That’s something I wouldn’t be saying if I still lived down in the Rio Grande Valley.
Right now, the storm on track to hit the area I once called home. I have several friends down there. They should be okay because it’s only forecasted to hit as a Category 1 storm. I looked on my old station’s website. The headline blares “Hurricane Warning In Effect.” It already lists where people can get sandbags. Home improvement stores are selling out of plywood to cover windows. Some people have put tape over their windows, even though they say it really doesn’t help.
The area is under a Hurricane Warning. If you don’t know what that means, it’s the National Weather Service’s message to you that you’d better prepare for a storm.
I only had one brush with a hurricane when I lived in Harlingen. Emily threatened the area for days only to wiggle south of the Valley. I can remember getting up to see what the next forecast was for the storm. I questioned the meteorologists at my station. I watched the latest models trying to figure out if my place would suffer damage.
My friend and former co-worker lived in Florida and went through some of the toughest hurricanes to hit the state. The pictures of his home will never leave me. There was nothing left. Everything was scattered everywhere. I remembered those pictures when I was down in the Valley. I didn’t want to come home after covering the storm only to see the damage it left.
Luckily, I just got to see a lot of rain and experience some heavy winds during Emily. The surfers loved the waves on South Padre Island. There wasn’t even that much damage to SPI.
I hope the storm passes and there is little or no damage and certainly no one gets hurt.
Blizzards or hurricanes? I’ll take a good ol’ fashioned Ohio blizzard anytime than to have to deal with the anxiety and the aftermath of a hurricane.