Overreaction?

 Am I getting too old or just unable to get accustomed to the American way?

Hopefully it's the latter😊.

I have spent 99% of my life in places that are on hurricane paths and each year we prepare the best we can and wait it out. 

I have observed for some years now though, that ever since we in Jamaica started getting regular hurricane updates from the USA, a whole lot of additional and unecessary stress is added to our lives every year, as these natural occurrences occur or threaten to.

For when you look at the dramatic manner in which US television weather people bring you updates on hurricanes, it as if every one of us is going to be totally eradicated when each one forms!

Seriously, for when we never had those dramatic up-dates with pictures showing the bands swallowing us all all, the stress level was just not as terrible.

Think of it, aren’t earthquakes also natural occurrences? Because they cannot be predicted, when they happen, we mourn, pick up the pieces where we can and move on.

No additional unnecessary stress. 

That is great, for as the experts will tell you, stress is the root of all evil.

While in Jamaica, my most costly hurricane loss never came from the winds nor from ignoring warnings that the weather people would have you believe would blow you to hell and back.

It was hurricane Gustav in 2008. Not a category 5 like Gilbert in 1988. 

Gustav was barely a category 1 hurricane and it never came with much drama, but lots of water. It wasn’t even the water coming directly from the from the system which caused my misery, but a set of circumstances that one could never have imagined or prepared for.

My backyard was on the Sandy Gully, a major waterway in Kingston. But it had what was previously thought to be, an invincible gully wall.

Well Gustav by itself wasn’t the problem. My misery came from the water in the gully which was transporting a small section of a brick house, which crashed into my ‘invincible’ wall. For, unfortunately my backyard was on a corner, so the force of the water loaded with bricks tore into my retaining wall and made a large hole. Long story short, my backyard flooded to within two or three inches of the back of the house! I lived for weeks being unable to go outside for when the water had receded, my backyard had a 30-foot drop.

I am by no means suggesting that one should not take practical precautions where able, but there are so many things one can’t prevent or prepare for, so stirring up panic is of no use. 

Anyway, as  American weather people are no doubt in search of ratings, over dramatization is not too much in their my book!

I remember when Mrs. Thatcher was prime minister of England, a storm created some damage in London, but the weather people had not seen it coming, so she ordered that they all be fired!😊

Is that what American weather people are over-reacting to? You tell me.

Then there are the politicians.

We all know Florida is very flat so prone to flooding, but really, urging all who live in the path of the hurricane to evacuate has got to be too damn extreme.

For example, for days before Ian even became a category 4 hurricane and while it was hundreds of miles away from Florida, the governor was on tv urging the 2.5 millions in its orbit to evacuate. Naturally, sections of west and north western Florida ended up having traffic jams for miles.

Luckily, it was only a small proportion of those in its path who had obeyed his call!

I could not help wondering, if everyone did, where would they find safe havens? In the past, I have even heard of people evacuating, going further north only to have the hurricane bypssing where they fled from and hitting the place they had run off to!

Yes, I understand that politicians and weather people don’t want to be accused of not doing enough to protect people, but is creating mass panic the way to go? Or is it better to give practical advice, educate the population, provide things like sand bags, and create shelters where necessary?

Giving practical information on necessities that one will need, like food, cleaning supplies etc. would certainly be a better option than having panic-stricken shoppers cleaning out supermarkets to buy things they will never need. This is now part of the annual madness and it has taken hold in Jamaica too.

Having experience is really valuable I guess, as I have never rushed out to buy stuff for hurricanes. So when category 5 Gilbert hit us in Jamaica and left us without electricity for up to three months, we still survived, Yes, it was difficult and very inconvenient at times, but in my book, that beats the annual  stress and unnecessary expense of buying tons of stuff you will never need!

Each year as I watch the dramatic rituals, I often get the impression that many of these modern-day  politicians and some US weather reporters, are the type of people who would love to be able to go into crowded theaters and shout fire. Smh.

UPDATE. Ian made landfall mainly in Ft. Myers and it’s environs and my heart goes out to those affected. But that area was never targeted by the weather people. Instead it was Orlando and Tampa residents who were being urged to evacuate!

It's gonna be alright

I don't know which misguided person said 'time heals all wounds' but that is a bit of an exaggeration, for time certainly cannot heal some wounds. What it does though is to make some unpleasant situations eventually become nothing but faint memories.

It's sometimes easy to start feeling sorry for yourself when you are as restless as I am and feeling stuck, especially after they closed off the gym and pool in our complex.

I was therefore forced to put things into perspective.

Heck, what am I complaining about when the late, great, Nelson Mandela was stuck in total confinement in a much smaller space for 25 years! But who am I to want to compare myself with such a unique person, for such tribulation would have driven the ordinary human totally crazy!

The point is though, millions, at some time or the other, have had to remain in one place and most survived, put it behind them and moved on.

I remember watching an interview with a Holocaust survivor who was kept hidden by himself in the attic of a kind non-jew for three whole years from he was age nine. He was over 90 years old at the time I saw the interview and he had survived, prospered and lived a good, successful life.

I also read the story of a Rwandan lady who was hidden in the bathroom of a pastor for three months during the genocidal campaign in that country. She eventually got out, moved on and is a successful teacher in her country today.

And didn't I, a few years ago, ride out a miserable six weeks without electricity, without a means of making a living and eating tinned corned beef almost every day?

Yep, that was from September to  December 1988 when a wicked category 5 hurricane named Gilbert, devastated my little island and some of us in the capital, Kingston, never got back electricity for months as most of the light posts on the island were torn down.

I was totally unprepared for that event although the Met Service had been giving several warnings that a direct hit was inevitable. The problem was though, every year we got those same warnings and no hits, so I had stopped preparing for hurricanes!

I, therefore, had nothing stored up for that rainy day, so to speak.

But although I was left in the dark for six weeks, I really cannot now even remember the day to day trials and tribulations of what must have been an unpleasant and stressful period.

We were not under quarantine as we are now and our freedom of movement was only curtailed because trees and light posts blocked most roads for days and even weeks. Thank god I have never been without my trusty bicycle though!

I do remember that because I was unprepared, I did have difficulty with basic foods and other stuff, for even where you could find a shop open, the shelves were bare. Besides, farms had been wiped out and because so many roads were blocked, even where businesses had any goods to distribute, vehicles could not get through for weeks.

I was by then a single mom with two teenage children and no financial assistance from their father, no fridge, not even fans to keep us cool and only lamps to light the dark nights. Luckily, I had the lamps and candles as power cuts in Jamaica had been regular and unceasing, although none really lasted more than a day at a time before that stupid hurricane.

Now, I don't even remember how I managed financially, as most businesses in the city were closed as they could not operate without electricity and because I had just set up my Public Relations business, it must have been a particularly dry time for me.

One of the few things I recall about the aftermath is how it took me years before I could even think of eating corned beef from the tin, for as a  rabid carnivore without a refrigerator, I remember always having to turn to that for meals. when I could find any to purchase.

You know, there is a popular adage in Jamaica "good fren betta dan packet money" and it did prove to be so true during that drought, for whenever friends saw anything available, anywhere, they would get extra for others.

It took me years too before I could drink room temperature water, for without electricity we had to boil the water and with the natural heat on our island, we never had a chance for the water to really become cool, for we had no ice.

Oh, yes, we did get ice for a while, for when the roads cleared a bit, a friend of mine used to drive some 16 miles daily to Spanish Town to buy ice until we heard that the water they were using to make the ice, was the irrigation water in the canals!  Those waters weren't even used for irrigation alone, for whenever you drove by the canals, you would see kids swimming, people bathing and even animals in them.

In retrospect, we used that ice for many weeks before the rumor (?) stopped us in our tracks, but it never killed us!

I recall with much love how when I told my brother who lives in the USA about that dilemma, he offered to send me a cooler (as neither coolers nor things like generators, were to be found anywhere on the island). Yes, he sent it,  but with everything virtually closed down for months, it arrived about six months after the electricity was finally restored!😡😡😡.

It must have been a difficult and stressful period, but now all I have are vague memories of quite insignificant things like the above, for we survived, we overcame, we rebuilt and we moved on.

The point is, no matter how dire things appear to be at the moment, nothing lasts forever.

I, therefore, predict that by next year this time, those of us who don't get killed by this invisible menace, will forget the confinement and will probably be laughing about some of the trivial discomforts that occurred during leap year 2020.