The Safety of HSN Hosts and Models During Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma has recently hit the usual HSN headquarters in St. Pete, but there was minimal damage to it. As Irma hit the Tampa Bay area of Florida with heavy rain and strong winds, HSN was running their "best of HSN" content, along with live shows from Nashville, with Bobbi Ray Carter, Adam Freeman, and Sarah Anderson as hosts. Suzanne Runyan also evacuated with Bobbi, Adam, and Sarah to Nashville, where very few shows were shot live at Skyway Studios in the music city. All HSN hosts and models were safe before and during Irma. Those who didn't go to Nashville would either shelter-in-place at their homes or move to a strong hotel in Orlando. All HSN employees that had power outages would have non-perishable foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, with each one who never went to Nashville keeping their respective pets safe. Additionally, they would listen to a team of TV weather personalities in the event of a power outage, such as Mike Clay of Bay News 9 and Denis Phillips of WFTS channel 28 (ABC Action News). My breakfasts during the power outage caused by Irma were Pop-Tarts (in the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch a day later. Lunch was two cold peanut butter sandwiches one day, and then a Wendy's meal the next. The only dinner of the power outage was cold cheese sandwiches. We sheltered at my sister's home at 9618 Call Court in Hudson at the time of the storm, and then my mother and I later sheltered at our old home. When we returned, we surveyed the damage to the home, and small flooding was found in some of the rooms due to storm surge. Rocky, my sister's dog, survived Irma as well. I believe that HSN's star model, Regina, had to either shelter-in-place or evacuate due to the storm. Millions lost power due to the storm, with our power being out for over 40 hours. It was out from before midnight on the 10th through after 4PM on the 12th. At the time of the storm, my mom's workplace and all schools statewide were closed. Also closed at the time were many restaurants and grocery stores. Everyone at the River Side Inn in New Port Richey located at 7631 US Highway 19 was safe before, during, and after Irma. At least some people who worked at HSN stayed home from work, in St. Pete, for the storm, but weren't stranded in the dark each night of their respective power outages caused by the storm. I believe they had candles (which can carry a serious risk of fire), along with safer alternatives (in this case, flashlights and lanterns). Also, they would need a portable AM/FM radio, a weather radio, extra batteries, cameras, and other disaster supplies. By 4:15PM on the 12th, Withlacoochee Electric was around the apartment complex to get our power back up and running. The power outages continued at some homes in the Tampa area, such as Bobbi's home and that of new HSN personality Michelle Yarn, who had to shelter-in-place before the storm hit. The most-common station for people in the area to listen to in the event of a hurricane is WFLA radio (AM 970) which has been a news radio station for a lot of years. Programs seen on my portable DVD player during our outage weren't movies. Instead they were The Simpsons episode "The Lastest Gun in the West" (first aired on Fox on February 24, 2002) and the Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy" (which first aired on Fox on September 28, 2014).