My blogging friends Wendy the (Very Good) Witch and Peeking Through an Open Window live in Florida, where of course they might see/feel Hurricane Irene. I feel for them: I lived my share of nature's manifestations of force (one ice storm, one important earthquake and one flood) and it's not funny. Although I have never been through a hurricane, some of the leftovers from hurricanes down in the South have touched Quebec from time to time, giving us heavy rains.
Hurricanes are given male and female names, in alphabetical order. I find it a bit boring and unimaginative. We do not give planets and constellations names such as Joey and Martha, we don't give such names to volcanoes either, why hurricanes? I asked an "existential question" on this blog about it once: what name to give a hurricane? My own suggestion was, I think, an interesting one: why not give one the name Tiresias? It has the right gravitas, being from Greek mythology. Since Tiresias was transgender, that would make for an interesting change in the male/female order.
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Yes, we are already preparing ourselves for the wind and rain, along with the power outages to follow (I have to admit, sometimes I don't mind the power outages). Hopefully, it will not hit us head on as my husband has informed me (still not watching the news) that it is now a Category four. We were hit by multiple strong hurricanes around 2005 and it was devastating. I was part of the relief effort and it was very humbling to see what our neighbors throughout the state had to overcome, with no electricity, food or water. Sometimes it seems that we take these things for granted until a disaster occurs in our own backyard. I will make sure that I have plenty of alcohol stored nonetheless, :-)
Funny you should mention 'naming' the hurricanes. My son asked us just today why they name the hurricanes? And then he preceded to say that it was stupid to name them....ha! I'm convinced that they all get named after the friends and family members of the people who work at the National Hurricane Center...ha! It's probably one of the small 'perks' of the job there! :o)
I remember the year of 4 hurricanes here....NOT FUN! We were lucky and were spared the really bad damage. But we did decide to pull our camper up to Savannah, Georgia in an effort to get it out of the way of hurricane #2. Only to find that it was headed straight towards ua at Tybee Island. So we ended up having to drive back home to FL in the hurricane, just to avoid all the tornado warnings where we were. I'll take a hurricane over a tornado, flood or earthquake any day! At least there is time to run away! Hoping this one is going to leave most of FL alone this time around!
As long as they do not name hurricanes Cynthia, Xynthia, Santhia or any like-sounding name I don't mind it.
Hurricanes used to only be named for women at one time if my memory serves me correctly. While naming the after ancient gods seems appropriate for the havoc they wreck, some of the names just don't roll off the tongue with much ease:-) I hope that the current hurricane doesnt do much damage. Fingers crossed for all the folk living in those areas.
You have a good point, here. Living along the Gulf Coast, I get my fair share of hurricanes, and I've always wondered at who came up with some of these absurd names! Irene? How scary sounding is Irene? Name a hurricane "Hades" and I just might pay attention!
Ça fait drôle de voir un ouragan avoir le même nom qu'une de nos tantes.
Moi, je pense qu'en toute modernité, les ouragans devraient être commandités par des compagnies. Comme ça, on pourrait avoir l'ouragan Nike, la tempête tropicale Chrysler, l'ouragan Coca-cola, l'ouragan BP...
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