Hurricane Season 2005

Alert! Warning! Watch!

** After reading Nikki's blog entry yesterday and watching the latest weather reports, this entry came to mind.**

As one of the blogworld's unoffical news correspondents and part-time weatherladies, I feel obligated to report what I've heard, read, seen, and perceived on the news wires as part of my own public service announcement program. In real life, I send emails or make phone calls to family and friends warning them of dangerous weather so that they can properly prepare. Now I'm offering this courtesy to my fellow bloggers. Currenty, tropical storms Cindy and Dennis are putting the people who live in the areas of the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Atlantic on notice as to what kind of hurricane season we are going to have this year. Although hurricane season lasts between June and late October, to me, it seems a little early for the tropical storms to come our way. The height of these terrifying events usually takes place in late August, September, and part of October. Storms Cindy and Dennis may roll on without too much concern. However, as the ocean waters begin to warm up, the right conditions for hurricanes may present themselves in the future. With that said, for those of you who live in the hurricane prone areas as well as some inland areas may want to check the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Center webpage or CNN's Special Hurricane webpage for information. Be safe.


**Stray Thought: Why are most of the weatherladies on the Weather Channel pregnant?**


My Hurricane Experience: Hurricane Gloria (1985)



Back in the fall of 1985, I was a high school student. I didn't quite think and believe that the world revolved around me, but I must admit and confess that I was a little self-absorbed. Just a little. Since I've lived 99% of my life on the East Coast and very close to the Atlantic Ocean (yet not on the beach), I've grown accumstomed to the hurricanes that haunt the area every fall. And 1985, would be no different. Some kind of way or another, previous hurricane systems would break apart and weaken or veer into another direction. In 1985, I kept up with the news in the days leading up to Hurricane Gloria's arrival, but no one really felt the need to fly into hysterics. The residents of my small hometown in northeastern North Carolina simply boarded up the windows; stockpiled food and supplies; and watched the weather reports for updates. No biggie. Right?

As Hurricane Gloria marched forward to my town, people ran the gamut of emotions. Some were highly concerned, yet cautious, while others were somewhat excited at the chance to be held up in a tight space with that special somebody. Innocently, I knew nothing of the kind, because I was the good kid. *hee hee* Oops, I'm about to lose my place in my story. Okay. I'm back on track. ===> Most meteorologists can narrow down the areas that will be most affected within a couple days of a hurricane strike. Back in the day, I can remember my family tuning into WAVY-TV 10 transmitting out of the Hampton Roads area in Virginia for news. I'll never forget the serious and excited look on the weatherman's face as he reported that Hurricane Gloria was headed my town's way. At that very moment my parents told my sister and me to pack a few things and to be prepared to move quickly when emergency personnel gave the word. I did as I was instructed, but you would have thought I was getting ready for the Ebony Fashion Fair fashion show. Okay, my clothes weren't from Paris. I just made sure that I packed a week's worth of clothes, accessories, shoes, and toiletries. I like fresh, clean clothes everyday. In the wake of all this storm talk, I was planning to be fierce (ahem...decent) in the dressing department, since the closest Red Cross shelter was at the local university. My clothes had to be in compliance when in view of those college boys. *wink* I was quite satisfied with the collection of clothes that I had purchased on my modest school clothes budget provided to me by Mom and Pop. So there wasn't no way in Hades that I'd let my 1985 fall clothes collection be torn off and away in a hurricane. Heck no... Shux...

In my self-absorbed world, my hurricane preparations made perfect sense to me. So, I couldn't really understand the looks on my parents' face when they saw me drag out the oversized Samsonite suitcase. Here we are on the brink of a major disaster, and here I was only concerned about being a fashionista on a budget. *lol* Looking back I think my Dad was somewhat annoyed, but calmly managed to explain to me that preparation and supplies meant gathering up things such as water jugs, flashlights, blankets, batteries, the radio, snacks, medicine, and other essentials. As big as my suitcase was, none of that stuff was to be found in there. I've changed so much since then.

As the orange-yellow sky of day gave way to the blue-black-purple sky of night, the winds began to swirl and make eerie whistling sounds as they tickled the tall pine trees to forewarn us that trouble was on its way. The birds sensed the hurricane very early on and flew away a few days before, leaving the human inhabitants to deal with Hurricane and Bully Gloria. With all of their fancy, sophisticated, and scientific contraptions (doppler, satellite data, stormwatch equipment, etc.), the weathermen had a hard time anticipating Gloria's next move. Gloria slowed, veered left, veered right, stopped, rested, yawned, napped, slept, and slumbered. And so did my family. After being glued to the television for several hours, we all fell into a very deep sleep. I guess we thought Gloria would veer on off into sea as other hurricanes had in the past...But NO, something or someone must have inconsiderately awakened Gloria at 2:00 a.m. Gloria was quite angry which gave way to pissed-offness. Gloria's cyclonic winds became outstretched fingers that grasped into an angry fist. And, boy did she sock it to us. Gloria came roaring in like a runaway freight train whipping my small town with no regrets or remorse. My family didn't have time to get to the Red Cross shelter. It was too late. The latest radio announcement stated that emergency personnel were ordering all town citizens to stay put, because there would be no rescues at this point. So, we hunkered down in the narrow hallway of our home praying that we'd live to see another day. Times like this let's us mortals know that God is in charge and that He's the only one who can deliver us to safety. It was a terrifying experience. The walls and floors of our home creaked, while our roof was forced to stand up to Gloria. The constant screaming of the wind and the sound of trees and objects flying down the street went on for hours. Then the eye of the storm passed by placing us in some kind of Twilight Zone messing with our minds and making us think all was okay and dandy until that swirling action started up again in a different direction. Again, we huddled together resigning ourselves to just leave everything in God's hands.

Eventually, the good fight was fought and won by the next morning revealing God's mercy on us. Gloria's wrath had left its scar on the town. Large branches from storm-weary trees were strewn about and rested on the roofs of homes and cars. Tall, downed trees snapped power and telephone lines, which disabled the town temporarily. Given all of the damage, we were very thankful that our town didn't sustain any loss of life or serious injury. We were just glad to see a brand new day! ;-)

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Song of The Day:

Everybody Rejoice (A Brand New Day) written by Luther Vandross for the movie, "The Wiz"

Lyrics

Everybody look around'
Cause there's a reason to rejoice you see
Everybody come out
And let's commence to singing joyfully
Everybody look up
And feel the hope that we've been waiting for

Everybody's glad
Because our silent fear and dread is gone
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?