ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Time after time, Floridians prove to be resilient in the aftermath of storms, the latest case being a doctor who took the "scenic route" to get to her shift at the hospital.
“When I was getting ready to head to work, we had probably two or two and a half feet of water in the road,” Dr. Meghan Martin said. Not much of a surprise to her or her Shore Acres neighbors with Hurricane Debby rolling up the coast.
“Luckily we had thought ahead, and we put our cars in a parking lot about a mile away, which we know doesn't flood,” Martin said.
But then came the issue of getting to work for her shift in a local children’s hospital emergency department. She was scheduled to start Monday afternoon when road flooding was at its peak in the area.
“I had some concerns about getting there, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to just drive through the road,” she explained.
RELATED: River flooding from Hurricane Debby to last for days, may get worse in some Tampa Bay areas
So like any good Floridian, she got creative. Ziploc bagging her belongings before setting out to “sea,” on a journey that started on her paddleboard before becoming a trek on foot.
She documented it all on her popular social media accounts.
“The journey was fairly intense. I stepped in a pretty deep hole just around the corner when I was walking up against a fence, and so I flooded my boots, and so I had to kind of dump the water out of my boots. And then as I got a little bit closer, the thunder and the lightning really started to kick up. And then I saw a cute little baby alligator that was in a little retention pond on the side of the road. They kept their distance, and I kept my distance and proceeded on my way,” Martin laughed.
It was never a doubt, she was going to get there for any kid who may have been in need of help. She explained that her day was not anywhere close to as bad as some experienced in the aftermath of Debby.
“We can't shut the ER down and say there's a storm, nobody’s allowed to get sick. I still need to be there, even if there is a hurricane or whatever happens. I still need to go to work to just make sure kids stay healthy,” Martin said.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I probably will have to, because we're not planning on moving anytime soon,” she added.
Martin says typically they will sleep at the hospital ahead of a major storm, but they didn’t anticipate Debby having as big of an impact as it did in St. Petersburg.