15 September 1999
Oh, all right. I'll talk about the hurricane. Hurricane Floyd is somewhere between a Class 4 and 5 hurricane. Which is to say it's one scary mutha of a storm.

Now, I'm not particularly worried about it. Why is that? Have you ever taken a good look at a map? Here's what happens: Hurricanes that threaten our area form in the south Atlantic and head pretty much straight for us, though they may stop to devastate a few islands along the way. Almost inevitably, the jet stream pushes them ashore where North Carolina sticks out into the Atlantic. The Outer Banks were formed this way, and I expect that one day they'll be destroyed in the same fashion. In any case, washing ashore in North Carolina sucks a lot of the power out of a hurricane. By the time it hits us, it's just a bad thunderstorm.

My mother, who grew up about 45 miles from the coast of North Carolina (the real coast, not that overlarge tourist trap of a sandbar), has seen numerous hurricanes. She thinks they're sortof fun, actually. She especially likes to go outside when the eye passes over. I grew up and still live here, about twenty miles from the coast of Virginia, and I have never lived through more than the skirts of a hurricane.

Historically, I know hurricanes have made it to this area, and done some impressive damage. But it doesn't happen very often. I'm not all that worried. The one tree near our house that might have blown down and hit it was blown down in the opposite direction during the last major storm a couple of weeks ago. So we'll see some heavy rain and have to shovel most of our dirt back up into our yard when it's past. We'll see some heavy wind and have to clean some branches out of our yard. We'll lie awake for most of a night listening to thunder and watching the room light up from lightning. And that'll be it. (By the way, the prettiest weather you will ever see follows the day after a hurricane passes.)

But I've been thinking about the number of people that I know who live south of here who might actually be in the path of the hurricane. T, who lives in Savannah, Georgia, has already lost one car to flooding this year. Jeff, whose research advisor is still making him come in to work in Columbia, South Carolina. Jeff's parents live just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, which will probably see an impressive storm if not the full-blown hurricane. My brother, who lives fairly far inland in North Carolina, but who will also see some storms. (Are you kidding me? Have you seen the satellite photos? Floyd could easily eat the entire Eastern Seaboard, and still have Chicago for dessert!) My mom's family, including my aunt and uncle, and two cousins who are married and have children, all live less than 50 miles from the North Carolina coast.

Well. That's a lot of people to fret over, and I'm sure most of them are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. I don't think any of them are actually the sort of idiot who refuse to evacuate, given the order.

But if you don't mind, I think I'll worry about them anyway - just a little. Be careful, everyone!