Gary Barg, Editor-in-Chief
A few short weeks ago, we in Southeastern Florida held our collective breath as Hurricane Harvey raced towards the gulf coast smashing into Southeast Texas, flooding Houston and its surroundings. Many first responders raced to Texas to help once the storm passed and all of our prayers and wishes were with those struck by its wrath. Still, even as the storm hit - it was something that happened to others, something to sadly watch on television once we phoned friends and loved ones in the affected areas to make sure they were okay.
These days, there is at least a week to ten days of watching an excruciatingly slow-moving weather formation on cable television, wending its way towards our general direction. Although the consensus is that nobody wants to see anyone else’s community be hit by one of these behemoths as it comes closer to landfall, I always feel engaged in a metaphorical game of nuclear hand grenade tossing with other communities in its potential path. “I really hate to see it hit your city, but whew!”
Last week, we were the lesser target of Harvey’s sister, Hurricane Irma. I can attest to the nervous stomach that increases in tandem with every new hurricane course projection plastered across the television screen. And today all eyes are on Maria as she devastates islands only recently hit by Irma and her brother Jose.
The reason I bring this up is that this year, these last days of summer remind me as much of caregiver preparation as they do of hurricane preparation. The difference between a caregiver and the other guy can be as abrupt as that phone call that comes in the middle of the night alerting you to a life changing family emergency and the difference between hunkering down for a hurricane and watching it on television can be a slight course correction in the National Hurricane Center’s tracking map.
The similarity between both events is that if you are not prepared for either, you will more likely find yourself scrambling for your life and the lives of your loved ones. If you are prepared for the potential weather or care emergency, your scrambling should be a lot more controlled and you should be better able to weather most any storm which may come your way.
As we continue to watch a very active tropics and consider that there are nine more weeks of hurricane season left, I certainly hope that everyone living in places impacted by hurricanes or any of mother nature's furies, will have made all the necessary preparations and I pray that we are all ready for whatever the winds may blow our way.
Please help those affected by these hurricanes.
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