We Shouldn’t Have Taken Milton’s Stapler...

Today’s update is going to be pretty short. As I write this, Hurricane Milton is a category five monster storm with a project path that goes right through Central Florida. I don’t want to deal with it, so I’m capturing and sharing my thoughts with the world. This is healthy, right?

Central Florida isn’t immune to hurricanes, though we often get lucky and avoid significant damage. At least, we did, but the world is changing, and hurricanes are getting a lot worse.

In 2018, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek look at preparing for Hurricane Dorian. It was a coping mechanism to defuse my anxiety. But it was also a satirical look at how we can quickly get whipped into a frenzy over storms that aren’t always that bad. It’s good to be prepared, but hoarding supplies and panic buying goes to a different place.

Today, satirical commentary feels like the before times. It was possible to joke about passing storms. We knew when to be serious, but things never really got that serious. However, things are different now after Ian’s immense devastation and flooding two years ago. My neighborhood was spared, but so many others were not. Now, we know what can happen, and we also know there’s only so much to be done.

There is no way to truly prepare for a category-five hurricane. As I write this, Milton has 180 mph winds! How do you prepare for that? It hurts my brain to contemplate what that is like. Granted, by the time the brunt of the storm hits Orlando, we’re expected to receive category one force winds (74-95 mph). While not as bad, it’s still not great. Oh, and then add in 8-10 inches of rain. It's not great at all.

I’m not sure what to do now. I’m not panic buying -- though, I did have an Amazon delivery with essentials: non-perishable foods and a new weather radio that doubles as a cell phone charger. I made sure my team all had plans and checked in on my neighbor. Is it enough to prepare? Probably not. But what else can you do?

One thing is certain: I’ll get through this.

The next few days will be rough. There will be a lot of waiting for the inevitable while overanalyzing every Hurricane Center update for signs of good news. Then, the storm will come, and we’ll wait for it to pass. Hurricanes always seem to come at night, so there will be more waiting, this time for daylight, to survey the damage. That’s when the cleanup begins.

After a few trying days, Orlando will emerge into a shared PTSD where we all ask each other, “How was your hurricane?” Until then, we wait. We wait and hope for the best and also hope that we’ve prepared for the worst.