With Hurricane Gustav breathing down the necks of many coastal residents along with an uncertain path of Hurricane Hanna on the horizon, it appears that our country and government has learned quite a few valuable lessons from the devastation left behind by Katrina.

Living in a hurricane zone, I can tell you first hand that many times we become sterilized to tropical storm and hurricane warnings. Here’s the scenario we live with:

The good news about living in a hurricane zone is that we have ample warning when a storm is headed our way. The bad news about living in a hurricane zone is that we have ample warning when a storm is headed our way.

Understanding that hurricanes are fickle beasts and can change directions on a dime, sometimes we are led to believe that a hurricane is headed our way and then suddenly it makes an unpredicted sharp turn that takes us out of harm’s way. While I’m not complaining, there’s the other side of the coin: Sometimes a storm that is supposed to miss us, makes a last minute maneuver and puts us in the dreaded Cone of Destruction.

The weather forecasters are constantly berating us with storm warnings. It seems these local on air weather personalities use the same tone of voice to inform us of rain showers than they do when cautioning us of an impending major weather catastrophe. As residents and viewers, how are we to know the difference as the on-air hype is the same? In the quest for ratings, the local weather person has become the nemesis of the people they are attempting to serve.

These well in advance announcements send residents to never ending lines at Publix and Costco to load up on everything from flashlights and batteries to foodstuffs that can be stored without refrigeration and easy prepared on our propane fueled BBQ grills. The good news is that it seems that more times than not, these warnings end up being false alarms, but like Boy Scouts, Floridians live by the motto, Be Prepared. The bad news is that after a few false alarms, we become sterilzied to their warnings and be caught in a proverbial pants-down position.

Because the local media is looking for any hook they can to get more eyeballs on their newscasts, they are constantly telling us how their weather reporting system is far superior to the competition’s forecasting equipment. Truth be told, the raw information comes from NOAA and the equipment the local stations use is simply a computer program that take the technical data and converts it into pretty pictures that create animations of the weather patterns.

Don’t get me wrong, as not all the systems are the same and when it comes to showing local thunderstorms these sophisticated computer programs have gotten to the point where they can visually pinpoint a storm’s current position down to a street corner. When it comes to hurricanes though, since the data comes from the government, not your local network affiliate, all the information is basically the same. The difference is in the translation of the data.

This is best compared to a motorcycle review. You can take four reporters, give them the same bike for a week and when they write it up you'll read four distinct opinions. It's the same bike, but each reporter will translate his or her findings in a different manner. While this is an accepted practice for product reviews, it doesn't translate well for weather forecasts.

The problem in weather reporting lies in the fact that thosae of us who live in storm zones become sterilized to these warnings and sometimes don’t heed them when we should. That’s because preparing for a storm and the ensuing power outages is a lot of work.

There’s a ritual for those of us who live in these zones that entail bringing in all the outdoor furniture, removing any outdoor debris that could turn into projectile objects, making sure all the windows are covered by shutters or plywood and shopping for enough food to get us through the time that follows a hurricane.

Although pinpointing the projected path and potential destruction of a hurricane is not yet a perfected science, it has gotten better over the years. The media is in a difficult position when it comes to advising its viewers on what to expect from an impending storm. The only choice they have is to treat each and every storm like it’s a potential Armageddon and to advise the residents to take every precaution and to be prepared for the worst. This is good advice, however, after a few false alarms, it’s human nature to become sterilized to these warnings and to simply ignore them. This is what happened when Hurricane Wilma headed my direction.

Wilma was a freak storm as it came in November. Mid-September is the peak of the hurricane season and since it hit land on the West Coast of Florida and that typically most storms weaken when passing over land, the warnings given to those of us on the East Coast of the Sunshine State were told to expect some showers and a few wind gusts.

When I went to bed the night before Wilma hit, the late night news was reporting for us not to worry as Wilma was a Tropical Storm that was bordering on a Category One hurricane. As Floridians will tell you, we don’t even go to the trouble of bringing in our furniture for a Tropical Storm and in most cases we yawn at a Category One Hurricane.

The next morning when the high winds work me up at 6am, I turned on the TV and all of a sudden I was being told that Wilma is now a Category Two and was bordering on a Category Three and was in a beeline towards my area. By this time, it was too late to take any precautions other than simply settling-in a safe area of the house that’s away from the windows. For Wilma, the front part of the storm was not too bad and most homes survived that portion with little if any damage. However, after the calm of the eye passed overhead and the inner wall of the storm hit with the strength of a brick wall, well, that’s a different story as I watched many houses in my neighborhood basically self-destruct before my eyes.

Many folks may not realize the basic facts of living in the aftermath of  a hurricane and simply stated, in the hours prior to a major storm and for a period of a week or so afterwards, just about everything is closed. Depending on the intensity of the storm, there’s downed power lines, no telephone service, a lack of open gas stations that leads to long lines for those who do open as well as traffic nightmares due to many traffic signals being inoperable.

So while we watch Gustav entrench itself toward the Gulf States and Hanna heading somewhere on the East coast, I can take comfort in the fact that I’m well stocked with food and water, have a newer home with impact resistant windows and have a generator standing by to provide power in the case of a massive power outage.

As long as they don’t pull the plug on my generator’s natural gas supply, I’m like a Boy Scout and am as prepared as humanly possible.

I’m just looking forward to Thanksgiving when the weather turns cooler, hurricane season comes to an end and my bike can yet again see the light of day.

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