Oh, look: there’s a storm brewing in the Caribbean… tons of news stories, four full days of warning, and lo! likely not a piece of bread or bottle of water to be found on a shelf from Miami to Bangor. Me, I’m waiting for “Will this storm be another Katrina?” My answer? No, because the people that are in danger of the storm will prepare for it, unlike the residents of The Big Easy years ago.

Same weather – different storm.

It’s been just over five years since Katrina plowed into Louisiana at full strength and I’m still pretty feh about it all… I would wager a guess that if I went back into my archives, I had a similar post then… guess history does repeat itself. I guess that when a natural disaster can be forecasted and prepared for, multiple days in advance, it takes as away a lot of sympathy from me… something about people that don’t do anything to help themselves or plan ahead so they are not surprised the “next day” that just grates. Similar to the lack of responsibility that I see across the populous… “I hit myself with a hammer and now I’m going to sue Stanley because it hurt! And there was no warning label!” *sigh* You’re right it didn’t work – if you used it right, you would have lost consciousness.

And no, I’m not saying towns shouldn’t be repaired, rebuilt, and repopulated because of a storm. The aftermath will always be huge from any storm of this magnitude and our government is on the hook to fix it. Taxes, FEMA, blah blah blah, that’s what they’re there for. I guess …I’m still just outraged at the outrage that was flying during the storm. That people – people that should have and could have evacuated before there was any danger – that people expected immediate help during the middle of the storm. It’s like going up the side of a mountain in winter without the proper snow gear, getting lost from your train, and then being mad because it snowed and there was no one to save you from freezing. True. Yes, yes, I know that happens at least twice a winter on Mount Hood, but the people that are rescued usually say “Ho boy, I wish we had more gear” rather than complaining about the snow. They don’t sue FEMA for not helping them faster.

Bottom line: there’s never a hurricane that has no warning – if you choose to do nothing about it for 1/2 a week, as it comes in at you and say “it won’t hit here – it always misses us – lets go down to Bourbon Street for lunch” then I’ve got little for ya, when it does happen.

Earthquake, lahar flows, tornado, tsunami, volcano, and jets falling out of the sky: little to no warning. Monsoon, hurricane and meteor strikes? If you don’t get the hell outta Dodge when you can (or should) then you’re on your own.

I, for one, hope my relatives take some time to tape up their windows this weekend – there’s a storm front coming.