Eyeing Earl

For the past several days, Hurricane Earl has been the most important thing on the minds of many US East Coasters.  Today, Friday, officially commences the US Labor Day holiday weekend.  As the last long weekend of summer, the Labor Day holiday is generally the time when many families say a final farewell to the summer holidays before the school year moves into high gear.  From all accounts, Hurricane Earl was doing its best to interfere with travel plans for those who had hoped to spend the holiday in eastern coastal areas.  I learned with some relief that Prince Tyger and his parents had thought better of their original plans to camp at Cape Hatteras this weekend.  They will not be going after all. 

Fortunately, however, Earl does not seem to be living up to what its advance press feared.  Earl's most successful disruption so far has been to "sideswipe" North Carolina's Outer Banks.  Its center remained more than 85 miles offshore.  The islands were flooded, but there was only minor damage and no one was injured, due in large part to mass evacuations of vacationers from the area.  Meanwhile, Earl has also been downgraded from a powerful Category 4 hurricane to a milder Category 1 hurricane.   Right now, it appears that Earl's next potential targets will be more northerly as its trajectory continues towards the New England states.  If it does touch down in Cape Cod, Earl will be the first hurricane in that area for 19 years.  The crisis is not over - yet - but Hurricane Earl will likely not be one of the worst hurricanes that we will see here.  Thank heavens!

Recent articles commemorating the victims and destruction of 2005's tragic Hurricane Katrina (a Category 5 hurricane), together with news about Earl and its successors, Hurricanes Fiona and Gaston, which are still being watched carefully, reminds those of us here that - for better or for worse - we are in the middle of hurricane season, generally thought of as the period between 1 June and 30 November.  It can be a long, miserable, even tragic, time if a bad one actually hits you or those you love.

"Hurricane" is the name given to powerful tropical cyclones that occur in the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean.  Those originating in the Atlantic Ocean often make their way up along the US Eastern Seaboard after first wreaking havoc on western Atlantic Islands such as those in the Caribbean area.  Those originating in the Gulf often make their way inland along the Mississippi River floodplain and watershed areas.  Their harmful effects depend primarily on the force of the winds, thunderstorms and rains that they generate.

In the US, weather alerts are provided by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).  Concerned citizens generally receive these alerts via various media sources (radio and television), and can even receive them through their various social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  With the widespread use of the Internet, however, one can prepare oneself quite thoroughly for an event by consulting sites such as the NHC's suggested "Family Disaster Plan" or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s "hurricane" site.  These are just a few of the governmental agencies that, together with non-governmental agencies, stand by to provide assistance to victims of such disasters.  Lessons have been learned from dreadful past mistakes.  Two good lessons are that one should never underestimate what harm can ensue and one should always be prepared for the worst.

During the Dark Ages when I was young, hurricanes were always assigned names alphabetically - just as continues to happen today.  But it grated on some of us that only female names were chosen.  One semi-joking glib response we received when we asked about this was:  "Did you ever hear of a 'himmicane'?"  Another was that hurricanes, like women, were unpredictable.  Since then, of course, we have learned that hurricanes are indeed predictable to a large extent.

In 1979, there was a small but significant change: male names were introduced.  Thus, today male names now alternate with female names when naming hurricanes, which remain among the most destructive forces of nature.  There are six name lists that are used so the names are also recycled every six years - a good "green" habit, to be sure.   Fortunately, however, if a hurricane is so dreadful that its name association is judged to bring back memories that are too vivid and traumatizing, that name is retired from the lists.  Thus, we should never, ever again have a Hurricane named "Katrina."  Let us also hope that there will never be another quite so destructive - whatever name it bears!