I may be more than a little obsessed with the weather, but I really hate hurricane season.
All right, maybe that’s a bit harsh.
Maybe hate isn’t the right word … so I’ll go with dislike.
I really dislike hurricane season.
When I left for the UK last year, I honestly thought I would never have to think about another one. ever. again.
Hurricane season here starts on June 1st and lasts until November 30th with its peak arriving in September which means we’re almost smack right in the most active time for hurricanes. Meh.
Living in Florida, the threat of severe hurricane damage is very, very real. And, watching that blooming cone of uncertainty that comes with each Atlantic storm is a veritable hobby to most living here. I really feel for those in the north-east that have been hit hard by the wrath of Hurricane Irene because at least here in Florida, we somewhat expect and are as prepared as you can be for the devastation that a storm could bring should it hit our shores.
When we first moved here, I’ll admit I was very naive about the threat of hurricanes. Growing up on the north-east coast of England battling gale force winds, I honestly thought they couldn’t be that bad. In my young stupidity, I may even have gone to a couple of hurricane parties. It wasn’t until after Hurricane Andrew devastated the Miami area in 1992 that I realised just how serious they could be.
Since then, and the infamous no-name storm of 1993, I saw weather reporting practically change overnight to the modern-day, over the top, prepare your ass off and then prepare some more, scare tactics that meteorologists employ today. It’s very much a ”best to air on the side of caution” attitude than not at all and I, for one, have no problem with it.
In my experience, you can never be too prepared. Prepared with your hurricane supplies, your hurricane plan and securing your home. During the 2004 hurricane season, we had to board up the house not once, not twice, but three times and during one of the storms, our power was knocked out for FOUR days. Aaargh, it was a nightmare, but thankfully we’d stocked up on enough supplies and had lovely friends with power that we were able to go chillax with. The Tampa bay area hasn’t had a direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921, but rest assured that if one does head this way, my hurricane plan involves preparing to get my happy ass and that of my kids on the next plane outta here.
Lately, there have been a lot of jokes around the net about how Hurricane Irene was more hype than anything else. Now, I can joke with the best of them, but unless you’ve gone through a hurricane, you just have no idea. And, about all that hurricane hype — yeah – I don’t think the loss of 38 lives and estimated $7+ billion worth of damage would agree.
Tags: atlantic, currente, events, florida, hurricane, irene, life, news, plan, preparedness, season, storm, tampa, Thoughts
I can’t imagine how terrifying it must be to live with the threat & then experience it. I’m glad Irene didn’t do as much damage as at first thought but it was enough!x
I have friends in CT and NJ with no power and I can’t believe the footage I’m seeing from VT. We were lucky it went west of us. We had 4 blips of power before heading to bed at midnight Sunday. The UPS worked wonders for the movie I was watching.
I can totally feel you on this. It’s easy to joke about it, but being from NYC, we got lucky. I even wrote about this on my blog the other day (with some pictures), but it’s nothing compared to what people who live in the hurricane’s path.
I’m glad that most people took it serious, but for those who didn’t…they just got lucky; other people were not as lucky. To me a storm is a storm. It has the power to take life, I don’t want to mess around with that.