What I learned from Hurricane Irene - just because you think 'it's nothing' doesn't mean others do

[LynneSin]

I'll confess, I've had a good laugh at you southerns when you get a dusting of snow. I've watched the news and seen entire states shut down over an amount of snow that's just a typical winter day up here in the north. I mean when you survive a winter with 4 back-to-back blizzards that each dumped about 18inches -3feet of snow on the ground, you wish for the days of simple dusting.

In the period of one week I experienced 2 natural disaster first - I was in a 5.8 earthquake and a Cat1 Hurricane.

For those of you in earthquake-prone west coast a 5.8 is just a typical day and for you southerns a Cat1 Hurricane is probably a bit of a drizzling. You've had way worse but the thing is this - I haven't. And I can assure you that I've had the bejesus scared out of me going thru both. Personally you west coasters can keep your earthquakes and the southerners can have their hurricanes. At least with a blizzard I know what to expect and have fun with it.

But maybe I've learned something from this event. Hurricane Irene and a 5.8 earthquake to me is like a dusting of snow to some of you. And I've learned this - just because it's something minor where you live that doesn't make it minor to the person going thru it. Perhaps I've learned to respect those people dealing with a snow dusting because if you don't deal with it on a regular basis then it is a big deal.

Sure we can blame the media for the hype but when a storm impacts about a sixth of this country's population then it does become a big deal especially when most of them haven't even been thru a hurricane before. And honestly, I would rather we be prepared then to have another Katrina happen anywhere in this country.

So maybe in the future we'll respect these natural disasters a bit more, I know I will the next time the south gets hit with a dusting of snow!