Hurricane Parties
I grew up on the coast in commuting distance from a military base. My neighborhood was made up of active duty military, retired military, and civilians in fairly equal numbers. Growing up that way I was exposed to ideas and customs I might not have experienced in other places. One of these customs was the hurricane party.
The idea was simple. A hurricane was coming, its been suggested that people gather up supplies in a safe fortified location and hole up until the storm passes. Many people think that it might be smarter to combine supplies, and man power in a single place to wait out the storm, since there was nothing else to do after the power goes out, you could while away the hours being social. Thus in my neighborhood during every hurricane there was at least one hurricane party.
My dad prefers to spend his hurricanes sitting on the porch watching the action. After it is over, he will drive around looking at the damage, offering help to friends where is needed. Mom on the other hand prefers to fill the bath tub with water, pile supplies and a portable radio in the bathroom and (back then) gather me up to sleep on the floor and wait until the whole thing blew over. Mind you, though our bathroom was the only interior room in our house, it has a large mirror on each door, one above the sink, and glass shower doors. I never would bring it up to her even as a little tyke because I saw just how important it was to her to at least feel like she was safe.
Of all the hurricanes I grew up during, only one ever caused us any real damage at all and that was after I had left the area to seek my fortune in the Piedmont. The only other "adventure" I ever had any witness to at home on the coast during severe weather was one morning after when dad discovered... the body.
Our windows were boarded up so there was no seeing outside unless you went outside, and dad being naturally adventurous and indestructible, was out the morning after at first light to survey the damage. He wandered the backyard, to see no damage, just a few limbs down. Going to the front yard, he saw down the street some trees leaning, many limbs down, a few misplaced trashcans, and what appeared to him to be a pile of cloths at the edge of our yard next to the street. He went to investigate.
Moments later he was back inside instructing mom to call the ambulance, there was a body in the yard! Mom kept me inside, dad kept his distance and shortly later EMS rolled up. It didn't take them long to figure out that the person, though soaked, was very much alive...drunk and passed out. They asked dad if he recognized the person who was at this moment still very incoherent. He thought he had seen the man before as a friend of the neighbors, so an EMS person went over there to see if they had "lost" anyone.
"Hey!" cried the EMS person, "Here's another one!" In the neighbor's yard, between two cars a soaked to the bone woman was passed out. They began to make sure she was OK as well.
Several minutes of knocking at the door brought the neighbor around. (By this time I had slipped outside and joined my father a respectable distance from the action.) Apparently during the night when the eye was passing over, a couple thought it was safe to go home. Neither them or anyone else at that hurricane party were sober enough to comprehend or voice any of a number of concerns. The couple apparently fell down and passed out while trying to simply FIND their car in the yard.
To this day we still laugh about that. Good times.
The moral of the tale is that though a hurricane party is in and of itself probably a good idea, you really need to stay sober to take full effect of the the benefit. Also, those of you who tend to stay home during and venture out after should take a camera of some kind. You never know when a photo opportunity might arise.
