TV tends to make it seem worse

[jes]

I certainly don't want to down play the devistation a hurricane can cause, however, the television focuses on the very worst situations. I am writing for those of you who have not been through a category 2 or 3 and are scared to death. I went through Fredrick (category 3) years ago. It was terrifying. We stayed in the hall all night. The roof stayed put, no windows were broken and the biggest damage was the wood fence was blown down. The city looked terrible, because there were so many pine trees down. Not many Oak trees -- just limbs. I worked for FEMA for a month after (required of some state employees) taking IFG applications. I think only 1 person died, because they went outside during the storm. We did not have power for over 2 weeks. We couldn't drink the water. The national news made it look like we were all starving, but in fact we ate better than ever because everyone was Bar B Qing all the food from their freezers and sharing. It was really kind of like a party. If you have trees in your yard they might fall onto the roof. I wouldn't stay in a mobile home or even think of going outside during the storm. But if you stay inside and the storm stays a category 3 or less I do believe you will be fine. Of course, Fredrick was not a rain maker, so that probably helped. There were areas in the city that looked very bad and this is what the media focused on. I think many of these sporatic areas were destroyed by tornado's - not the wind from the hurricane. If a category 3 ever hits my area again I will not leave. My home is not in an area that floods. I will probably leave if a stronger storm threatens. I know how scared many of you are who have decided to stay and ride out the storm. I just wanted you to know that the news really does make things look much worse sometimes than they really are.