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I think Hurricane Gloria was about one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in terms of size, strength, etc. I lived in Rhode Island at the time and I recall getting a phone call the day it was supposed to hit from an old friend in the south who said, somewhat disconcertingly to me, "I just wanted to hear you again . . ." And I thought, WTF??!!! Have they told people to callup and say goodbye to people in it's track?
I think Gloria made the cover of Time magazine. It was a horrifying storm. We lived on relatively high ground and my husband's parents and some friends and their pets came to stay with us. I had food, games, candles, batteries, supplies, water bottles, anything you could ever think of, collected in our basement where we were determined to head when the storm came.
Long story short - almost nothing happened in terms of rain, wind and flooding where we were. I think it stayed pretty much out to sea and merely brushed us.
And do you know what? PEOPLE WERE DISAPPOINTED!!!!! There were assholes everywhere complaining about losing time, money for supplies, closed businesses, duct tape, plywood, etc. and "Nothing Happened!!!!" What a hype for nothing,etc.etc.etc.
Everyone needed to kneel and kiss the ground and thank God that they had prepared for a disaster that didn't happen. Complacency is the biggest enemy with natural disasters.
I went through Isabel a few years ago which was a category 1 when it hit and it did plenty of damage - enough to cure me forever of downplaying any storm. After Isabel, I have no personal desire to experience a 2 or a 3. A good nor easter or a tropical storm can do plenty of damage and kill people. A fairly weak storm can have almost no wind but become a rain event and just drown a place.
You honestly just never know because every single storm has it's weird little idiosyncrasies. The big ones can become pygmies and the little ones can become monsters in terms of damage.
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