No more hurricanes this year

Our newspaper headlines today stated that our hurricane season is officially over for this year. It runs June 1 through November 30. This year we have been fortunate again to have missed the bad weather.

When we first moved to Florida from the Midwest, I remember seeing papers at the grocery stores in the spring telling you what to stockpile in our home in case of a hurricane. How much water, canned goods, candles, flashlights, batteries, etc., were necessary to survive at least a week of no electricity. I felt as if I had moved to another country. It reminded me of the time we were living in Germany and The Trout was in the Army. We had a list to follow also. We needed to pack canned goods and other necessities in a box, seal it, and have it ready to go in case of war and we get orders to move out to Switzerland. This was 1968 and Vietnam was roaring in the far east, so this really was quite a possibility. So, being someone who always follows rules, our box was packed and ready to go.

That first hurricane season in Florida, I did pack up a box and then after the season ended, we did start to use the products in that box and cleaned it out. The next several years, I did the same, but then when the storms were passing us over, I was not so diligent in packing supplies in case of emergency. Now, we usually are away from Florida for most of the hurricane season, so I do not have these emergency supplies.

It can be a scary time, but I think of all the tornadoes in the USA. How many people really have supply boxes packed for tornado season? Might not be a bad idea. It is really sad, but we are so dependant on electricity, we would be very uncomfortable living without it for a few days.