Speaking as a lifelong Florida resident, I'm subject to the inane ridicule that becomes customary when I visit family who live back in the Communist bastions of the world, such as Massachusetts and New York City when meeting them and their friends/other family.
Relative: So how's Florida? Afraid a hurricane is going to hit your house?
Other Relatives: Well, one day you'll regret living in Florida because of hurricanes.
More Relatives: Florida is hot and humid, plus you get hurricanes.
Well, enough about hurricanes. I live in one of those counties that has been impacted by a hurricane in any way shape or form less than a dozen times since storm records were kept beginning in 1871. Usually, people who live in Florida accept the fact that one day a big weather system will come and mess things up for a little while. People clean up; write bigger checks to the insurance companies a year later and then they go on with their lives. It?s not unlike people who knowingly live on something the USGS calls the San Andreas Fault line.
Now, onto the pre-storm hype created by the ever so present liberal media; this dawned on me as Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel was broadcasting 5 minutes from my house and a CNN satellite truck was passing me by as I helped a friend board up his business.
The media gives most of the TV watching nation the idea that when a hurricane comes, there is total destruction and many people die. This is partly true. Places that get whacked bad after a storm are painfully obvious places. An easy way to figure out if a given place will survive a hurricane wind-wise is what I call The Broad Side of a Barn Theorem. You ask yourself: Does this structure in any way have the wind resistance of the broad side of a barn? If you answer yes in any fashion, the building is likely to sustain damage. You may calculate risk as a percentage by multiplying the number of "At risk areas" by 15%, instances where a specific at risk area is double that of normal types can warrant a doubling of risk percentage. Examples include:
Gas stations: They have canopy's over the pumps that are sheet metal thin and thus will catch the wind like the broad side of a barn.
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Small Station 8 covered pumps: 15%
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Medium Station 8-20 covered pumps: 30%
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Truck Stop 20+ covered pumps: 45%+
Warehouses: Technology has not evolved much in this field since the days of Mrs. O'Leary's barn and now infamous bovine. Today's warehouses are usually much more common, more expensive, and should sustain fire somewhat better than that ill fated barn that night in 1871, provided the local fire code was followed during construction - and the general contractor wasn?t a cheapskate. The warehouse districts are quintessential examples of the modern 1871 barn region. Their risk during a hurricane using The Broad Side of a Barn Theorem is substantial. The usual number of at risk areas is 4 (5 if you count the roof).
Risk a given Warehouse will be destroyed: 60%+
A good example is Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte Postal Service Warehouse type structure.
Mobile Homes: I?d rather not go here, but I?m going here anyways. Mobile homes are usually nothing more than a large, insulated tool shed. Some have carpeting. In fact, I wouldn?t mind having one at my house for a spare two-car garage or machine shop. If the walls all blow away, my lathe is heavy enough to stay put. At any rate, a serious problem arises in that mobile homes exemplify the Broad Side of a Barn theory and a double entendre is that they are light enough to be carried by semi truck and result in susceptibility to being tossed around during a storm. The sadder part is that even after the media hype about the people that die due to drowning in floodwaters and trees falling on mobile homes PEOPLE STILL STAY! In my county, a community of 5000 residents, all with mobile homes had the sheriffs go house to house and told all residents to LEAVE NOW OR TELL US YOUR NEXT OF KIN INFO. 12 people remained. Somehow I just don?t get it. Shelters open up for this reason ? to give people in mandatory evacuation zones someplace to go.
Now, evacuees who wind up taking mini vacations are something. There are people that drive as far as Atlanta when a storm threatens their area. Now I?m not saying that it?s wrong to be scared, but the people at my state emergency command center said it best ? When you are given a mandatory order to evacuate, it does not involve spending 6 hours in a car. Take your survival kits and go to the nearest open shelter. You stay there until the danger has passed and your residence is safe to return to. The biggest problem with going to Atlanta ? not that there?s anything wrong with Atlanta ? is that everyone else and their sister in law decided to go to Atlanta too! I don?t even know why they go to Atlanta. It?s just there and people point north and drive there. Near as I can figure you?ve got 100,000 people plus sister in laws in tow all going to Atlanta! Now, if I?m Ted Turner, I?m loving it because I own half of Atlanta and the Braves are playing at home for the next week and I can fill the stadium with people who want to see a baseball game. Of course, I have to be Ted Turner and make sure that all these folks get a nice southern welcome. So I?m going to get on CNN and have some banners made up that says ATLANTA WELCOMES 250,000 AND SISTER IN LAWS FROM FLORIDA because everyone knows when 100,000 leave Florida for a storm it?s always 250,000 with the sister in laws and I?m going to be a southern gentleman and raise the out of state tourist tax 15% to ? well, 15%.
Meanwhile you?ve got all the people who actually STAY for the storm, and these folks are native Floridians who think they know everything (present company included) because they grew up here! Well, the problem is that they?re usually right and they have the right to make fun of the half million people that went to Atlanta as reported on CNN, not including sister in laws. These folks are the ones that know how much of a pain it is to try and hang plywood over the windows while holding the sheet up with one knee using the drill that needs to have the battery charged with a semi broken bit. Of course, had we known we?d be doing all this and it would be a huge pain in the butt, wouldn?t we have joined the million Floridian caravans to Atlanta? Of course nobody bought any hurricane supplies because at the end of the storm season my sister in law looks in my garage and says, ?You know, you shouldn?t have bought so much of (insert hurricane survival product here) and she always yells at me for it. Maybe I should take her to Atlanta and leave her there with the other 1.5 Floridians there? As a result I gave up on buying supplies until 2 days before the storm comes, now that?s when the NOAA or whoever?s making the forecasts tell me when I?m going to lose my house.
The thing that every native Floridian knows is that the meteorologists are liars. Its not that they don?t know anything - it?s that they PRETEND to not know anything and that?s what really pisses me off. One day the storm is coming, one day it?s going to hit Tahiti, the next day we?re going to die, the week after that we?re going to have to go to Atlanta with the other 2 million Floridians because the storm washed the state into the Atlantic and we wont have anyplace to call home. It?s at this point mobile home sales in Georgia triple and the Georgia state bird becomes the Early Bird at the Country Kitchen Buffet. The state motto changes from ?We have less old people than Florida? to ?Walgreen?s now stocks Geritol and is open 24 hours for your convenience.? The Georgia state flag becomes half confederate flag and mobile home community. So the meteorologists are spinning the wheel of destiny figuring what lie they?re going to tell for the 11PM newscast when they forget to check the satellite and realize that the storm has already hit Florida and is on the way to Atlanta.
The thing about the TV news crews that gets me is that they use the same wheel of destiny to figure out where to send their reporters and their ?photojournalists? ? by the way has anyone figured out when ?cameraman? became ?photojournalist?? I think it was the same time that George Carlin noticed everyone using bigger words. Must be something in the water. So CNN and the Weather Channel have hung up a dartboard, employed the use of a ouijji board, some darts and a bingo wheel to figure out where to send their people. The first place the news crew goes to: Atlanta.
But really, their first broadcast is from a mobile home park and they talk about how people die and mobile homes get wrecked and all that. They film 2 hours worth of footage with the people actually staying through the storm. Then after the storm hits they go to all the trailer parks ? and since trailer parks are in low lying areas, the whole joint is flooded. So they?re filming 3 hours of footage about how the storm caused so many people to lose their homes because of flooding and the fact that they live in an oversized shed with air conditioning. The networks love this so they pump the flooded mobile homes on prime time nonstop for a week in-between the time Tom Brokaw decides to blow his nose and hock out the piece of gristle stuck in his throat in-between broadcasts under the news desk. So everyone thinks that nothing survived in Florida and they donate more money to the charities that come in and make life better for everyone.
Meanwhile all the native Floridians who know that any house on the mainland made within the past 20 years should be standing, with the possibility of the place missing a roof and catching some water. Naturally, there are a few houses that lose more shingles and tarpaper than trees on the property and cleanup is a real bitch because ants hide under everything after a hurricane. After the homeowners are bit by ants and have cleaned up the yard, they have to deal with the fact that there is no power, no phone service, and nothing resembling civilization for miles. There is no air conditioning and the state banned the sale of alcohol. You have no power, no cool home, nothing to do and you can?t buy a beer. Why don?t we all just crawl into a fetal position and die?
All is not lost, because the power company sends in TONS of people from out of state to fix everyone?s electricity. All these people driving in the bucket trucks get cursed at when they pass peoples houses and they don?t stop and fix things. Of course they have a priority list and when people don?t get what they want as fast as they want it they go over to the mobile home park and find the news crew to complain about how the electric company doesn?t want to fix their power. The local businesses all put up signs that say neat things like ?Closed until Power Company Saves Us? and ?Closed ? Lost generator in divorce? which wind up making the news as well.
So as the power company is driving around fixing things getting cursed at from people who are not governments or hospitals and thus aren?t near the top of the list, the native Floridians are cleaning up. They?re heating baked beans on the grill and other assorted canned foodstuffs as the people who bought generators are trying to start them up. They forgot to put gas stabilizer in the tank when the last hurricane came by so they can?t start their $1000 gas guzzling behemoth. The people that do have generators are running a refrigerator and a few lights and are annoying the entire neighborhood because generators are noisy as hell, similar to New Yorkers with the exception that New Yorkers shut off after 12 hours of running nonstop and don?t run at night at 8:30PM because it?s pitch black and people are trying to sleep. Not to mention the fact that your average generator burns a gallon of gas an hour so you?ve got to have $75 worth of unleaded and plastic 5 gallon gas cans to make sure you have lights and cold drinks for 24 hours. This is besides the fact that everyone in the state is buying gas at the same time and it takes you half an hour to get to the pump because some rich bitch in a Navigator is filling her normal tank and 15 of those little $2 vent less two gallon gas cans for the generator she just bought. Now, keep in mind the fact that this woman has never had to fill a gas can before and she winds up spilling gas all over the ground because she has no idea what she?s doing. Now the gas station folks are spreading cat litter over the spilled area while people are becoming more and more irate at the fact that she?s just made the line wait longer. Everyone just has to have their generators never mind the fact they didn?t know what a generator was a week before the hurricane. Which prompts me to generator safety.
Now, with owning and operating a generator comes the responsibilities of generator ownership. You don?t want to be the guy who ran a generator in his garage with the door open, the wind closed the garage door whereupon the generator overheated and set fire to the gas tanks and oxygen tanks in said garage. Seemingly appropriate, the generator was not to be outdone as there was nice new SUV nearby that got toasted in the blast as well in the resulting cascade of stupidity. All in all this person gave new meaning to the term ?I lost my house during the hurricane? in an act of extreme Floridianness.
Of course with hurricanes come people who think they know what they?re doing. Yes, they are native Floridians! The ER is flooded with people who didn?t know which end of the hacksaw was the business end and those who thought they knew which part of their house was hallway instead of wall who stubbed their appendages because they didn?t want to use a flashlight.
Of course, Uncle Sam is here to help. The FEMA crews are set up in a MASH style tent treating the victims of stupidity. In their work of patching stubbed appendages and a 3-D version of ?How NOT to use a chainsaw?, they?re trying to be nice and friendly even though the US Government is as big and stupid as it was when they actually had MASH tents in Korea. FEMA in their infinite wisdom sends the medical unit a ton of supplies. Naturally, the unit doesn?t get their supplies and the supplies are confirmed delivered 6 times before they actually get there. And when they do get there its not what they ordered. It?s all of one item and in this specific instance, a week?s worth of Meals Ready to Eat. All are the breakfast series ? Waffles and Bacon. That?s several thousand breakfasts of ready to eat instant food consisting nothing but Waffles and Bacon. I?m sure the government employee isn?t at fault; I mean the supply requisition did say MRE?s and MRE?s is what they got. It?s like that episode of MASH where they got half a million tongue depressors they didn?t want.
Beside the actual hurricane itself, you have to deal with the stupid people after the hurricane. These are the people that say things to supermarket employees like ?So you?re the one who has to tell all these people the place is closed? on their way out the door and nearly incite a riot because the store is clearly open. These same people are the folks who call their insurance company to report damage ? and then they find out that their deductible is $7000 instead of $500. That?s something else I can?t understand. Blow up your garage and burn down the rest of the house with a generator, gas cans and oxygen tanks all in the garage and your deductible is $500; and if part of your roof gets blown off you have to eat the first seven grand yourself. Someone explain that to me because my brain is going to explode just thinking about it.
The last thing that happens is family members call from out of state and freak out when the cell phones don?t work. It?s a rather simple concept because when the power goes out so does the tower ? and most don?t understand it! They think we?ve died or something! Sometimes the regular phones still work. Of course the power is out and people have to go to sleep at 8:30 because there is nothing better to do (Since the county made a curfew and nobody should be outside after 8PM anyways, right?) ? and as a result the family members call in-between 9PM and 11PM because they want to see how your house did and wake you up when you?re trying to sleep in the dark without air conditioning. How thoughtful of them. I don?t know who is worse: my family calling to see if I survived or the people proclaiming it?s the end of the world as we know it ? all because of a little rain and a little wind.
I think I?d have a beer right now if it weren?t illegal.
Anyone who posts in this thread will get ranted at. I'm angrier than an old man trying to send soup back in a deli.
Relative: So how's Florida? Afraid a hurricane is going to hit your house?
Other Relatives: Well, one day you'll regret living in Florida because of hurricanes.
More Relatives: Florida is hot and humid, plus you get hurricanes.
Well, enough about hurricanes. I live in one of those counties that has been impacted by a hurricane in any way shape or form less than a dozen times since storm records were kept beginning in 1871. Usually, people who live in Florida accept the fact that one day a big weather system will come and mess things up for a little while. People clean up; write bigger checks to the insurance companies a year later and then they go on with their lives. It?s not unlike people who knowingly live on something the USGS calls the San Andreas Fault line.
Now, onto the pre-storm hype created by the ever so present liberal media; this dawned on me as Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel was broadcasting 5 minutes from my house and a CNN satellite truck was passing me by as I helped a friend board up his business.
The media gives most of the TV watching nation the idea that when a hurricane comes, there is total destruction and many people die. This is partly true. Places that get whacked bad after a storm are painfully obvious places. An easy way to figure out if a given place will survive a hurricane wind-wise is what I call The Broad Side of a Barn Theorem. You ask yourself: Does this structure in any way have the wind resistance of the broad side of a barn? If you answer yes in any fashion, the building is likely to sustain damage. You may calculate risk as a percentage by multiplying the number of "At risk areas" by 15%, instances where a specific at risk area is double that of normal types can warrant a doubling of risk percentage. Examples include:
Gas stations: They have canopy's over the pumps that are sheet metal thin and thus will catch the wind like the broad side of a barn.
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Small Station 8 covered pumps: 15%
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Medium Station 8-20 covered pumps: 30%
Risk Canopy will be destroyed, Truck Stop 20+ covered pumps: 45%+
Warehouses: Technology has not evolved much in this field since the days of Mrs. O'Leary's barn and now infamous bovine. Today's warehouses are usually much more common, more expensive, and should sustain fire somewhat better than that ill fated barn that night in 1871, provided the local fire code was followed during construction - and the general contractor wasn?t a cheapskate. The warehouse districts are quintessential examples of the modern 1871 barn region. Their risk during a hurricane using The Broad Side of a Barn Theorem is substantial. The usual number of at risk areas is 4 (5 if you count the roof).
Risk a given Warehouse will be destroyed: 60%+
A good example is Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte Postal Service Warehouse type structure.
Mobile Homes: I?d rather not go here, but I?m going here anyways. Mobile homes are usually nothing more than a large, insulated tool shed. Some have carpeting. In fact, I wouldn?t mind having one at my house for a spare two-car garage or machine shop. If the walls all blow away, my lathe is heavy enough to stay put. At any rate, a serious problem arises in that mobile homes exemplify the Broad Side of a Barn theory and a double entendre is that they are light enough to be carried by semi truck and result in susceptibility to being tossed around during a storm. The sadder part is that even after the media hype about the people that die due to drowning in floodwaters and trees falling on mobile homes PEOPLE STILL STAY! In my county, a community of 5000 residents, all with mobile homes had the sheriffs go house to house and told all residents to LEAVE NOW OR TELL US YOUR NEXT OF KIN INFO. 12 people remained. Somehow I just don?t get it. Shelters open up for this reason ? to give people in mandatory evacuation zones someplace to go.
Now, evacuees who wind up taking mini vacations are something. There are people that drive as far as Atlanta when a storm threatens their area. Now I?m not saying that it?s wrong to be scared, but the people at my state emergency command center said it best ? When you are given a mandatory order to evacuate, it does not involve spending 6 hours in a car. Take your survival kits and go to the nearest open shelter. You stay there until the danger has passed and your residence is safe to return to. The biggest problem with going to Atlanta ? not that there?s anything wrong with Atlanta ? is that everyone else and their sister in law decided to go to Atlanta too! I don?t even know why they go to Atlanta. It?s just there and people point north and drive there. Near as I can figure you?ve got 100,000 people plus sister in laws in tow all going to Atlanta! Now, if I?m Ted Turner, I?m loving it because I own half of Atlanta and the Braves are playing at home for the next week and I can fill the stadium with people who want to see a baseball game. Of course, I have to be Ted Turner and make sure that all these folks get a nice southern welcome. So I?m going to get on CNN and have some banners made up that says ATLANTA WELCOMES 250,000 AND SISTER IN LAWS FROM FLORIDA because everyone knows when 100,000 leave Florida for a storm it?s always 250,000 with the sister in laws and I?m going to be a southern gentleman and raise the out of state tourist tax 15% to ? well, 15%.
Meanwhile you?ve got all the people who actually STAY for the storm, and these folks are native Floridians who think they know everything (present company included) because they grew up here! Well, the problem is that they?re usually right and they have the right to make fun of the half million people that went to Atlanta as reported on CNN, not including sister in laws. These folks are the ones that know how much of a pain it is to try and hang plywood over the windows while holding the sheet up with one knee using the drill that needs to have the battery charged with a semi broken bit. Of course, had we known we?d be doing all this and it would be a huge pain in the butt, wouldn?t we have joined the million Floridian caravans to Atlanta? Of course nobody bought any hurricane supplies because at the end of the storm season my sister in law looks in my garage and says, ?You know, you shouldn?t have bought so much of (insert hurricane survival product here) and she always yells at me for it. Maybe I should take her to Atlanta and leave her there with the other 1.5 Floridians there? As a result I gave up on buying supplies until 2 days before the storm comes, now that?s when the NOAA or whoever?s making the forecasts tell me when I?m going to lose my house.
The thing that every native Floridian knows is that the meteorologists are liars. Its not that they don?t know anything - it?s that they PRETEND to not know anything and that?s what really pisses me off. One day the storm is coming, one day it?s going to hit Tahiti, the next day we?re going to die, the week after that we?re going to have to go to Atlanta with the other 2 million Floridians because the storm washed the state into the Atlantic and we wont have anyplace to call home. It?s at this point mobile home sales in Georgia triple and the Georgia state bird becomes the Early Bird at the Country Kitchen Buffet. The state motto changes from ?We have less old people than Florida? to ?Walgreen?s now stocks Geritol and is open 24 hours for your convenience.? The Georgia state flag becomes half confederate flag and mobile home community. So the meteorologists are spinning the wheel of destiny figuring what lie they?re going to tell for the 11PM newscast when they forget to check the satellite and realize that the storm has already hit Florida and is on the way to Atlanta.
The thing about the TV news crews that gets me is that they use the same wheel of destiny to figure out where to send their reporters and their ?photojournalists? ? by the way has anyone figured out when ?cameraman? became ?photojournalist?? I think it was the same time that George Carlin noticed everyone using bigger words. Must be something in the water. So CNN and the Weather Channel have hung up a dartboard, employed the use of a ouijji board, some darts and a bingo wheel to figure out where to send their people. The first place the news crew goes to: Atlanta.
But really, their first broadcast is from a mobile home park and they talk about how people die and mobile homes get wrecked and all that. They film 2 hours worth of footage with the people actually staying through the storm. Then after the storm hits they go to all the trailer parks ? and since trailer parks are in low lying areas, the whole joint is flooded. So they?re filming 3 hours of footage about how the storm caused so many people to lose their homes because of flooding and the fact that they live in an oversized shed with air conditioning. The networks love this so they pump the flooded mobile homes on prime time nonstop for a week in-between the time Tom Brokaw decides to blow his nose and hock out the piece of gristle stuck in his throat in-between broadcasts under the news desk. So everyone thinks that nothing survived in Florida and they donate more money to the charities that come in and make life better for everyone.
Meanwhile all the native Floridians who know that any house on the mainland made within the past 20 years should be standing, with the possibility of the place missing a roof and catching some water. Naturally, there are a few houses that lose more shingles and tarpaper than trees on the property and cleanup is a real bitch because ants hide under everything after a hurricane. After the homeowners are bit by ants and have cleaned up the yard, they have to deal with the fact that there is no power, no phone service, and nothing resembling civilization for miles. There is no air conditioning and the state banned the sale of alcohol. You have no power, no cool home, nothing to do and you can?t buy a beer. Why don?t we all just crawl into a fetal position and die?
All is not lost, because the power company sends in TONS of people from out of state to fix everyone?s electricity. All these people driving in the bucket trucks get cursed at when they pass peoples houses and they don?t stop and fix things. Of course they have a priority list and when people don?t get what they want as fast as they want it they go over to the mobile home park and find the news crew to complain about how the electric company doesn?t want to fix their power. The local businesses all put up signs that say neat things like ?Closed until Power Company Saves Us? and ?Closed ? Lost generator in divorce? which wind up making the news as well.
So as the power company is driving around fixing things getting cursed at from people who are not governments or hospitals and thus aren?t near the top of the list, the native Floridians are cleaning up. They?re heating baked beans on the grill and other assorted canned foodstuffs as the people who bought generators are trying to start them up. They forgot to put gas stabilizer in the tank when the last hurricane came by so they can?t start their $1000 gas guzzling behemoth. The people that do have generators are running a refrigerator and a few lights and are annoying the entire neighborhood because generators are noisy as hell, similar to New Yorkers with the exception that New Yorkers shut off after 12 hours of running nonstop and don?t run at night at 8:30PM because it?s pitch black and people are trying to sleep. Not to mention the fact that your average generator burns a gallon of gas an hour so you?ve got to have $75 worth of unleaded and plastic 5 gallon gas cans to make sure you have lights and cold drinks for 24 hours. This is besides the fact that everyone in the state is buying gas at the same time and it takes you half an hour to get to the pump because some rich bitch in a Navigator is filling her normal tank and 15 of those little $2 vent less two gallon gas cans for the generator she just bought. Now, keep in mind the fact that this woman has never had to fill a gas can before and she winds up spilling gas all over the ground because she has no idea what she?s doing. Now the gas station folks are spreading cat litter over the spilled area while people are becoming more and more irate at the fact that she?s just made the line wait longer. Everyone just has to have their generators never mind the fact they didn?t know what a generator was a week before the hurricane. Which prompts me to generator safety.
Now, with owning and operating a generator comes the responsibilities of generator ownership. You don?t want to be the guy who ran a generator in his garage with the door open, the wind closed the garage door whereupon the generator overheated and set fire to the gas tanks and oxygen tanks in said garage. Seemingly appropriate, the generator was not to be outdone as there was nice new SUV nearby that got toasted in the blast as well in the resulting cascade of stupidity. All in all this person gave new meaning to the term ?I lost my house during the hurricane? in an act of extreme Floridianness.
Of course with hurricanes come people who think they know what they?re doing. Yes, they are native Floridians! The ER is flooded with people who didn?t know which end of the hacksaw was the business end and those who thought they knew which part of their house was hallway instead of wall who stubbed their appendages because they didn?t want to use a flashlight.
Of course, Uncle Sam is here to help. The FEMA crews are set up in a MASH style tent treating the victims of stupidity. In their work of patching stubbed appendages and a 3-D version of ?How NOT to use a chainsaw?, they?re trying to be nice and friendly even though the US Government is as big and stupid as it was when they actually had MASH tents in Korea. FEMA in their infinite wisdom sends the medical unit a ton of supplies. Naturally, the unit doesn?t get their supplies and the supplies are confirmed delivered 6 times before they actually get there. And when they do get there its not what they ordered. It?s all of one item and in this specific instance, a week?s worth of Meals Ready to Eat. All are the breakfast series ? Waffles and Bacon. That?s several thousand breakfasts of ready to eat instant food consisting nothing but Waffles and Bacon. I?m sure the government employee isn?t at fault; I mean the supply requisition did say MRE?s and MRE?s is what they got. It?s like that episode of MASH where they got half a million tongue depressors they didn?t want.
Beside the actual hurricane itself, you have to deal with the stupid people after the hurricane. These are the people that say things to supermarket employees like ?So you?re the one who has to tell all these people the place is closed? on their way out the door and nearly incite a riot because the store is clearly open. These same people are the folks who call their insurance company to report damage ? and then they find out that their deductible is $7000 instead of $500. That?s something else I can?t understand. Blow up your garage and burn down the rest of the house with a generator, gas cans and oxygen tanks all in the garage and your deductible is $500; and if part of your roof gets blown off you have to eat the first seven grand yourself. Someone explain that to me because my brain is going to explode just thinking about it.
The last thing that happens is family members call from out of state and freak out when the cell phones don?t work. It?s a rather simple concept because when the power goes out so does the tower ? and most don?t understand it! They think we?ve died or something! Sometimes the regular phones still work. Of course the power is out and people have to go to sleep at 8:30 because there is nothing better to do (Since the county made a curfew and nobody should be outside after 8PM anyways, right?) ? and as a result the family members call in-between 9PM and 11PM because they want to see how your house did and wake you up when you?re trying to sleep in the dark without air conditioning. How thoughtful of them. I don?t know who is worse: my family calling to see if I survived or the people proclaiming it?s the end of the world as we know it ? all because of a little rain and a little wind.
I think I?d have a beer right now if it weren?t illegal.
Anyone who posts in this thread will get ranted at. I'm angrier than an old man trying to send soup back in a deli.
