The nun with a chain saw, and other figures from Irma

A perhaps unexpected person trying to clear a road with a chain saw. Police officers who were appreciated for being easy on the eyes. A jokester who lost control of his joke. A sheriff bent on checking for active arrest warrants. A mother in peril who relied on the kindness of others.

Almost a week after Hurricane Irma made two landfalls in Florida, more than 1 million customers remained without power, as of Saturday. Yet social media and international media coverage occasionally introduced to the public some people who have left far-reaching impressions. As the state recovers, some of those people have had time to reflect on what happened, and what they made of the attention.

The nun wielding a chain saw

Sister Margaret Ann had used a chain saw before, but she was no expert.

"I had to Google to see how to start it," she said in an interview Friday.

She did just fine. A video of her taking a chain saw to tree branches Tuesday, shot by an off-duty police officer and shared by the Miami-Dade Police Department on social media, became a symbol of do-it-yourself initiative in the storm's aftermath, attracting international media attention and widespread social media admiration.

She and her fellow sisters rode out the storm at the nearby Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School, where she is the principal. The school sustained damage to its air conditioning system, an outdoor pavilion, a set of bleachers and the baseball field, along with widespread water damage throughout the building, she said. There are also about 6 acres of downed trees, though this time she said she would let the maintenance crews wield the chain saws. In all, she expects to lose eight days of school, but hopes to return Tuesday.

She doesn't relish the attention, she said, but is happy that the students are thrilled by it. And at least two strangers have sent the school new chain saws, inspired by her deed.

Though Margaret Ann said the officer who took the video said police would have cleared the road themselves, she said it probably would have taken a while and police had more important tasks.

"If you can do something, do it," Margaret Ann said. "Don't wait for someone else to do it."

[The story behind the Delta flight that raced Hurricane Irma]

The police officers who were quite appreciated

Before a 12-hour shift Sunday, three Gainesville police officers stopped for a selfie.

Lots of people take selfies, but this one stood out. This time, the people in the selfie were, well, as some would say, hot.

So said the hundreds of thousands of people who reports said shared or commented on the police department's photo on Facebook while expressing, ahem, spirited admiration, we'll call it. Afterward, the three officers — John Nordman, Michael Hamill and Dan Rengering planned to use their newfound fame to shoot a calendar and donate the proceeds to Irma relief efforts.

"I didn't even do anything," Rengering said in an interview Friday. "I just kind of stood there and took a picture. So many other people have done so much more, even in our department."

Three years ago, he might have been an unlikely sex symbol. He topped out at 320 pounds, but lost 60 pounds so he could join the SWAT team, he said. He kept on losing weight, and is now down to around 225 to 230 pounds. To be internationally praised for his looks, he said, is a welcome development.

As is often the case in viral fame, the sheen can only last so long. The Gainesville Sun obtained screenshots that appeared to show Hamill making anti-Semitic comments on his Facebook page, and the department said it would "review the matter" and that Hamill had been suspended with pay. The department deleted the original image of the selfie, a department spokesman confirmed to The Washington Post. On Friday afternoon, Rengering said next week's photo shoot was still on, as far as he knew.

The shoot-at-the-hurricane guy

Let's be clear about this: It was a joke. Ryon Edwards, of DeLand, Florida, did not actually want anyone to fire their guns at the hurricane, he said.

But his Facebook event, "Shoot At Hurricane Irma," scheduled for Sept. 10, attracted thousands of supporters. "LETS SHOW IRMA THAT WE SHOOT FIRST," the all-caps description read.

Again, this was a joke. But not everyone treated it as such, including the Pasco Sheriff's Office, which tweeted some guidance.

"To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects," it wrote.

As his event reached the eyes of more and more people, Edwards, 22, grew concerned. Not everyone, including some members of the news media, seemed to be in on the gag.

"The attention is a little stressful because I feel that some will misconstrue the meaning of this event and make me look kind of like a moron," he said Sunday.

If there were any reports of anyone actually shooting their guns at the hurricane, The Times has not heard them. It seems reason may have prevailed.

And Edwards said he was given a valuable lesson: "I've learned that about 50% of the world could not understand sarcasm to save their lives," he wrote in a post on the Facebook event.

The sheriff who wanted to check warrants at shelters

Before the storm landed in Florida, Grady Judd, the sheriff in Polk County, tried to make it clear on Twitter on Sept. 6 that people wanted for crimes could not seek shelter with everyone else.

"If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed," the sheriff wrote, adding in another tweet, "If you have a warrant, turn yourself in to the jail — it's a secure shelter."

Some people found the announcement far less than reassuring. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida immediately condemned it. Nexus Services, an immigrant rights organization, and Andres Borreno, who said he was told he would have to submit to a background check when he tried to enter one of the county's shelters, later sued the sheriff, pointing to Fourth Amendment violations.

"The purpose of these pedestrian 'checkpoints' is to conduct a fishing expedition to find any possible basis, no matter how tenuous, for issuing citations to or arresting human beings seeking refuge from a Class 5 hurricane," the lawsuit read.

Judd told The Orlando Sentinel that the lawsuit was "obviously frivolous." A Polk County sheriff's office spokeswoman said Friday morning that she would ask Judd for comment, but did not return an email by Friday evening.

The woman who had a baby as the storm approached

Not now. Not yet.

Those were the first thoughts Dana Zwally, whom you may have not met through the same kind of media coverage as the others mentioned here, had when the initial ache pulsed through her abdomen on Sept. 4. They jarred her attention away from the news reports about Hurricane Irma. The next day, Zwally, Kenneth Wise and their 3-year-old son, Landon, packed their Ford Explorer with clothes and a hospital bag already prepared with bottles, wipes and diapers. They drove for almost four hours from Key West, Florida, struggling to fill up on gas and make it through the evacuation traffic that clogged Route 1 outside the Keys.

Late on Sept. 5, the family arrived at Baptist Hospital of Miami. Just after midnight on Sept. 7, Alayna Rae was born, weighing 6 pounds, 2 ounces.

Three days later, they were discharged. As Hurricane Irma's final outer bands brought gusts and rain through the Miami suburbs, the streets dark without power and littered with broken branches, they stopped at pharmacies, desperate to fill Zwally's prescriptions for Motrin and a painkiller.

Just before midnight Monday, they arrived at the basketball arena at Florida International University, where the Red Cross was housing evacuees from Key West. Zwally, crippled with pain from the surgery and no medication, grew worried they would be turned away.

Jose Tirado, an FIU facilities worker, ran to a nurse in the shelter, asking for advice about how to care for a newborn. He and other FIU staff members opened a classroom where Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies had been staying, fashioning a "nursery sign" and collecting baby wipes, formula, diapers and clothes.

"It felt like we could breathe again," Zwally said. "It shows you what to be thankful for."

Jacey Fortin contributed reporting.