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The Phantom Hurricane And Disaster Preparedness: Looking Back At The Last Hurricane Scare
Michal Neuman
Posted Feb 07 2007 That autumn evening October 29, my husband and I went out to dinner. We drove down roads unobstructed with debris. We had a lovely meal by electric light and returned to our air conditioned home. I turned on the faucet and water came out of a tap. The cell phones and iPods lay nestled together, their electronic umbilical cords humming at the power source. It was all very comforting.
We had, you see, been "waiting on" Hurricane Ernesto, which never quite materialized. While the weathermen, wearing serious expressions and funny yellow rain hats, reported on the scary hurricane, you could see the surfers behind them, "high-fiving" and scooping their boards up for another run.
Back in the day, when I was a young Miamian growing up, a storm like Ernesto would barely have registered a blip on our communal radar (we were tough back then, from the Carter years of standing in gas-rationing lines) and we would only have sought shelter when the actual tree we were using for first base was hit by actual lightening.
Then one of us might have looked up at the blackened sky and said something like: "Not that it's any big deal, but I think maybe we should break up the game." Other kids would yell no, they weren't quitting but then somebody's dad would come up the street in a car to chuckle and yell at us that didn't we know enough to come out of the rain and so the whole group would pile into his car without any seatbelts and that would be that.
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But times have changed. Even the threat of a hurricane is enough to shut the courts and schools, create mile-long lines at the gas pumps and send the city careening about its collective self, preparing for the worst. And we're right to do so.
Last October I wrote about Hurricane Wilma. She was supposed to remain a tropical storm but instead whipped into a frothy hurricane and ripped through the roof of my friend Caroline's house. As you may recall, there was no food in the stores and no power, so you couldn't get gas to leave the city even if you wanted to.
With that in mind, Floridians have turned into survivalists who stock food and medicines, and they watch the weather channel in every store and office. What a fun group we are! You may be saying to your spouse right now, "Wow what a bunch of losers. Why do they live there?"
You have to realize, in those years, hurricanes in South Florida were an anomaly. Sure, you heard of them, but only the way you heard about the Civil War or the Space Program - interesting but not related to your real life. In fact, your parents may have talked nostalgically about the big hurricane Gretchen or Gloria and how the wind blew and they seemed sort of nostalgic about the memory.
Then, the BIG storms began and nobody's looking nostalgic. So feel free to laugh at the "yahoos" in Florida, but take a look at Time magazine.
Time magazine reported back in October that a group of disaster specialists note "Ninety-one percent of Americans live in an area at risk for a natural disaster." As far as hurricanes, they predict that the second most likely target for a major hurricane isNew York City. (The first is Miami; big surprise)
They note that Americans are "the most optimistic people on earth, believing that they won't be affected and if they are, there isn't much they can do anyway. The disaster specialists note, for the record, that "Mother Nature" is more likely to cause hardship and evacuation, than a terrorist attack. (They must be popular at parties, these disaster specialists, don't you think?)
Without resorting to tranquilizers, it's important to lay aside the denial defenses and pay some attention to the specialists, because to do otherwise is expensive and silly. Any time there is any interruption in public life, be it natural or man- made, it costs money. If a serious event occurs, you may need to evacuate (northerners always laugh but remember the disaster specialists - New York and the surrounding areas such as New Jersey, are second on that list).
Florida apparently ranks number one in the nation on "disaster preparedness" (is that even a real term?). We may not be the brightest in the nation, but at least we're prepared. With that in mind, let me tell you some of what my award-winning state repeatedly suggests for your own "preparedness."
Probably due to that October column I wrote on disasters, I ended up on some wacko mailing list for survivalist catalogues. These are truly interesting, and some of you may indeed want a year's worth of MRE (military meals "ready to eat") for your family.
You can get a biohazard suit and other wacko survival chotchkes from those catalogues. But even if you don't want to go that far (water purification tablets anyone? Sawed off shotguns to take into your underground shelter?) here are a few things you may seriously want to do:
Put aside emergency money and don't touch it. Have passports. Make a list, and video the valuables in your home for insurance purposes. Know your policy number and insurance agent.
Have an evacuation plan, should you need to leave. Discuss it with family members.
Have a month's worth of any medication you depend on or be sure you have refills available noted on the prescription.
Keep on hand 72 hours worth of water and food items for your family. You need one gallon per family member, per day.
Have a line of credit available through your bank, in the event you should need it for living expenses if you are temporarily relocated.
Keep radios with batteries or buy the emergency hand-cranked radios. Once relegated to the wacko catalogues, these are showing up in mainstream stores.
For the truly paranoid, get some doxycycline and tamiflu if you can find any. I hear its been bought up by the catalogue readers. Some people, noting the utter devastation in New Orleans and parts of Florida, have made copies of what's precious, copied photos digitally and sent them into cyberspace. Some have simply taken the time to properly seal and plan for the safekeeping of family heirlooms. Not such a silly thing, really.
All joking aside, it's good to appreciate the calmness of normal life. The things that matter really aren't "things."
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