On the day before Hurricane Irene arrives, I remain unafraid of her wrath. Right now, she's in the outer banks chilling in North Carolina. She's probably causing havoc on places like topsail island, which is a very fine place to vacation. But by the time she makes her visit to New York, I don't think she's going to be a ferocious. According to the news, I'm dead wrong but they always overreact.
Now, sometimes they're correct. The December 26, 2010 snowstorm was every bit as bad as they said it would be as well as the one in February. I drove through both. Now the February one went unnoticed in New York, where temperatures were high enough to just be a downpour of rain, but driving through Pennsylvania, as I was, it was really bad. I'm guessing Irene will be like that snowstorm in February, really bad in the south (ok PA isn't the south but bare with me) but by the time it comes up here, not so bad.
This is New York City, my favorite place in the world. I'm sitting 190 ft above the ground two crosstown blocks away from the closest area deemed an evacuation area. I'm still not scared. I guess you could say that if the worst case happens and I don't live through this, I wouldn't be too concerned because I've lived a fulfilling life and I really can't think of a better place to die than in New York City.
Irene, however, most likely will not be my end. New Yorkers just panic really easily. Especially for something like this that we almost never experience. Some say there was one in '95 but I don't remember that one so it must not have been THAT big a deal. Others talk about a category 3 that hit in the 1930's. Well, I just read a long history of New York, named "New York the novel" where they go through the history and they failed to mention this horrendous hurricane. Maybe it happened, but it interests me that when I talk about how all the predictions from the 30s about air pollution and water levels and such were dead wrong, people tell me "Well the measuring technology back then was extremely inaccurate so we have no idea what it was really like." Fine, I'll turn that argument back on you, the measuring equipment for the hurricanes weren't accurate back then so we have no idea how bad that hurricane was.
This is NYC, we don't have horrible weather like earthquakes, massive tornadoes, and hurricanes. That's why a lot of us live here. The Earthquake that people TELL me we had earlier this week, I didn't even feel. They say that those in higher building did, so fine. Some say they felt it. Nobody was injured, my co-worker saw his monitor move. I'm not impressed. If you have to tell me we had an Earthquake, then it really wasn't that bad. I should have my own horror story. Even if the "experts" are right...it's a category 1; the weakest hurricane. Sure, our buildings aren't built hurricane proof like in the hurricane zones but still this is very minor and I think Florida, Mississippi, New Orleans and such are laughing at our panic. Hell I am. Now I've only found 9 other people who are just as unafraid as I am of Irene but as Mark Twain said, "If you ever find yourself in agreement with the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."
I'm also getting sick of everyone telling me that I'm making the same mistake as people in New Orleans for Katrina. Let's compare the two cities. New Orleans is in a hurricane zones, they have hurricanes all the time, they've had two in my lifetime. New York has had none. New Orleans is below sea level, New York is not. The problem in New Orleans were the dykes and levies failed, New York, doesn't have this problem. Therefore, this is nothing like Katrina.
When the dust settles, I believe New York will be left with minimal damage. Maybe some trash cans will be blown around and some branches will fall but that happens in most thunderstorms and won't impress me much. So, I say to Irene, I'm in the City, if you want to show up for our date, you can. But I have a feeling you're going to stand me up or at the very least, not be everything you're cracked up to be. Just another woman misrepresenting herself.
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