Preparation For Fay Made Everyone More Comfortable

Floridians who have been here a few years remember too well the hurricane season of 2004. Camping in our own sweltering homes without power and often without water left a lasting memory of that time. That's why so many people knew the routine when Tropical Storm Fay threatened this week. It's also why it appeared to some who weren't here in 2004 that many of us overdid the storm preparation. We're glad we did.

Hurricane Charley slapped us out of that complacency. We learned then that regardless of forecasted storm tracks, expect the unexpected. Just about everything about Fay was unexpected - and still is.

Charley was charted to hit Tampa but hung a right at Punta Gorda. It crashed through inland Florida, doing major damage to places like DeSoto and Hardee counties. Highlands also was hit hard, but not to the same extreme.

Fay never reached hurricane status, and her winds were nowhere near as damaging as Charley or Jeanne's. Just the same, Fay intensified over land, which is rare, and then slowed down. Just when most folks thought Fay was a bust, she cranked up a bit.

The good news is that most of us came out of this just fine. We needed the rain, although flooding is a problem for some folks.

The other good news is that locals knew to take this threat seriously and prepare in advance for any situation. People were less panicked trying to get last minute gas and supplies. That's probably because they took care of those things days earlier.

Our local EOC and all public entities knew what to do and their updated plans were put into action. It all seemed to work well. Of course, we weren't hit with a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, which would have been much different.

The lesson learned is that it's nearly impossible to overly prepare for these storms. Perhaps this preparation helps lessen the stress all of us feel for days leading up to such storms. That in itself is worth all the planning.