OKEECHOBEE -- When a massive, possible Category 5 blowhard of a storm is bearing down on you personally, your own survival and the safety of your family, your home and your business become the stakes in one of the biggest decisions you might ever make: Do I stay or do I go?

This is a story of the opposite choices made by two businesspeople in Buckhead Ridge. Even though the two – who were separated by a street, Hunter Road, and very divergent backgrounds – decided differently, they both provided the utmost service they could to the folks, their neighbors and in some cases friends, who had come to depend on them. And although it ended up that nobody’s survival actually came to be in jeopardy, no one could have known that would be the case at the time.

Neither had to think very hard about what they would do; their choices seemed naturally clear to them as Irma bore down on the area starting around 10 days ago.

Familiar, homey oasis in a tempest: Ridge Market

For Lynn Hingson, owner of Ridge Market & Storage, 1124 Buckhead Ridge Road, it almost didn’t require any thought. She’d been in a similar situation before, 12 years ago when a whirlwind named Wilma was in the offing.

To the question about how things were at her eclectic country general store leading up to the arrival of Irma, Ms. Hingson was concise and blunt.

“Stressful. Hectic. Scary. People were panicking. But I had a generator, my ex-husband brought me a generator, and so I had the whole store going.”
Wait, what? She stayed open Sunday when the winds were building up to the nearly Cat-3 strength felt here?

“Yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. “I don’t remember what time it hit, but ... we closed when the winds started getting really bad, and then as soon as the storm was over, we reopened. We did the same thing 12 years ago, during Wilma. There’s nothing open, you know.”

She didn’t have to tell anybody that. Many were busy looking online at the last minute, seeking fuel, or bottled water, or just good stuff to feed the kids. And there they found her and Ridge Market.

“I mean, people were coming here even from Basinger, because we put it on the Okeechobee Scoop, and Facebook, that we were open. There was nothing open. We boarded up just these shutters here on the front of the store,” said Ms. Hingson.

Some might’ve come just to be around others and find comfort in camaraderie in those stressful, panicky hours and days after it became clear Irma would affect nearly everybody in some way. But they took advantage of the market’s offerings anyway.

“Yeah,” she said, “they purchased things, but there was a whole lot of talking. Well, we have gas in the kitchen, and the generator was running everything. So we had no problem at all.”



Interviewed on Wednesday afternoon as FPL crews continued working in the area to restore power to residents, Lynn said: “I haven’t been out of the store. I live next door and I went over there for a half-hour

But their customers missed them, and many of their loyal regulars came in to inquire when they’d have gas back after they reopened on Thursday.

“Yesterday I opened at 7 o’clock, but I still don’t have gas yet, but I’m going to get the gas today, that’s what he told me,” she said on Friday.

Their customers love the station, she said, “because we always have cheaper gas than anywhere else in town, and many people drive out here because of that.”

One regular who pulled up to their pumps looking to gas up early Friday began to leave right away when he saw the pumps were down. But he obligingly lowered his window to answer a question, smiling and shouting as he was pulling away: “I’ll be back. They’re so friendly, and they try hard to always give us the best price, so I don’t ever buy it anywhere else.”