A tired Floridian's musings on Hurricane Season 2005 |
The past couple years have tested the strength of the unaware citizens on these coasts. Two thousand five has been hellish to the max as the list of names has been exhausted. As Alpha and Beta rise and fall, I look at this season with a jaded eye. We ran. We hid. We boarded up. We hunkered down. It's gotten repetitive as Halloween creeps up behind us. We spend more time at Home Depot than we spend at home or school. We swam through the floods of Dennis and Katrina while holding on for dear life in the winds of Wilma and Rita. The aftermath is the terror that brings us to our knees, and the strength to stand up quickly slips away. Water's a hot commodity even as we wade to the aid. How long can this ice last in this oppressive heat? We're busting out our grills- if we didn't have them washed away. Otherwise, we'll bust some windows to get some food for the next few days. As we sit around the radio- an homage to the twenties- we hear the same ol' garbage from asinine reporters. I'm tired of hearing "It's a dangerous situation." Well, isn't that obvious given all the things that can kill you? High winds, rising water, downed power lines, carbon monoxide. There's plenty of ways to die due to a hurricane! But perhaps the biggest kicker comes when it's all over. Where's our aid? Time to whine to the government! It doesn't matter the year, the scope or the location. Every single year it's FEMA, FEMA, FEMA! Complaints large and small are made about this acronym. What does it mean? "Federal employees missing again!"* But why are those who could have prepared clamoring for FEMA's attention? Isn't FEMA aid for those who have nothing left? In the end, though, we're alive but tired as hell. Come December-time to rest so we can face next season. *-I saw this in an MSN article about how Katrina survivors used humor as a means of coping with recovering from the catastrophe. This quote was apparently on shirts and other merchandise. |