Monday Morning Thoughts on Emily

How late did Jim stay on air I am wondering. Have to wait til he catches up with email a bit to find out unless someone online knows.

Emily raced onshore and is almost offshore about to land her still very strong center into the Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico depending on which on air person you listen to.. Intact, big round ball..not as strong as she was but far from falling apart.

Where will she go?

A topic to be discussed later at greater length is "why people stay" and that is not an easy question to answer.

Many reasons.

Denial is a big one.
Ignorance is another

"I'm from Oklahoma and we have twisters back home..." Yes Martha but back home the twister hits fast, you have no chance to save your innocent ass and it moves on.. you get luck or you don't. A hurricane can last hours and have strong twisters in it.

"I'm from Minnesotta and we get big winter storms and ten feet of snow and..." (obviously they have missed the difference between blowing snow and a storm surge, someone will explain it to them one day.. maybe)

"Up where I come from we have noreasters.........." That folks is my favorite. I cannot wait to go through a noreaster on Nags Head or Cape Cod and be able to one day explain the difference or understand their indifference. Can't wait.

Lazy reasons. Evactuated for David. Evacuated for Floyd. Evacuated for Frances. "Am never ever going to load everything I own into a car with five members of my family and get stuck on I-95 looking for gas.." most often heard comment after last year.

Sexy reasons? Mnnnn Ummmm yeah would like to try that in above mentioned noreaster in Nags Head.. anyone want to apply for that job?

Claustrophobia. Heard last night 3,000 people were crammed into a shelter without electric, AC or lights. Many would prefer to hide in a protected bathroom in the bathtub with a mattress over their head clutching a flashlight.

Control. They want to be in control and feel more in control taking their stand, to live or die in Dixie..

Procrastination

Pets

All sorts of reasons.

Wrote this earlier.. will add to it but it is true.

More to come..

It's an interesting point as to why people stay.

Someone online suggested it was a "fear factor" reality tv mentality of young kids to want to stay. You know like Survivor Stories they can tell their grandchildren or sell to Storm Stories one day..

But, think kids basically are "stupid" at that age any year, all the time w/o the TV show and think it's a partying occaision. For those who are not good little practical teens who want to hunker down with their parents, baby brothers and grandparents and crazy Uncle Ted.

During Georges 2 of my teens and a few of their practically "live in my house" friends came back after we evacuated to a friend's house that was safely boarded up down the block. They were supposed to be staying at their friend's parents house.. and I went with the younger kids to my best friend Sharon. I came back for a battery tv I forgot between mild squalls and found them in the "back room" sitting with candles and beer or soda, don't remember tho the legality of either was not the point of what they had in their cups... they weren't supposed to be there partying. They decided to ride out the storm in the house.. back room a room badly constructed in my opinon done by people before us with two massive mango trees over the roof and the east wall a sliding glass window.

I freaked. It was a bad time in general for me that period in my life. I will admit. Single, raising about 8 kids at home. Called the cops who were riding around to make them leave. I think they called me Psycho Mom or something and left. It was their Techno-Gothic period. The cops said they would keep an eye on the house and make sure the kids weren't there or safe... They also said to go back to my friend's fast because the dopplar on their laptops in their car showed a strong cell coming. It did, though it was one of the only strong cells that storm had to show Miami.

No we didn't get George's brunt. Yes, they would have been safe in retrospect. Cantore or someone was on the beach 3 miles to the east of my house. We weren't sure at the time we were so safe.

Fast forward... last year we rode out Frances in the back room. Me and the few kids left home, a calmer time in my life and very sure we would be okay. Less hype too for Miami over Frances than we had with Georges.

Dina the teen in charge of the hurricane party now living on her own in Brooklyn calls me up hysterically and wants to know WHY am I in the house. Why didn't I go to my brother's house a few blocks away ...he has shutters. What is wrong with me.

How things change with time :)

Course weather junkie she is and always was she was sitting up all night in NY watching Jim Cantore on the TWC.

It's all a matter of perspective sometimes.

I was a bit psycho that year (for good reason) and it was very nuts.. and the HYPE on us getting Georges was big time....big time hype.

This past year I have friends online who I trust who insisted we would get not much more than tropical storm force winds from Frances. Funny how you listen to friends at the hurricane center better in an email than on 5am advisory but anyway... point is.. between what I could see, and I knew and they knew... I was not sitting at my brother's vs the comparative safety of my house.

If I had lived on the coast in a condo I would have shlepped myself and my kids to my brother's house and ridden it out at my brother's house with his son who is terrified of thunderstorms and my mother....and my sister in law dealing with my mother.... ewww. Good to have just in case but we weren't at the in case point

If I was alone with weather friends... close call. Depends on my very educated guess.

Told friends in Key West before Dennis made his way across Cuba it "probably" would be safe to stay BUT.. party line is to leave. Off the record, they would be safe in either of the two places they wanted to stay as Dennis would weaken a lot over Cuba and Key West would be okay..though they could be without power and it might be a real mess. I also reminded them that although the Synagogue Bnai Zion was built to be a shelter and supposedly could withstand a Cat Five (its not wooden, poured concrete, high up, modern structure) it has never been tested so... I wouldn't rely on it.

NOW...if Dennis had been a Cape Verde, Cat 4/5 approaching Key West from the E or ESE I would have told them to come stay by me or other friends on the mainland.

Big difference which way the storm is coming at you when you live in Key West.

Why do people stay in a storm?

Because most people do survive if they live in a safe area, safe home, properly prepared with a good knowledge of what you will need to survive the storm. Not on the coast in a small one story house a block from the ocean without protection on the windows. Not on a muddy hillside in Haiti. Not in the apartments that went under across the road from the Gulf during Camille. Not on Galveston in 1900.

But, its a numbers game and most people are gamblers deep down .. they take their chances.

Or...they evacuated and never want to sit in a car overheating on i95 wondering if the next gas station still has gas. Sharon's boss kept calling on her cell crying and fighting with her husband stuck somewhere on the Turnpike during Frances. They lived in a condo on Collins. By Jeanne..they stayed. Still married, still not happy campers but they stayed.

Either way you follow the old adage:

Run from the Water, Hide from the Wind.

More later..Bobbi