The non-storm that was
Well, for a storm that wasn't supposed to be much, Category 1 Hurricane Katrina (same name as Irene's hairball-spewing, fur-shedding bitch cat from Hell) managed to kill seven people south of us yahoos here in Little Martin, put 1.3 million folks in the dark without power, and laid down a considerable number of trees, a portion of the Reagan Turnpike, and assorted other stuff. After the visit she chugged sedately into to the Gulf to regain her strength in order to harm other coastal communities.
Because the bureaucrats at the National Hurricane Center put us in Hurricane Warning all the way north to Melbourne, we had to close schools, local governments, Wendy's, Jiffy Lube, and the crack dealers in East Stuart, then go through the stressful and exhausting process of evacuating mobile homes, the barrier islands, and special medical needs residents . . . what a cluster that was.
I am particularly proud of the fact that every single one of our hundreds of evacuees personally called me at least twice and told me what an ass I am — and they were the civilized ones! Like it was my idea. "Hey lady, watch your mouth and I'm just a grunt bureaucrat and Hey! Watch your mouth and those decisions are WAY above my pay grade and Hey! Watch your mouth and same to you lady and . . ."
We were waiting for flood day in Little Martin, heavy rains and squalls, with God's particular attention being focused on my particular piece of the planet: 30th Street. And ya know, I was very happy about that because I haven't flooded in several months and I needed a good, healthy dose of house trashing and diminished equity — gotta have it to help fill my misery and stress quota for the year.
But the heavy flooding did not occur and Little Martin dodged a celestial bullet. So if you live anywhere near where cyclonic storms can strike, don't pooh-pooh the threat because the storm is labeled a 'tropical storm' or is not designated a high-strength, upper-category hurricane.
They ALL kill people and destroy things — every one of them.