Why would anyone wishcast

[Roxy]

I really dont understand why people live in Florida at all and submt themselves to the frightening episode of a hurricane (or several) there are plenty of beautiful states that dont have these storms and are much safer (and CHEAPER) to live in.
I still find it somewhat odd (dont kill me) that people in FLorida are actually surprised when they lose everything to a hurricane. the same goes for any near coastal communities in hurricane prone areas. What do you expect? Again, I hope Im not offending anyone, but Im really concerned about the amount of people who pack Florida's coasts many without even realizing they are putting themselves in the future path of extremely dangerous and destructive storms. All this for the view I suppose, but that view would not be worth the hopelessness one feels when they dont have a home anymore. Is it really worth it?

another good point, and the martyr attitude gets old. I know the Floridians have been through hell, and I feel for you...I really do. But some are getting a little high and mighty. Sorry if this offends. It's just been irritating me lately.

[vbhoutex]

The only reason I can think of is they have never been through one and are curious. Obviously, they have no idea of the wrath a hurricane can cause.

Been there, done that..........they can can have 'em, I don't want one

AMEN TO THAT!

With tha being said, I have a different purpose than most in "chasing" severe storms or hurricanes. I am a certified skywarn spotter for the NWS. We are asked to report on severe weather and our reports are used by the NWS to verify developing or occurring weather situations, issue warnings, etc. However, I am not going out in the middle of a large hurricane "chasing" unless I am with a crew like Mark Sudduth's or Weathervine that have the proper equipment to deal with the situation and to report in to the NWS or NHC.

Yes there is an adrenaline rush involved in chasing or experiencing storms or hurricanes, but once you have really experienced one, especially a strong one and have feared for your life and your property and seen lives destroyed after one, you will never "wishcast" again.

[Canelaw99]

I really dont understand why people live in Florida at all and submt themselves to the frightening episode of a hurricane (or several) there are plenty of beautiful states that dont have these storms and are much safer (and CHEAPER) to live in.

Bear in mind, Innotech, that it's been about 4 years since we (here in S. FL anyway) last had a storm come through, and that was Irene who basically just dumped a lot of rain here. Prior to that, it was pretty quiet as well. All-in-all, 'canes aren't a threat each and every year like they have been this year. Personally, I'd rather deal with the threat of a 'cane once every 4ish years than a blizzard every year, or an earthquake at any time, or a tornado that doesn't give warning, but that's just me. The majority of the year, FL is a great place to live, and we Floridians will survive this 'cane season just as we've done for so many in the past.

[Roxy]

Floridians will survive this 'cane season just as we've done for so many in the past.

[tronbunny]

There is no place on Earth where one can "escape" the wrath of Mother Nature.
Humans are insignificant, Nature all powerful.
It is fascinating to watch, check the ratings on TWC "Storm Stories"

Florida has so few destructive hurricanes in the average humans lifetime, historically, that it is well worth "the risk".
It is easy to forget the actual terror of the experience. It is human nature to move on.

[EmeraldCoast1]

I have my own ideas on this....I am not a FL native but been here a few years...I think it (-removed-) comes down to people who have a desire to see mayhem in general...be it car crash, tornado, cane, whatever...some people get their jollies on this, some are just hyper-curious and yes some, twisted.

I profess to having a desire to see the power of nature in general, but once I see things like Charley's devastation, power loss, etc etc, it becomes much less interesting to have to experience it yourself.

Two closes calls in the past month are enough for me....thank you very much

To say a car crash is stupid,thats not nature.I love to feel the effects of what nature can do.Be it a hurricane,severe t-storms a cold snap etc.I dont want to see car crashes,terrorist acts,wars,etc.Having said that I dont think most want to be in a CAT 3,4 or 5 myself included.But to experience at least hurricane force winds is a great thrill & I am no teen..There are people who storm chase regularly & they are not teens..Many people love the power of nature..IMO people who track & follow or are fascinated by hurricanes but say they dont want to feel one is like a straight man admiring the beauty, sexyness & softness of a woman but doesnt want to go to bed with one(Of course this will be deleted,this board is rated G)..I'm tired of the politically correct people that feel that they have to say all the acceptable things & expect everyone else to do the same.I love hurricanes,this is earth & they will keep on coming so those who are so afraid or inconvenienced should move to Montana.

I agree. There is an attraction to the excitement and power. Never have or will "wish" death and destruction - I hate seeing people get injured in car accidents, etc. Seeing Mother Nature drop the hammer every once in a while, though, can be awesome.

I have been through several tropical storms and hurricanes in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, so I can't be grouped into the "curious 'cause they haven't lived through one" group. If I have to live through a hurricane again, it will be much more mentally challenging since I have more to worry about than I did in the past. In the past I was worried mostly about my own safety and the stuff in an apartment. Now I own a home and have kids. But I did personally nail every single hurricane clip onto the trusses of the house I built and a part of me wants to see the construction tested - and pass.

[FungusMoldlyColdcuts]

im not a teen, lived through more than several hurricanes, and am not deranged. well, then again I dont 'wishcast' a hurricane my way. But I do know that it's a possibility that I have no control over them. But if one comes my way, yes i get excited and bit thrilled. Yes, i realize and have seen the damage and been affected very directly by hurricanes. But that is life, and I can't control something I have no control over.

best wishes(cast)

[Innotech]

many who wishcast canes happen to be teens.


I have to admit, I did a bit of -removed- back in the day when I was growing up, but then I grew up and will never wish a major hurricane upon anyone

Just wanted to point out, it is many not all. I am 18, I am watching and dreading Ivan coming up the pipeline right now. On the grand scheme of things, I do believe that a weak storm (like a TS or low cat 1) CAN be good for a community as a wake-up call (Tampa is an example, our infrastructure was completely unprepared, this is the 52nd hour for us without power, and I start school tomorrow AM!) and it shows people just the slightest taste of how bad things can be, and how they are ignorantly ignoring the problems.

On the other hand, FL is in a state of chaos right now, becuase it seems most didn't see this season coming this strong this early. Ivan is just the next, and there will probably be more beind it, and to be honest, I don't think it would take much more than another a major hurricane hitting Florida to impact every single person in this country. Right now, a few may escape the consequences of the current state of FL, but if anything else severe happens, its going to cause havoc here, and be a serious draw on the nation.

That said, I also think there is a tendancy (I don't know what it's called but I saw the name on this board) for people who personalize the storms to attract the path to themselves. It's not as if they want it, they just inhernetly believe that they will get hit this time... dunno why.

I saw the NOGAPs model of Ivan coming RIGHT up the bay though, and my heart skipped a beat... aie yie yie!

SOmetimes people have gut feelings. not "gut feelings" but true feelings that "this is it. Its coming here"
When I first saw hurricane Lili coming south of Cuba, with her eye on the gulf, I immediately had this strong sensation that something was wrong. As the storm came lcoser, intensified to Cat 2,3,4 this feeling got stronger. Iwas accused of -removed-, but I KNEW IT WAS COMING. Sure enough, Hurricane Lili came shore 30 miles or so to my southeast in Vermillion Bay, almost under Lafayette. the eye passed JUST south of town, and we got a few tornadoes in the city from Lili. After that I think people stopped calling me a wishcaster, because I sure as hell wasnt wishing for htis storm, but who can deny a true gut feeling? Its unexplainiable that htis storm made a freaking beeline for the Acadiana/Lafayette area like it did.

[NateFLA]

There is no place on Earth where one can "escape" the wrath of Mother Nature.
Humans are insignificant, Nature all powerful.
It is fascinating to watch, check the ratings on TWC "Storm Stories"

Florida has so few destructive hurricanes in the average humans lifetime, historically, that it is well worth "the risk".
It is easy to forget the actual terror of the experience. It is human nature to move on.

I agree, living in Florida is just like picking hurricanes as your major mother nature threat... almost anywhere else you go, you will not be able to avoid the wrath of nature occasionally.

What I do not understand is the oodles and oodles of trailer parks where people flock to in Florida. Florida is one of the LEAST ideal places to live in a mobile home, probably second only to tornado alley... and people keep coming, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it is very likely they will lose what little they have in one fell swoop!

[inotherwords]

I really dont understand why people live in Florida at all and submt themselves to the frightening episode of a hurricane (or several) there are plenty of beautiful states that dont have these storms and are much safer (and CHEAPER) to live in.

Don't forget, since 1950 there have been (I believe, according to the NHC site) just seven Category IV and V storms to hit the mainland US. Here in Florida, Charley was the last, Andrew was in 1992, and before that you'd have to go all the way back to Donna in 1960. You wrote from Louisiana. Wanna compare notes? Nearly every state you could mention has disasters, from tornadoes to hurricanes to floods to earthquakes, to ice storms. If your power goes out up north, or if you veer into a ditch in the winter you could freeze to death. If you get hit with an earthquake in CA, (I lived thorugh the 1989 Loma Prieta quake) you get NO warning and BOOM. Serious hurricanes hit Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, N and S. Carolina, New Jersey, New York, and up the coast even further. Florida hasn't received any more direct hits of serious storms than other coastal states. We're in the sights a lot more than most, but we aren't hit all the time.

In the years I've been living here on and off since the 1950s, this is the first year I've had to evacuate. Ever. (I didn't live here for Donna, and I was on the other coast from Andrew). I'd say once every couple of decades is not too bad. A couple times the same year is really unusual and probably not the best way to judge a state as nice to live in as Florida.

[NateFLA]

SOmetimes people have gut feelings. not "gut feelings" but true feelings that "this is it. Its coming here"
When I first saw hurricane Lili coming south of Cuba, with her eye on the gulf, I immediately had this strong sensation that something was wrong. As the storm came lcoser, intensified to Cat 2,3,4 this feeling got stronger. Iwas accused of -removed-, but I KNEW IT WAS COMING. Sure enough, Hurricane Lili came shore 30 miles or so to my southeast in Vermillion Bay, almost under Lafayette. the eye passed JUST south of town, and we got a few tornadoes in the city from Lili. After that I think people stopped calling me a wishcaster, because I sure as hell wasnt wishing for htis storm, but who can deny a true gut feeling? Its unexplainiable that htis storm made a freaking beeline for the Acadiana/Lafayette area like it did.

I understand your point, and I think gut feelings somehow do have some validity.

There are some times I can just tell something is going to happen. Charley for an example, was before I started hanging around here and watching storms closely. Yet, the night before it strengthened, I said to my friends "You know, it's going to blow up right before it gets here, and its going to be alot worse than everybody thinks. We should leave town tomorrow" and none of them believed me. Needless to say, it missed us, but it did blow up bigtime and had it come here, it would have definitely become us to leave.

[NateFLA]

A couple times the same year is really unusual and probably not the best way to judge a state as nice to live in as Florida.

That said, many think this is the start of a growing trend....

[inotherwords]

And many others don't.

[GalvestonDuck]

I really dont understand why people live in Florida at all and submt themselves to the frightening episode of a hurricane (or several) there are plenty of beautiful states that dont have these storms and are much safer (and CHEAPER) to live in.
I still find it somewhat odd (dont kill me) that people in FLorida are actually surprised when they lose everything to a hurricane. the same goes for any near coastal communities in hurricane prone areas. What do you expect? Again, I hope Im not offending anyone, but Im really concerned about the amount of people who pack Florida's coasts many without even realizing they are putting themselves in the future path of extremely dangerous and destructive storms. All this for the view I suppose, but that view would not be worth the hopelessness one feels when they dont have a home anymore. Is it really worth it?

Perhaps we can all move to Walden Woods and live in peace and tranquility?

Hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, mudslides, blizzards, avalanches, floods -- find me a place that hasn't been touched by ANY of those natural disasters and you'll find the perfect place to pack us all into one nice, tight, crowded, crime-ridden, disease-infested, underfed, solid little target for a WMD attack. But, for the sake of argument, let's just say we're safe and you move everyone into that special little untouched place where storms and destruction and devastation never happen.

But, I like orange juice. Someone's got to live and work in Florida and grow and produce that OJ. Same for beef -- gotta keep a few cattlemen in TX, don't we? Corn -- midwest. Lumber - northwest. Dairy - Wisconsin. And those people shouldn't be made to stay far from their families, right? So their families should be there with them. Of course, if they're going to live there, they need a grocery store, a bank, a post office, schools, and churches. Oops, now you need a few more people to help with those duties. And it goes on and on until we're nicely spread out in our little comfortable communities with space and air and food and water and...oh, yeah...hospitals. Gotta have those people because farmers might get injured or their wives might go into labor. So, you have to have hospital employees also. (That's where I come in)

I feel like I just laid out my map for Mother Nature Stratego.

[FireForEffect]

People wishcast for the same reason they watch NASCAR, they like to see a crash/disaster/destruction. Its exciting when mother nature throws something so much larger than life at you but anyone who has had their property or life seriously affected by a storm certainly knows better than to "wishcast".

Personally, I can see how storms are exciting but I cannot stand having no power because no power=no internet and that drives me NUTS!!