HURRICANE REPORT

Volume V- Issue 10, November 2006
Published by Llumina Press

HURRICANE REPORT

Every summer, for three or four months, we Floridians are subjected to an endless round of “news” about tropical depressions and hurricanes forming in the Gulf or the Atlantic. Every time any storm seems remotely likely to hit Florida, the entire state is put on alert. From Key West to Jacksonville, we all start running around like crazy folk trying to gather up supplies and get the wood needed to board up our windows. Long lines forming in the wee hours in front of Home Depot are the norm. The shelves empty of everything even remotely useful (even light paneling at high cost is sold). Anything that can cover a window is picked up and taken home by someone. Those blue concrete screws are in great demand and they usually run out long before the hurricane is close enough to present a threat. And when they do run out, people buy the ones that are too short because they’ve got to get something. (It’s true. I’ve been there.) All the batteries go. The shelves of all the supermarkets are emptied of water and canned goods. It’s a buying frenzy. And then, after all the near-panic, the hurricane goes somewhere else: North Carolina, Louisiana, New York. Last year, we did take a couple serious hits but in the fifteen years I’ve been in Florida, except for Andrew (which hit Miami hard, but hardly touched Broward) and the three that hit us last year, we’ve had dozens of close calls and no calls, but not much in the way of really dramatic hurricanes.

Still, the media goes on and on, feeding the frenzy every time a tropical depression forms. Home Depot and other stores sponsor twenty four hour coverage long before the storm gets close enough to predict. First they say it will hit Miami and the Keys. Quick everyone go to the store and get what you need. Then, hour by hour, day by day the warning zone moves north. Channel 7, Channel 4, Channel 10, the weather channel, and I don’t know who else, all talk non-stop about the oncoming hurricane, hurricanes of the past, the possible devastation, the fear people are experiencing, all accompanied by endless video of people buying up everything in sight. The media’s job? Feed the buying frenzy with every sound bite. And so many times, absolutely nothing comes of it.

Well, Wilma was different. This time the hurricane hit us direct and hard. It toppled trees, blew away the street lights on most intersections, overturned concrete benches, snapped telephone poles (even concrete ones) in half. It picked up a set of bleachers in Plantation, where I live, and set it on the wrong side of the fence. It tore down fences and awnings, blew trees through people’s windows (my daughter’s included), tore off roofs, and turned screen houses into heaps of rubble. Oh yes, this time it was for real. And this time, I was less prepared than ever before, and, from what I hear, so was most of Broward County.

Now why is that? Why weren’t we prepared? We always were before. For every storm that never showed up, we’d spent fortunes on preparing for its arrival. Why didn’t we respond this time? Part of the reason is the media, the constant hyping of the hurricane, the deliberate sowing of fear in order to increase sales. The other part of the reason is Francis. Francis, we took seriously. It was a big storm, a giant. It was a category 3. It hit us and for the most part, it wasn’t much. Lots of trees down, some powerlines down. But on the whole, although there were areas that were without power for a week or two, most residents of Broward county were more inconvenienced than put out. Putting it together: media hype plus Francis plus the fact that Wilma was “just” a category 2, made us complacent. We’d ridden out tougher storms. What was there to fear?

Going through the storm itself was an eye-opener. It came on hard in the daylight, unlike Francis, who stormed through the night. We could see the hedges bent to the ground and the trees snapping outside our windows. We could hear the wind rattling the windows and ravening through the chimney like a hungry wolf. It was loud, screaming its wrath, and there was nowhere to hide. Yes, many of us found the small interior room that was the safest and took refuge there. But in the end, who knew how it would turn out? What if one of those tornadoes we’d been told would be spawned by this storm actually hit our house? Would the four interior walls of the bathroom save us?

It was not fun. Thank God it’s over. But now that it is over, I have to wonder. What if I had been better prepared? Well, I would have saved my daughter’s window because I would have boarded it up. But my roof, which is now leaking in four places, would still be leaking. I would still have been terrified. Hurricanes are so powerful, they peel off roofs. Is there any way to prepare for that? No, the real difference would come after the storm. If I’d been better prepared, I wouldn’t have had to go looking for propane, batteries and gas. But then, so what? Does that really matter all that much? Other than boarding up our windows to protect the glass, there’s not much we can do to prevent the really serious hurricane damage. Why does the media create these 24 hour shows designed to make us afraid when, in the end, it doesn’t really make much difference?

The point I’m searching for is this: Years ago, I guess before satellites, we didn’t have much warning of hurricanes. If one was going to strike our area, we were told to evacuate the houses near the water and go to higher ground, usually on the same day that the hurricane was to strike. It wasn’t a long drawn out three days of waiting for a storm that doesn’t arrive. When it was known where it would hit, people were warned. Instead of screaming “wolf” for days at a time, closing the schools long before there was any certainty of the hurricane’s trajectory, and feeding a fear-filled buying frenzy, the media actually was useful, broadcasting needed news about where the shelters were, what areas had to be evacuated and so on.

Although I know it will never happen because there’s just too much money involved, it would be really nice if the news media would stop interviewing people about how scared they are, stop interviewing other people about how much there is to be scared about, and simply give us the necessary news. Instead of feeding the fear, the media should be objective, even cold. Just give us the news. Just tell us what’s happening and forget the 24 hour coverage. Although it fills the pockets of some major companies, it doesn’t do Florida at large any good at all. In fact, when a real hurricane, the real wolf comes along, the sheep don’t even know how to react. They’ve become too jaded by empty cries and meaningless coverage of storms that are too early to predict.

This copyrighted article may be reprinted as long as the following is included:

The Hurricane Report by Deborah Greenspan, publisher of Llumina Press (www.llumina.com).

Correspondence should go to dgreenspan@llumina.com.