by Jess Howe

Created on: September 02, 2011

We were warned about Hurricane Irene on the news, and my first thoughts were that this would be the first hurricane I'd experience as a married woman. It's funny the things that cross your mind at times like these. I wasn't that worried about it happening; I'd lived through a number of hurricanes and tropical storms, ice storms, nor-easters, and blizzards. This summer I'd even experienced what it was like when a tornado hit very close to us. But I went through Irene with a more open, observant mind than before. What I saw and felt was interesting.

The week before the hurricane reached us, my husband and I watched the news and saw horrific reports about it touching Bermuda and ransacking the place. That seems to be pretty common for that island, I thought. For me, it seems to go along with summer; Bermuda gets hit by a storm.

Just in case, we took stock of our stuff and found we were in good shape for just about everything. All meds covered, we had non-perishables and some bottled water, a flashlight that doesn't even need batteries, and candles with matches. If the hurricane actually hit like they were starting to say on the news, well I was expecting discomfort. I have a bit of trouble with low pressure systems; they tend to make me very woozy and headachy, but if that was the worst then I was all right with it. My husband kept up his work routine and watched the news with me in the evening.

It reminded me of Hurricane Katrina years ago, in a way. I kept thinking about that, and how back then I was very involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, and was on the disaster list. Back then I was the one who sat online watching the stories of disaster victims and reporting back to those of my local group ways we could send assistance to them. Would Hurricane Irene be like that, I wondered, if she did hit us?

It was very surreal, you see. Here in New England we normally get all sorts of weather, but strong hurricanes just aren't common. This is the place for other bad weather. So watching information on the news about “her projected track” felt odd. And suddenly the mayor of New York City was shutting down the subways, something that had never been done! And calling for mandatory evacuations? It all added to the oddness of the situation.  FEMA being called in post-haste; apparently we'd learned something from Katrina, and this president wasn't taking any chances.

We kept the news on after that, all the time, so we'd know what was happening.

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