Hurricane Prep Ads Flooding You Online and On Air. NOW is the Time to Get a Plan For Supplies to Hunker Down or to Evacuate and Get Out of Town. A-Z of Hurricane History.

 

This is now my official map of Hurricane Country.

If you live in Hurricane Country...

..you may have noticed the advertisements.

Like Movie Trailers showing on the nightly news.

Or Click Bait lined up like Sailboats ready to sail..

Hurricane Preparation Tweets ....

..are showing up everywhere.

Every NWS in Hurricane Country is tweeting them.

Every local TV weather is talking about it.

Weather Groups online are obsessing.

Especially on knowing evacuation routes.

Routes off of low lying barrier islands...

Cajun Navy is reminding you....

...before Hurricane Season to PREPARE

Tho this is really the bottom line below.

As IAN is fresh in everyone's minds.

I'm going to enlarge this map for you...

Barrier Islands.... 1 way in and 1 way out.

Across marsh (swamp) and the water.

Places like this are great to retire to or travel to for a vacation. Well, on paper they are great to retire to but your retirement dream may become a nightmare if you spent everything you have to live on a barrier island, more like a Key out in the Gulf of Mexico. People do it all the time and many times they get lucky and hurricanes go somewhere else. It's a crapshoot really and a roll of the dice which place is less likely to get creamed in a hurricane in any given year. But, the reality is the same they are all low lying towns on barrier islands that were once sandbars and if you think you will just "drive out" in a hurricane, make sure you get on the road first and hope nothing happens and give thanks while driving back in traffic.

Life in the Hurricane Zone.

While I mention barrier islands, note the picture above of them being built in Miami years ago for more waterfront real estate for home buyers who preferred water front homes to those on swamp land, remember there is a lot of swampland that has been paved over in Houston where they call it "Bayou" and many people in the Carolinas live in the rich, fertile flood plains of the local rivers; flood plains will eventually flood. As anyone who went through Floyd, Matthew, Florence can tell you........flooding happens. Know how to prepare and how to get out, what you will take with you and do it now in May before Hurricane Season. But Fran and Hugo moved FAST and wind damage far inland in places generally far from the coast such as Raleigh and Charlotte were devastated, as well as the cities along the coast. Hazel Happened that way too and tore a path of destruction all the way to Canada!

Long run on sentences, but the hurricane season can sometimes be like a run on sentence. It looks as if it'll start slowly and then things keep popping up and every time you look there's another Tropical Wave poised somewhere looking to get a name and become an unwanted tourist in your beautiful town!

A very wise friend told me years back and it's still true... the problem is that everyone only remembers the last hurricane and every year they prepare for the hurricane that was the worst offender last year. And, often they get surprised by a different sort of Major Hurricane. They thought they'd get Michael with a huge storm surge or their distant cousin Ian but they end up watching Andrew the WINDstorm packing Category 5 Winds plowing through the Atlantic on the way to rip their well built homes apart. He's right, he's totally right and the way I can prove it is everyone this year is emphasizing "evacuation from a barrier island" vs what to do during when flooding goes inland or what to do when you need to board up the house and pray the roof doesn't blow away far from the beach in Homestead or Hialeah!

Every hurricane is different. 

Like Cabbage Patch Dolls, if you remember them or were born in 1969, every hurricane is different. They can be similar, but they are each different. So while worrying on Ian Part 2 remember Harvey that flooded the Bayous where Houston was built or Hurricane Donna that traipsed up the entire East Coast all the way to Long Island or Georges that traversed the Islands refusing to die over land after busting through the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and made it across Hispaniola and Cuba before slamming into Key West. Remember the buzz saw hurricanes such as Andrew and Dorian. Note the images below and their names, Dorian, Floyd, Maria, Irma and oh by the way if you have a boat make sure you know NOW what you're gonna do with it.

As for that beautiful beach.

Enjoy it while you got it!

But know what you gotta do....

...if a hurricane is coming your way!

Look at that white sand.... real sand.

Blue green ocean.

Views oh my.

Then

Ian

Oh my goodness.

AFTER IAN what a mess it made.

And then it'll get rebuilt better.

And often investors move in....

...new buildings go up.

Rents go up.

Real Estate Prices go up.

It's a process... 

After Andrew.......

....some parts of South Dade looked fancy.

Small homes had pools, satellite dishes.

Shopping Centers built where old stores blew away.

It's really a story as old as time.

Alma.

Betsy.

Cleo

Donna

Edouard

Fran

Gloria

Harvey

Ian

Jeanne

Katrina

Laura

Matthew

Nicole

Opal

Paloma

NHC does not recognize the letter Q

Roxanne

Sandy

Tomas

NHC does not recognize the letter U

Vince

Wilma

NHC ends the Alphabet at W

(no X Y or Z)

Tho... Greek names can be used.

Hmmmn

Anyway make your own list.

What Cane do you remember for each letter?

As for me.... time will tell.

My Winter Storm Supplies...

...become my Hurricane Supplies in NC

Prepare in May for Hurricane Season.

It begin in late May even.

Time will tell.

Get a plan!

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram

Twitter mostly weather and Instagram whatever

Ps....

1 of my favorite older songs that spoke to me like poetry more than a song, spoke to my soul. 

First thing I spent money on when I was young was not make up (haha) but a paperback novel in a Drug Store. I was young. And, I probably never owned a copy of this song, because the ending is just too hard to take. But when it would play on the radio, randomly, I'd stare in awe at the majesty of the music with the words that is woven together so perfectly to touch my soul. 

And, now you know the rest of the story. May he rest in peace but if he becomes a ghost, keep him far away from me ;) And, don't even get me started on MacArthur Park!