Ed. — From the Sunday, June 25, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — The good folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently issued their outlook on the 2023 hurricane season.
They do this to open “hurricane season” for those along the Atlantic Ocean. The season runs through the end of November. Five to nine hurricanes might develop this year.
How to react?
Probably the same way we do every year. Get back with us if something develops, and then we will rush out to the store for milk, bread and eggs. As if the ability to make French toast defines survivability.
Governor Glenn Youngkin even weighed in. “It is imperative that Virginians take preparedness seriously,” he said Thursday, June 1. “Now is the time to prepare your families and property, check your insurance coverage and identify those trusted sources of information that can help keep you safe.”
Good advice. What’s a Virginia Beach resident to do? Maybe listen, I suppose.
It’s puzzling so many appear to treat hurricane season with indifference.
I think it has to do with the modern-day technology that allows us to have as much as a week’s notice of the possibility and, often, a day’s notice of the certainty.
The American colonists could only wish for as much. Back in 1749, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a storm formed what is now Willoughby Spit. Another storm is said to have added on to it in 1806, according to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.
It’s unlikely anyone back then had much idea that such storms would hit, let alone cause them to redo their maps.
These days, we usually know before big storms happen. The local TV weather folks, who are already tracking and mentioning every energy wave coming off the coast of Africa, will tell us, run banners across the screens during our favorite shows and implore us to seek shelter the night before anything gets close.
But until that happens, we sometimes ignore that old adage, “Failing to prepare leads to preparing to fail.”
My relatives in Nebraska occasionally mock me for my seeming inability to prepare. Of course, they deal with more routine tornadoes, which only provide perhaps minutes of advance warning as opposed to the days we have with hurricanes.
They only wish they had that much time to prepare and seek shelter. We, too, recently learned how quickly a tornado can strike our own community and alter lives so quickly and unexpectedly.
I want to change my approach. I’m going to find a place inside for the patio furniture before the winds arrive. I’ll make sure I have enough batteries for the flashlights. It probably wouldn’t hurt to purchase a couple of extra cases of bottled water and store them away somewhere.
Resources about preparing are online at the city website via virginiabeach.gov by searching “Hurricane Prep 101.”
I plan to pay more attention to those energy waves. I might even start tracking storms, something I can do quickly these days thanks to modern technology.
Right after I finish my French toast.
The author, a business coach and consultant, is active in community service and enjoys time with his wife, Kim, and daughter, Kara. Reach him via email at mckco85@aol.com.
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