Hurricane Alberto a disappointment

From the Washington Post:

To live in the path of a forecast hurricane these days is to be bombarded by dire Katrina-inspired exhortations...

Nowhere is this more true than in South Florida. Every time a tropical depression (isn't that a great phrase, tropical depression? Makes you think of a guy on vacation in Cancun who just can't drink another pina colada... sigh...) coalesces out in the Atlantic, local weather forecasters remind us that we'd better by God have a stock of batteries and water laid in or else.

In 2004, when Hurricane Charley made landfall in the panhandle (above the armpit of Florida, if you like), my wife-to-be and I laid in bed and watched footage of a gas station sign gracefully falling apart in the wind. That's it. A desperate news crew with a camera focused on that gas station sign, watching it disintegrate, again and again.

Cue transition: sound of roaring wind, stock footage of palm trees bowing before the mighty surge, red letters: HURRICANE ALERT!!! The whole point seems to be to raise the average anxiety level to a fever pitch regardless of what the actual news is.

My friend William has an interesting theory about this -- one he honed to fine edge while sitting in a bar watching Shock&Awe (TM) rain down on Baghdad.

But, let's recap: 2005 was the most active hurricane season since people crawled out of caves and started carving weather records on stone blocks. Climatologists have already predicted a 2-decade cycle of increased hurricane activity. AND global warming of the oceanic temperatures MAY play a part in fueling tropical storms and hurricanes.

Maybe I'm a chump, but I've got a big stock of food, water, batteries and all that other stuff I posted about earlier. You probably should, too. Unless you live in Minnesota -- then you should buy a condo in Miami Beach so you can collect a hefty insurance payout sometime this hurricane season.

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