2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

This is why I live in Cali. Hurricanes/tornadoes scare the crap out of me. I'm good if the ground is moving, it's when stuff goes spinning all in the air that I lose my head.

I think it's easy to say that when there hasn't been a "big one" in a while.

I think earthquakes are the scariest natural disaster because they can do just as much damage as a hurricane but you have no idea it's coming so you can't evacuate. Add the tsunami threat on to the tail end of it and .. yikes. I think if I lived in a hurricane prone area, I would have a few rubbermaid boxes packed with certain things that I wouldn't want to lose (family keepsakes, photos, etc.) all through hurricane season. I would definitely get out of dodge early when they started up with the warnings.

[thetaj]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think it's easy to say that when there hasn't been a "big one" in a while.

I think earthquakes are the scariest natural disaster because they can do just as much damage as a hurricane but you have no idea it's coming so you can't evacuate. Add the tsunami threat on to the tail end of it and .. yikes. I think if I lived in a hurricane prone area, I would have a few rubbermaid boxes packed with certain things that I wouldn't want to lose (family keepsakes, photos, etc.) all through hurricane season. I would definitely get out of dodge early when they started up with the warnings.

It is a good idea to get out early, though a lot of times it will be needless. When they first issue warnings, storms can be hundreds of miles away. There's little telling where it will go within the "cone of uncertainty." And evacuating can be a real pain when you've got scenarios like:

Charley (2004)


Hanna (2008)


When a single hurricane can hit anywhere from Miami to Maine, it's hard to tell when to leave. And this happens A LOT. Which is why you see those horror images on the news of both sides of the interstate heading east, gridlocked, with a storm bearing down. Better safe than sorry, yeah, but it's a big game of chance sometimes.