Hell hath no fury

My mom is a nervous wreck this time of year, the much anticipated and much dreaded Hurricane Season. You'd be concerned too if your house was located directly on the water, on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. There have been so many near misses in the past. During the months of September and August, she watches the Weather Channel religiously, wondering will this be the year our luck will run out?

Hurricane season was always a stressful time of year growing up. There is only one bridge to get on and off the island so there's a window of time where you can evacuate, or choose to ride it out when the big one hits. I remember being at school when a big storm would roll in. My friends and I would stand on the stone wall surrounding the tennis courts during recess, watching the imminent storm blow in off the water and the palm trees swaying violently, waiting to hear from the teachers if we'd be released from school early that day.

The town was always abuzz right before a big storm. People were at the market buying jugs of water and batteries for their flashlights. All around the island people were boarding up windows with plywood, hoping to prevent any wind damage. If we saw the news trucks and the TV crews filming downtown, we knew it was going to be big.

I still remember Hurricane Elena, back in 1985, the "big one". She started down near Cuba and headed up through the gulf, building strength until she was considered a category 3 hurricane. At one point, it looked at though she was headed straight for Cedar Key. They announced a voluntary evacuation and we quickly and haphazardly packed what we could and headed inland. My mom told us to take anything we couldn't live without since our house may not be there when we got back. My brother and I were horrified at the thought. We loaded up our most prized possessions - Barbies for me, G.I. Joe men for my brother and my dad took his table saw, figuring if the house was gone, he'd need it to rebuild. My mom always took our family photo albums, the one thing that truly couldn't be replaced (this was before the days of digital photos). We hunkered down for a couple of days on the mainland, waiting for the drama to be over. Elena changed course at the last minute and ended up making landfall in Biloxi, Mississippi. Cedar Key was spared, but still with stained major winds and storm surges. There was quite a bit of destruction around the island and many of the homes had terrible flood damage. There was a huge amount of debris and a layer of mud and seaweed covering everything. It was hard to know where to even begin cleaning up. For months afterward, there were front end loaders scooping up destroyed appliances, mildewed carpeting and waterlogged drywall and depositing them in huge trucks to be hauled away. My parents house is on stilts, like most homes directly on the water, so there was no water inside, but they did lose all their landscaping due to flooding. There was a boat in our yard that had washed in from somewhere along with a few other random items that didn't belong to us (a few of ours washed away too), but not too bad considering what could have been had she actually made landfall.

Coming back to an area that has been hit by a hurricane is surreal. The aftermath can be devastating and often times you barely recognize an area or building, it's been hit so hard. Because the damage can be so severe and people's belongings are often scattered around the island, looting is always a concern. After a storm like Elena, the National Guard is called in to police things and monitor access to the island. All residents have a re-entry pass, allowing them to get back on the island after an evacuation.

There have been many storms since then, but nothing catastrophic. There was one storm where the water rose so quickly in the middle of the night, my parents barely had time to move all the cars to higher ground. My dad actually had to wade back through waist deep water to get their dog, who was stuck on the landing of the stairs. My parents usually wait it out at their rental house that's located at a high spot on the island. They usually lose power for a couple of days and the biggest challenge becomes how quickly you can open the refrigerator and retrieve your snack without losing too much cold air.

Every part of the world has the threat of a natural disaster waiting to strike - whether it's fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides or tornadoes. To me, the reward of being able to look at the ocean every day is worth the risk. My mom may wait until hurricane season is over to weigh in on this one...