Worrycanes

This just in: hurricane season is not over.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricane season for the Atlantic Ocean basin lasts from June 1 to November 30. But just when I begin to believe we’ve almost made it through, Southern Living, of all places, robbed me this week of the opportunity to set aside my worries about my parents for another season.

I’m not a gourmet nor a meteorologist, but I can definitively state that hurricanes do not pair well with Thanksgiving turkey.

I can’t help but be alarmed about this news about the hurricane season. Those who suffered the most from hurricanes Helene and Milton are deep in the throes of recovery. They especially don’t want to hear about the possibility of strong storms deep into December.

I spent my teens in Central Florida and can remember only one time we were affected by a hurricane. We had a day off school because the building was used as a shelter for folks who live on the coast. And when I left for college in 1988, I rarely gave a second thought to the weather back home.

That all changed in 2004 when Hurricane Charley ripped across Florida, damaging my parents’ roof, mangling their fence, destroying the well and uprooting dozens of huge trees on their three-acre property. Since then, they’ve endured a number of hurricanes, the worst of which was Hurricane Irma in 2017. Severe damage to their roof caused their house to be flooded with rainwater. They lived in their camper trailer for five months while their home was repaired.

So imagine my consternation when on Saturday, October 5, less than an hour after booking flights to New York City for a Fall Break getaway with our youngest, I see a Facebook post from a friend in Florida with a NOAA graphic showing an as yet unnamed storm in the western Gulf of Mexico with a predicted path that included Lake Wales.

Honestly, my first thought was “Here we go again.”

As worrisome as hurricanes are for me all the way up in Atlanta, my anxiety is minimal compared to what it’s like for my folks, who, for many valid reasons, are not good candidates for evacuation. They don’t live on the coast and their house is actually at one of the highest points in all of Central Florida.

The primary concern based on experience is wind damaging their home, and then rain leaving behind water damage. The secondary concern based on experience is the emotional toll of having to wait out a night of terrifying thunderstorms and gale force winds, not knowing what will happen at any moment. The third concern, again, based on experience, is when or if I will be needed to help with cleanup.

By the time it’s clear that they are going to take a direct hit, it’s not feasible for me to drive into the storm to be there to help. People are driving away from the hurricane’s path, not into it.

And when the hurricanes do severe damage like with Charley and Irma, you can’t just drive back into the area for several days. Roads must be cleared and some order restored, even if power is still out. Timing becomes a big factor.

At the risk of being one of those people who always complains about the weather, I really just want to be able to set aside my worry about hurricanes, which have become more frequent and more damaging with each passing year.

Maybe the problem isn’t the weather at all. I tend to think about my parents and how they’re doing 500 miles away no matter what the forecast is. Health crises, technical difficulties, cost of living, and myriad other potential trials and tribulations cycle through my thoughts about them on any given day.

I think my real issue isn’t hurricanes, it’s “worrycanes.” And I haven’t found a way to prepare for or evacuate from those.