Hurricane Blog #6

I just spent a very pleasant hour with Mr. KABC on Southern California radio. (Boy, it felt good to be back on the air again, if only for a little while!) I didn't embarrass myself, and while I might not have been quite as glib as I try to be on here, I thought I did a fair job. Fair enough, in fact, that Mr. K invited me to be on the show again tomorrow night.

I pointed out that in 24 hours, we're likely to be riding out the height of the storm, and even if we can get a phone connection, it might be too noisy to have much of a conversation.

Mr. K: "Hmmm ... that would make for great radio."

Me: "Hey, anything I can do to help ..."

Nonetheless, Mr. K and I will try to make a connection for his show tomorrow night. If I'm not cowering in an interior closet, that is ...

* * *

I have been thinking about an indication that I gave during the radio show tonight, however, that I want to elaborate on.

Mr. KABC asked me a lot of questions about my personal situation. My personal situation during this hurricane is pretty good: we have food, we have water, we have shelter, and if the hurricane stays on track, we'll be on the "dry side" of the storm. I probably sounded pretty blasé about the whole thing.

I want to emphasize, though, that this storm is nothing to be blasé about. People are going to lose their homes. People are going to die (one person already has). Billions of dollars in wind and water damage are going to occur. Please do not think that because I see this hurricane as a personal inconvenience, that I think it's going to be that way for everyone.

The truth is that I am going to be in the middle of this storm, and if I think of it in terms of its pure destructive potential, I'm going to be too paralyzed with fear to accomplish much of anything. Maybe I'm deluding myself (just like the New Orleanians did who ignored the mandatory evacuation order) into thinking that I can outlast Hurricane Rita through sheer force of will. But, when you get right down to it ... what choice do I have?

As I pointed out on the air, there comes a point of diminishing returns, where the inconvenience (I should have used the word "hardship") of staying becomes less than the inconvenience/hardship of leaving. That's why we're staying put. I have no desire to ride out this storm inside a car stranded on the side of a freeway somewhere.

I'm sure I will have more thoughts about this Friday morning. Sleep well. I'm sure going to try to.