Here in Tulsa we don’t worry too much about Hurricanes. They are more of a curiosity than anything else unless they are monstrously disastrous like Katrina. If you have ever lived on the coast though you understand the anxiety among residents when a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico. The anxiety is something you can see as well as feel. What should we do? What is going to happen? Do we go now? What will happen if we wait.

There are some who say, “We are going to have a hurricane party!” or, “Its not that big a deal, we are to just ride it out.”

These are people who have never been through a hurricane. I’ve never been through a hurricane either. I did sit through the remnants of hurricane Alicia, which was fairly weak as hurricanes go, that went through Galveston and Houston in the early 80’s. I lived 90 miles from the Gulf, 55 miles north of downtown Houston. So I stayed in my house, so did everybody else as there was no evacuation in my area.

If I had it to do it over again, I’d go to Omaha. The wind was horrendous. The trees in the neighborhood were bent over parallel to the ground. Many of them landed on houses and blocked streets. I don’t get too worried about weather in general but I found that day to be very distressing. The wind roared for hours and then it got calm and quiet and then the wind picked up again and roared for several more hours. I have never heard anything like it before or since. I could only guess what it was like on the coast. My house didn’t get damaged. Some of my neighbors damage from trees on their house or cars. It wasn’t bad. Some people were without power for several days. The cleanup wasn’t as bad as what Tulsa had from last winter’s ice storm.

Anyway, people in hurricane country are always looking for good hurricane trackers. Convenience stores pass out tracking maps. People plot them and try to guess themselves where it is going to land.

The internet has made it a lot simpler. This is the best storm tracker that I’ve seen.