Ernesto, we barely knew ye
For those of you that have been checking, Ernesto came and went without any fanfare in Central Florida at all. We got a nice, soaking rain for awhile, but not much else. We have had far worse summer storms this year.
Nonetheless, I did get prepared for Ernesto, as far as making sure that we had extra water, canned and other foods that don’t require refrigeration, extra propane for cooking that food, and full gas tanks. I always think that it is interesting that the day before a storm hits, the gas stations have lines. Why is that? I mean, I filled up a couple of days before, it’s not like we don’t know a hurricane is coming a week before it arrives. But a few hours before the first feeder bands blow through, there are people on the news being interviewed while sitting in a gas line, talking about how they had to drive 75 miles to find a station with gas. Dumb.
So what will be the long term result of this hurricane that wasn’t? The people that prepared for Ernesto remembered Katrina and Wilma because they are recent memories that we have been seeing all over the news lately, lest we forget. So this week, Floridians sat in gas lines, bought extra water and food, double checked their generators, and watched the sky anxiously. But the little storm that couldn’t, Ernesto, let us all down.
Next time, we’ll remember that and we’ll be that less likely to prepare as well. Then it will happen a couple of more times with other storms and we’ll start feeling invincible again, convinced that God would never send another storm through the “Happiest Place on Earth,” and that’s when it will happen. That’s what happened with some of the storms in 2004 and 2005. We’re creatures of habit, Pavlov’s pretty puppies, if you will. I think hurricanes may know that and send a few sacrificial ones in to lull us into a false sense of security…and then, just when we least expect it, WHAMO! Man, they sure are sneaky.
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