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There's nothing scarier than living in the "cone of uncertainty".
Will Hurricane Ian drive Floridians to leave the Sunshine State?
That was my first thought when I started seeing the path that Hurricane Ian was taking a few days ago. The “cone” is the tracking tool that the National Hurricane Center shares to provide some sense of where a storm may land, putting those within the areas that could be affected on notice. As someone who called South Florida home for more than a decade and lived through three hurricanes — Frances and Jeanne in 2004, Wilma in 2005 — I learned to follow the “cone” updates religiously. And to hate them when it seemed the inevitable was about to happen.
We often speak of hurricanes in terms of the physical damage they cause. Already, some are predicting that Hurricane Ian, which made landfall Wednesday afternoon on Florida’s southwest coast, could result in up to $70 billion in destruction, which would make it one of the most costly storms in U.S. history. And a major hit for insurance companies.
But there’s another toll that comes with the arrival of each hurricane — or even the looming threat of one. Namely, the stress that it causes.
Certainly, the dread of dealing with storms is a reason cited by many former Floridians I know as one of the key reasons they left the Sunshine State. “It’s not the stress of it hitting you. It’s the stress of the anticipation,” said Tom Peeling, a former colleague of mine who spent most of his life and career in the state — we worked together at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fl. — before he retired to North Carolina a couple of years ago.
That was my first thought when I started seeing the path that Hurricane Ian was taking a few days ago. The “cone” is the tracking tool that the National Hurricane Center shares to provide some sense of where a storm may land, putting those within the areas that could be affected on notice. As someone who called South Florida home for more than a decade and lived through three hurricanes — Frances and Jeanne in 2004, Wilma in 2005 — I learned to follow the “cone” updates religiously. And to hate them when it seemed the inevitable was about to happen.
We often speak of hurricanes in terms of the physical damage they cause. Already, some are predicting that Hurricane Ian, which made landfall Wednesday afternoon on Florida’s southwest coast, could result in up to $70 billion in destruction, which would make it one of the most costly storms in U.S. history. And a major hit for insurance companies.
But there’s another toll that comes with the arrival of each hurricane — or even the looming threat of one. Namely, the stress that it causes.
Certainly, the dread of dealing with storms is a reason cited by many former Floridians I know as one of the key reasons they left the Sunshine State. “It’s not the stress of it hitting you. It’s the stress of the anticipation,” said Tom Peeling, a former colleague of mine who spent most of his life and career in the state — we worked together at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fl. — before he retired to North Carolina a couple of years ago.
https://tinyurl.com/yc72u24s
