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I survived another one. I was lucky once again. Hurricanes can be like anything else in life. The first experience can be a scary one, but you learn and gain confidence with each subsequent event. I still remember my first hurricane. Cleo hit Miami in 1964 as a category 2 hurricane. I was only two, but I remember being scared shitless, huddled in our house, hoping the windows and doors wouldn’t break. I remember my mother telling me, “See, that wasn’t so bad.” I smiled and felt confident, even at two-years-old, that I’d made it through the big bad hurricane. Betsy hit Miami in 1965 as a cat 3 (hurricane terminology for us veterans). Betsy was bad, but I was less scared and more in awe of nature’s fury.

My next hurricane recollection was Hurricane Inez in 1966. We drove through the outskirts of Inez as we moved from Miami to Houston. I should have been scared, but I wasn’t. I guess I understood hurricanes and just marveled at the lightning, the sideways rain, and that certain noise that a hurricane makes as the wind blows 100 miles per hour.

And so it went. I’ve been through hurricanes in Houston and been through them again after moving back to Florida. The worst hurricane in U.S. history blew through Miami almost 13 years to the day. I was lucky once again. I lived 350 miles North of Miami at the time. But my mom was down there and she had me on the phone as Hurricane Andrew roared through Miami with winds gusts in upwards of 200 miles per hour. That kind of fury I’ve not experienced. I visited mom a week later and witnessed what looked like World War III. It truly looked like a war zone. Andrew is a big topic of discussion down here and probably always will be come hurricane season.

Last year, I think there was something like 12 hurricanes that formed within a two-month period. I think I prepared for four of them, of which, two of them came skirting by Plantation. It’s become routine now. Prepare, join the frenzy at grocery stores and buy your supplies, fill up your gas tank, that is, if you can find any, turn on the news, and wait it out. Katrina was supposed to be almost a non-event. A minimal category 1 hurricane. I’m sure you’ve seen the news stories today. You’d never know it was a minimal hurricane. I heard some pretty big crashes last night and walked around to find huge trees felled by ‘minimal’ winds. One poor soul, a fellow Plantationite, was killed by a fallen tree. So as I say, I was lucky once again.

I think most people are fascinated by thunderstorms and the like. Hurricanes certainly satisfy this curiosity. It’s hard to explain their fury. They’re fierce, but they don’t scare me. Experience, preparation, luck, and staying put have been a good hurricane formula for me. Play it safe people; don’t challenge mother nature.

For pictures of Hurricane Katrina, see the following links:
Katrina
Katrina

photo courtesty of WNBC6, Miami.