I sure understand where the sentiment comes from.
With Hurricane Ike set to travel nearly the length of Cuba today before heading into the Gulf of Mexico, residents from Texas to Florida face another week of worrying about whether their communities will fall in the storm's path.Some public officials said Sunday they are concerned that the frequency of hurricanes this year may cause coastal residents to ignore orders to evacuate or stock supplies as Ike approaches.
In Houston, a number of residents said they are among those experiencing hurricane warning fatigue.
"There are so many names coming by -- it's Gustav, then Hanna, then Ike," said Andy Berma, a medical office manager who relocated to Houston from Chicago two months ago. "It's like a herd of animals coming at you. It seems like the media needs something to talk about."
At 1 a.m. CDT today, Ike was a Category 3 hurricane with top sustained winds of 120 mph. It was centered 85 miles east of Camaguey, and moving westward at 14 mph.
Forecasting models predict that it will hit anywhere from northern Mexico to the Florida Panhandle. But several models call for it most likely to strike between Texas' upper coast and eastern Louisiana.
It wouldn't reach Texas until late this week, perhaps Saturday. But if it veers toward Louisiana or other Southeastern states, it could barrel inland as early as midweek.
Ike would be the third storm to threaten Houston this year.
Of course, for all our unhappiness about this situation, it could be much worse.
In flooded Haiti, Ike made an already grim situation abysmal.At least 58 people died as Ike's winds and rain swept the impoverished Caribbean nation Sunday -- and officials found three more bodies from a previous storm -- raising Haiti's death toll from four tropical storms in less than a month to 319. A Dominican man was crushed by a falling tree.
The coastal town of Cabaret was particularly hard hit -- 21 victims were stacked in a mud-caked pile in a funeral home there, including two pregnant women, one with a dead girl still in her arms.
I find that a good policy is to have the basics ready at the start of hurricane season (water, food you can eat without cooking, etc.)... and then forget about it.
This far out from something like Ike, NOBODY knows if we have a problem, and there is little point in worrying. If you have your preparations done at the beginning of the season, there is nothing to do anyway; if it becomes clear it's coming this way, then you can grab your hurricane kit and be ready. If not, then you don't. But if you've already prepared, there's no running to the store, etc., so you might as well not worry about it.
Second: don't watch the news. Seriously. Keep up via non-hysterical informational resources like Sci Guy, and pay no attention to the crazed television reporters.
I tend to get stressed about things like impending storms, and I find these things reduce the stress level a whole lot.
It's harder if you're in an area where you might have to evacuate, of course, and you have more prep to do and more things to be ready for, but for all of us who live out of storm surge areas, I think the best thing to do is basic preparations early, and then not worry about it.
(But OMG! We're all gonna die! OMG! OMG!)
Posted by: John on September 8, 2008 7:04 AM