Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/897697
USICERINKS.COM NOVEMBER.DECEMBER.2017 / 31 With Irma making its way through the Caribbean and up near Florida, decisions had to be made as to how to handle the rink. These choices had to be made by Jane Johnson, the administrative manager at Kendall, and her husband, Kent Johnson, the rink's skating program director. When the Johnsons saw the storm begin to turn to their home state, they began to prepare for a hurricane. Preparing a Safe Space For those who might not know, there is a method to preparing an ice arena for a hurricane. This includes boarding up the windows, applying duct tape to the doors and putting sandbags on the door. "When we started boarding, we thought we might get a direct hit," Jane said. "We lucked out since it took a bit of a left turn. But we thought it was better to be safe than sorry." Jane and Kent also made the decision to make Kendall their home during the storm and invited some of their skaters and their families to stay with them at the rink. "Some of our skaters had been through Hurricane Andrew and lost their houses," Jane said. "They felt really unsafe because they didn't know where they could go. We tried to help them by giving them a safe place." Party Time As the storm was approaching, about 50 people made their way into Kendall for the next few days. Families came equipped with food and water and began to make the arena their home. The Johnsons also prepared by keeping frozen food and ice available along with sterno stoves and barbecues so families could cook hot food during the storm. "The first day, we still had power and practically threw a party," said Ariana Silva-Falcon, a 14-year-old skater at Kendall. "We did puzzles, had a ton of food and put music on. I even got to skate a little bit." The families also found shelter in the arena's workout facility. This was the place where they could sleep at night. "It felt so weird to sleep on a mat where we do plyometric jumps every week," Silva-Falcon said. "The room where I slept had windows viewing one of our ice sheets. The rink looked more beautiful than ever at night with the white ice contrasting the darkness inside the rink." Parking Garage As families continued to stay at Kendall, the storm's worst continued to come. To protect themselves from further damage, cars were parked on the ice inside the rink so they wouldn't be lost in the storm. The worsening of the storm also meant they would lose power at the rink. While Irma was wreaking havoc on South Florida, the families were able to watch from the comfort of the arena lobby in lawn chairs. "Being in the rink, we could actually look out as the storm came in. We had a bit of a show," Jane said. Recover and Reopen Once the storm finally passed, the race was on to get the rink back to normal. Kendall lost power for 14 hours during the storm. But once power was available, the Johnsons had to be careful about not having a jolt and burning out their equipment. "Once we were back with full power, we turned a couple of compressors motors back on. The rink was like a rain forest until the air handlers caught up with the situation," Kent said. Within three days of losing power, the Johnsons had the arena back up and ready to go for skaters. Meanwhile, the rest of the area was dealing with the aftermath of the storm. "Most of Florida looked like a war zone with damage to buildings and countless trees down," Kent said. "The neighbor- hood was mostly without power for a week after the storm." With Kendall back up and running, the Johnsons were able to help their local community. They used their ice machine The rink is a skater's safe haven in a million different ways.