... about hurricane season to get to the bottom of the page and read the comments. You start to think about things and end up doomscrolling yourself into a panic attack.
Seriously. All it takes is a few users to throw in some political jabs and how some areas of the south are cruising for one or two major incidents so that state gets wiped off the map completely.
You don't realize how susceptible you are and how "open to opinion" you may be, until you read what the bullies online are saying. Knowing in the back of your mind, they may have a point (to an extent), but you'll never admit to it because you want to be a better person and "rise above" it. See the better in the world.
Now that it's "officially" hurricane season, more articles are coming out about the predictions this season. With this week's random rain (we got a mess of it yesterday for a bit, and it currently looks like it is returning any moment), statements are mixing together and user comments are somewhat frightening.
There are a ton of reports about preparation - buy this, not that; get your affairs in order; etcetera, etcetera. The weather in general is looking X and the shape of the population feeds into Y, making Z a probability. My head is going at a dizzying rate, trying to figure it all out and ignore the false statements.
However, some of the statements are regarding the suggestions about kits and things to purchase. They are items you can acquire online or in stores.
Quite honestly, a lot of it can be used throughout the year in normal instances, especially if you're an outdoors type of person (batteries, radios, lamps). I know a few people who like to go camping in the summer and wouldn't think twice about buying hurricane prep items for their tent. The fan, the sprays, whatever. They aren't afraid to admit it's not for storm use, it's for sleeping out under the open sky use.
After what happened last September and October with Helene and Miltion, more people (in the storm areas) are starting to wise up and triple check things. Considering a lot of places are still having major issues after being close to being destroyed or are actually destroyed. Fort Myers Beach is still cleaning up from Ian, and parts of the area from Charley in 2004. We live on sand and stone, worse than the rest of the country.
They say "knowing is half the battle", but the other half is not seeing the battle. When the forecast calls for rain, you can see the clouds roll in and hear thunder (when possible). The droplets fall from the sky and soon enough, it's over. Same goes in snow territory. There's a type of overcast that happens and it the air gets cold. Once the ice crystals form and get on the ground, it is a matter of them accumulating more and you've got yourself snowmen and angels once it stops. But you can see it form and touch the ground.
Hurricanes you can't necessarily "see". Yes, there's wind and rain and projectiles that aren't tied down properly, but the longer you look out an open window and see nothing happening, the more ominously silent it is. Lesson learned during Irma when we were at a friend's house and the friend didn't have shutters up. He had hurricane resistant doors and windows, so we literally sat and watched nature take its course while watching the news when the power was on. Sure, the glass was thick enough that two little doggies had no clue what was going on outside (and why they couldn't go out to do their business at certain points), but in reality, if we didn't know it was a bad storm and were watching the trees blowing hard in the wind (along with the water creeping up to the door),you'd not have known it was a category 4 to parts of Florida and then a 3 in other parts due to a second rotation. It did make landfall as a 5 in Cuba and the Leeward Islands.
Irma flooded the main road, downed trees and took off roofs. All by huffing and puffing and sending in the rain. Power was lost and found. People had to fix things and figure out the next step. Which is done during every major storm.
Hurricanes are different beasts than normal rain and what other parts of the country get with snow. I don't have experience with volcanos or earthquakes, so I don't know about the Pacific North West. I can only speak about my life in New England and in Florida. It's really no joke and things to mess with. Blizzards can kill you just as quickly as a hurricane because it's below freezing and pipes can burst due to the cold. Power is off and you've got no heat. Hyperthermia sets in quick if you aren't ready for it. But, how frequently does that happen? Yes, storms here aren't every day like snow can be, but the dangers are nothing to be compared to, in the sense that they are wildly different. I understand that. I just feel that in some cases, summer weather in the south can be more damaging than winter weather in the north. Especially if you're in an area that gets inundated with storm after storm (like the Florida Panhandle and New Orleans, Louisiana for example). More lives, property and money can be lost in one strong hurricane than what an entire season of snow can do for a region. It's devastating.
I'm circling so much here and I probably don't make much sense. Thanks for sticking with me on this and hearing me out. I just got into one of the fear mongering articles and had a moment of "not more of this... please....". There are so many things that come to mind and I hate posting political stuff, so I don't even want to say where I saw the article or how people were commenting. I'll leave it at "they always want to push people's limits and buttons and thing they're right. They believe we're better off losing some things so we can gain other things.. only to benefit the ones who support that cause". I'm being elusive for a reason with this. I don't want to be seen as one sided and not do what's right. It's about staying as neutral as possible and allowing everyone a fair chance, however, there are some things I disagree with on both sides of the coin. No one is better than the other and I know I've got my own problems to deal with.
Like the fact it's going to start raining any minute and I haven't gone to the gym yet. I'm going to end it here and get ready before I end up swimming to the clubhouse.
Thanks for hearing me out and take care!
Cheers;
See Also (aka prep level stuff via Amazon)
The lists go on and have a lot of similar items on whatever keywords you want.
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Thanks for sharing!