approach of Hurricane Irma to the Miami area, as well as its impact on the state, the recovery effort and the rebuilding of lives interrupted by this latest natural disaster.
One aspect overlooked in the nonstop media coverage that attracted many millions of viewers was the storm’s impact on Florida’s camming community.
The east coast’s unofficial capital of adult entertainment, Miami (site of the annual XBIZ Miami), as well as Tampa, and other areas around the state are home to a number of adult content production companies and numerous cam performers — including some associated with the popular VNA network.
Vette Nation Army’s Vicky Vette told XBIZ that there are a lot of girls based throughout Florida who weathered Irma. She herself was worried that her roof would fly off “and the contents of my office would be flying through the air and floating down the street in rivers! Cases of inventory of Doc Johnson ‘Quickie Vicky’s’ and blowjob suckers and the newest ‘main squeeze’ pussy for everyone!”
Vicky kept in contact with all her Florida girlfriends before and during the storm and collected their personal stories in the aftermath, generously sharing them with XBIZ and our readers.
The following are the raw responses of those who lived Irma’s nightmare firsthand:
Vicky Vette
“I watched as the storm came through the Caribbean and knew it would be bad but all the tracking had it hitting the east coast. I have a home on the Gulf Coast (west coast) in the Tampa area. Day by day it began to track more west. An order to evacuate my area was made but I didn’t want to leave. Thursday all of a sudden they started projecting it hitting as a Category 4 or 5 coming close to Tampa. My area close to the coast is prone to storm surge (projected as high as eight feet.) I went back and forth: go, not go, go, not go, but I decided to evacuate to Alabama after seeing the track directly hitting my town. I was lucky to get one of the last rooms available in Alabama so I threw my laptop, drives, desktop and some clothes in my car and left with my dogs at two in the morning. To my surprise, the streets were almost deserted leaving my city — like an episode of “The Walking Dead.” As I was leaving the news was blaring ‘Irma to hit Tampa.’ It was depressing to think my home would not survive a Category 3 direct hit. In Alabama, residents were cooking free food and giving water to people coming up from Florida. I stayed there for a night and then went to Pensacola when I saw Alabama was also going to get hit. In the final few hours, the storm changed track a bit to the east of my home and dramatically lowered in intensity. I was very relieved and decided to return. It took me 13 hours to get home. The freeways were jammed solid. It’s depressing to see so many people with their homes devastated just 100 miles from me but I am relieved my city was relatively spared. I was in touch with all the girls I know dealing with the issue and thank goodness they are all safe. Thanks to the people of Alabama and Pensacola for welcoming the evacuees. My heart goes out to the people in the Keys and Naples area who got hit especially hard.”
Sara Jay
“I am a Miami resident. I was certainly worried about a Cat 5 storm coming my way. My parents are in the Ocala area and I didn’t want them to be alone during a storm so I went there to ride it out. At one point the storm was tracking to come up through the middle of the state as a Category 3 or 4 so I didn’t know what to expect. I put all my hard drives into the washer/dryer for protection. The storm hit our area in the middle of the night. Irma was one hell of a bitch. It sounded like a highway in front of the house, but there were no cars! Most of the VNA girls were in contact with each other checking in. In the eye of a disaster, it’s comforting to know you have so many people who truly care about you. Luckily other than a tree that came down, there was no major damage. I had my business partner Dommy and my security man Willie staying at my place in Miami during the storm because they felt safest there and didn’t want to leave Miami. They tell me the building was swaying and rainwater was coming in through the windows. They lost power during the night and rode out the storm as the wind howled and the building creaked. So glad this has passed, we’re all safe and we can get back to making you cum!”
Angelina Castro
“I am a Miami native. My house was built in 1925 and it’s all bricks, it’s one of the safest houses in the town. They don’t build them that well anymore so I was confident with the structure. I have three huge dogs (pit bulls) which no shelter would take. I couldn’t leave my dogs alone and evacuate. My whole family came to my house, hunkered down and BBQ’d thru the hurricane. It was 10 of us and five dogs. I wouldn’t leave because this is my home and if my community needs help we were here and ready to give a hand. If everyone left who was going to save those that stayed? My husband has Army training and with my bad ass Cuban ‘know it all’ attitude we could do some good in the community in case that was needed. Before the storm hit I went into my garden and had a brief cry. I had to take down anything that could fly away and love my backyard. It does make me sad seeing my neighborhood looking like a war zone but it is great seeing neighbors getting together sharing food, helping clean the streets and it touches my heart to realize that no matter how different we all are we still humans and there is a lot of good in all of us. I still don’t have power back but my neighbor does. Strange.”
Maggie Green
“I live in Fort Lauderdale and really wanted to evacuate, but decided to ride it out because of the crush of cars trying to leave the area. It was constant driving rain and howling and was definitely not a picnic. I lost power in the middle of the night and a large tree fell on my house. Luckily it didn’t go through the roof and kill me. It was a night of rain, thunder and lightning I will never forget. I went to someone else’s home who had evacuated that I thought would be safer the next day. We had tornadoes in the area all the next day. I am still in a state of shock.”
Kimber Lee
“Before Irma hit Florida, I decided to evacuate my house in Miami and head up to Gainsville in northern Florida. After 14 hours of traffic through the county lines of The Sunshine State, I had made it to my shelter with my sister, her girlfriend, two cats and a dog. The next day we headed to the gorgeous blue springs Gainesville has to offer, and spent the whole day getting drunk in the water... plenty of snacks had been eaten, plenty more shows had been watched, and before you knew it, a light sprinkle of rain had come down above our heads. The calm before the storm. We were worried, but by Sunday night the storm came and left with little interruption. Monday morning... there was no power or running water but everything returned to normal five hours later — we even got our Wi-Fi back! I couldn’t help but laugh to myself about how both my sister and her girlfriend had to bucket flush their own poop no more than 10 minutes before the water and power turned back on. When I thought everything had turned out great, I found out my apartment had been broken into by an attempted looter in Miami. I can’t believe people try to take advantage of disasters like that by trying to steal from people.”
Cristi Ann
“I’m a Florida native. Hurricanes are always a threat. I was a baby when Andrew hit. My family was all hiding in the laundry room as the roof of their house blew off. I always heard stories of Andrew growing up but was too young to remember anything. Hurricane Irma was bigger, stronger and slower than Andrew. The fear was definitely felt all throughout the city. I was not going to evacuate. One, my family. If something happened to them and I wasn’t there, I would never forgive myself. Two, I don’t feel comfortable not knowing what’s going to happen to my house and I’m not there to fix and assess the situation. Three, I’ve been through many other hurricanes that hit Miami so I knew what to expect and how to prepare. With Irma, the path direction was constantly moving back and forth the entire time. One day it was going to be a direct hit for Miami and the next day it’s going out to the east. Either way, we were going to get some bands from Irma. I prepared by backing up all my computers and saving all my content and material on two portable hard drives and put them in a safe. I put all my clothes I absolutely didn’t want to be damaged in heavy duty trash bags and then put them in Tupperware. I packed all my valuables in the same way, my laptops, important papers, photo albums. I went to my next door neighbors and offered them help in any way before and after the hurricane because in times like these we have to depend on our neighbors. I got emergency food supplies, first aid supplies, and a radio. I stored all these in an empty room away from all windows and put a tarp over it and taped it down. I boarded up all my windows and moved all the furniture away from the windows. I had water, candles and all phones and battery packs charged up. The worst things to happen to me if Irma would directly hit as a category 5 was my roof ripping off and damaging everything inside, no power for a maximum of two weeks, looting after the storm and my car getting damaged. Miami did not get a direct hit. Unfortunately, the Florida Keys and the Caribbean did. My heart and prayers are with them all. Rain water seeped under my front door and got half the living room wet. I was able to stop it with towels. The power went off and was completely dark. The wind was so strong a couple tiles fell off and a couple trees fell. The whole thing lasted about 36 hours. I am very lucky that’s all that happened to me compared to others. I’m very proud of my city and the state of Florida and how they prepared and were ready to get back to work on rebuilding the moment the storm stopped. I’m very grateful for the first responders that risked their lives for us, the news media for keeping us informed play by play even when we lost power. Most important I’m proud of the citizens of Florida and my local community that worked together and helped anyone that needed help because we are all in this together and together we will rebuild better and stronger.”
Chellie DD
“I live north of Tampa and originally am from England. I think it was amazing how all the Florida VNA ladies stayed in touch. It was a frightening time... so much uncertainty. The news reports were constantly changing... it was confusing! I decided to send messages out to all the ladies and make sure no one was in trouble or left with nowhere to go. I stayed home as I was not in a mandatory evacuation area but still needed to prepare for the hurricane. So grateful to have been spared the heartache. Irma came and went with a little water damage, but the weather did stop me from working/communicating though so this week I have some serious catching up to do! My fans have been awesome... I’ll be forever grateful for their concern and support. I’m truly a lucky girl.”
Sally D’Angelo
“OMG, I stayed. I thought I was safe because I’m located on the east coast north of Palm Beach. The morning started out like every morning: coffee, walk my best buddy, chat with a few neighbors while thinking this isn’t so bad. I’ve stayed through tropical storms before, even brushed by a hurricane once, but the wind just engulfed us by mid-morning (remember I’m 120 miles east of Irma). The winds came in at a steady 50-to-75 mph and peaked for three hours at 99 mph. As if the winds weren’t scary enough my biggest fear was the lakes (I have one in my front yard and one in my back yard) and the rain. I’m now located in what is called the rain bands every 15 minutes. It was like a jetliner flying through my patio, the noise, the rain, this seriously went on all day from 10 a.m. Sunday until 4 a.m. Monday. Finally, at 2 a.m., the rain bands moved offshore and into the Atlantic, saving the lakes from breaching. I lost power just a few times, and I must hand it to my builder: he builds a hell of a home. My old home (which I just moved from a few months ago) in Naples, was devastated. Would I do it again? F#CK NO... and just in case you didn’t hear me F#CK NO! My prayers are with all.”
Trinety Guess
“Myself, boyfriend and one cat evacuated to TN. We packed light and got out Thursday night. Honestly, I should have packed more with me but thankfully my house did not flood as we expected. I was very worried for my friends and family that stayed. We did short texts to stay in contact. I watch the news constantly till it made me so anxious that I had to walk away. For the first two nights I was in TN my dad had me in a falling apart mini-camper. The ‘bed’ broke immediately so we ended up sleeping on the floor in the tiny walkway on some cushions. Eventually, my dad and stepmom put us in the ‘back house’ with a real bed and bathroom. Now I don’t have to run through the freezing cold grass at 5 a.m. to go potty in the main house. This has definitely been some sort of adventure. I am running an exclusive reward for all those who donate hurricane help/support in this time of need. Gas has not been cheap and I still need to figure out when it’s safe to come home. To send help/support please email BookTrinetyGuess@gmail.com.”
Lelu Love
“Yep, I was super nervous and anxious all week because I had been through some bad ones growing up. I kept going back and forth on leaving or staying but then by the time they kept making the path changes saying it was coming more and more to Tampa, it was already too late to leave and deal with all the gridlock traffic and gas shortages and all, so we stayed and I was still a nervous wreck. I’ve never missed a cam show so I did the extra one the day before it hit just in case we lost power and I couldn’t do my normal one the next week. It helped keep me distracted a little bit and my members always make me feel better. I even went and played poker with friends that morning too. Then we got super lucky: by the time it got up to us it was weaker than they originally thought and we never even lost power! Just a couple quick flickers and nothing more than a few branches and water in the yard, definitely the best case scenario based on how many other people are still without power and have lots of damage.”
Kelley Cabbana
“I am in the Orlando area. Hurricane Irma was really scary and when it made landfall it was fierce... I lost power and the internet and even my phone went down too. My fans stayed with me right up to the last minute asking me if I was ok and to be safe. I posted many updates on my Twitter so they knew I was ok. I am without power still so I’m not able to cam or be online and that’s really hard for me, I miss my fans. I’m hoping I will be back soon not just for my fans but also to sustain my income. Hurricane Irma was scary and the threat was really real too. I did stay in contact with a few other girls that live in the area to as we all checked in on each other. Thankful for a great network of cam girls and I realize how much I miss AC and Starbucks.”
Carmen Valentina
At first, I wasn’t worried about Hurricane Irma because it looked like it was just going to get the east side of Florida and not the Gulf side where Tampa is. Then it started inching closer to the left, as it got closer and closer to landfall in Tampa. That’s when I started worrying. My power went out for a couple days, but luckily there was no damage. I knew that once it got to Tampa it wouldn’t be as severe because hurricanes always weaken when they touch land. Some of my Miami friends though are still without power, and I’m hoping they are okay.”
Seeing these stories of the storm’s hit-and-miss strikes on The Sunshine State shows that no matter how mild or severe, everyone in Florida was affected — and continues to be affected — by Hurricane Irma.
It also reveals the humanity, the human side, of those on the frontline of human interaction: cammers — and how these people come together to care for each other, as much as they care for their fans.
The victims of Hurricane Irma can be helped by making a donation to The American Red Cross.
Pictured: Tree damage to Maggie Green’s home
