What are you going to do?
I’m staying. I’m inland, albeit on an ocean access canal. Been through 6. This may be #7. We’ll see. Hurricanes are an odd natural disaster. You know they’re coming for awhile before they hit you. Not like tornadoes or earthquakes. You can prepare for them. Or leave.
The runup to the storm is gradual, wind picks up, palm tree branches go horizontal, feeder bands come in and it rains off and on. The main body of the storm is unrelenting wind and rain. Somebody once told me its the sound of sitting right next to a train barreling down the tracks. And they’re right. That’s what it sounds like for several hours.
When the storm passes, it’s calm and eerily peaceful. No birds. Night can be rough. No street lights, no electric. Occasional police car or national guard HMMWV. But there’s always an element that thinks its time for some early Christmas shopping. There’s usually a dawn to dusk curfew for the first few days afterwards.
People come out of their houses. Meet the neighbors you never talk to. Call your insurance company. Block party barbecues. Kids are excited because theres no school, wonder if they got really lucky and their school got blown away. Clean up and go on with life.
I had a neighbor, originally from St Louis, probably 85 when this happened- We get into the eye of a storm, its calm, and somebody’s knocking on my door. Its Marie, all 5’ tall of her, holding a 12 pack of Miller High Life. “Honey, the electrics out and these are going to get warm. You better help me drink them before they go bad”. She came in, and we did just that. She was a pistol— went to Vegas for her 94th birthday.
So I’ll stay. Well see what nature brings, if anything.