IRMA ON HIS MIND
MIAMI-NATIVE VERNON FEARS FOR DAD
OLIVIER Vernon has a big game to play Sunday night against Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys, and a big burden on his mind. As he prepares for the prime-time season opener and gets ready to board the Giants’ flight to Dallas, Vernon has no choice but to hope and pray his father will be able to ride out Hurricane Irma in Miami Lakes, Fla.
“I just try to be positive, just be as positive as I can,” Vernon said Thursday at his locker. “Keep my family in mind, hope for the best, that’s basically all I can do right now.”
Vernon’s mother will be with grandchildren in Kentucky. His father Lascelles will be alone. And sidekick Jason Pierre-Paul grew up in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
“Hopefully it weakens, and maybe shifts up a little bit north and then it just dies out, but only time will tell,” Vernon said.
“We’ve been lucky for, what’s it been, 10 years? I was probably in high school the last one that hit, and we didn’t have power for like the whole month. It’s probably been long overdue for that, but hopefully it’s not destructive at all.”
Hurricane Wilma was downgraded to a Category 1 storm by the time it hit in 2005.
“I was a baby when Andrew hit, so I can’t recall that one,” he said.
His father lives 27 miles inland from one of the evacuation zones.
“I hope he changes his mind,” Vernon said, “but my dad, he’s been through it before so, he’d be all right.”
Lascelles Vernon, a reserve officer corporal in the patrol division of the Miami Beach Police Dept., told The Post he will ride Irma out.
“No, I have no plans of evacuating,” he said. “Matter of fact, I think later on today, I’ll be going in to assist my fellow [police] officers in helping people evacuate from off the beach.”
The father sounds as ready for Irma as the son is for elite Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith.
“I have everything I need,” Lascelles Vernon said. “Like I said, I’ve been through this before. I have a generator in case the power goes out.”
You keep your fingers crossed and pray for those who have decided to stay. Hurricane Wilma, a lesser storm, was no day at the beach for Vernon’s father, even before it arrived.
“Hurricane Wilma gave me a broken left ankle, I still have three screws in my ankle trying to put up the shutters on my daughter’s window,” he said. “I fell off the ladder on the second floor, and it cost me a brand new roof.”
Olivier was helping his father put up the shutters once the hurricane warning was issued.
“I just said, ‘Call 911.’ The fire rescue came and transported me to the hospital,” Lascelles recalled.
But his wife had to come get him and drive him home the next day.
“I had to wait like a week before the surgery could be done,” he said, “because there was no power in the hospital.”
There was plenty of power in Wilma. Lascelles rested with a soft cast on his ankle and watched the deluge. “Everybody lost their roof, including myself,” he said. “The entire state was saying, ‘If it was a Category 1 why was there so much property destruction?’ Half the county lost their roof because of the shoddy constructions that took place in the prior years of the hurricane.” His brother, Paul Buckley, lives in the Irma-ravaged British Virgin Islands. “I’ve been trying to reach him for the past day, and I haven’t been able to get in touch with him,” Lascelles said. “I’m just hoping that he’s fine.” He chuckled when I told him: “You’re a braver soul than I am.” “Listen, I’ve been through a lot of these things,” Lascelles Vernon said. “I’m 63 years old and I’ve seen it, done it … “Thank God I’m still here.” As much as Olivier Vernon wants to beat the Cowboys, you know he wants his father to beat Irma so much more.