A Different Kind Of ‘Storm Surge’

As I write this, we are currently experiencing what the meteorologists are saying is a once in 500 year rain event. Well … It is summer in the south, and we still have almost three months left in hurricane season. According to my wife, yesterday and today, she saw a bunch of folks that apparently believed what they were hearing and were out and about getting supplies. This is smart on many levels – you don’t want to be out driving around in high water, ducking downed trees and/or power lines, and fighting for the last case of water!

I can recall when I was working for the Savannah Police Department, we worked during several hurricanes. My first was David in 1979 (I had lived in New York, and I experienced my first hurricane – Donna.) David hit on September 4, 1979. I was working day shift and remember sitting in my police car on the corner of 37th St. and Abercorn St. as the storm hit. When the eye passed over, there was a short lull, and I took a ride around my beat. It looked like a war zone with trees and limbs down everywhere! There was some moderate property damage and we had to deal with dozens of flat tires on our vehicles for the next few days. All in all, not too bad. I don’t recall any uptick in crime during the storm or immediately after

In 1989, Hugo hit Savannah. My wife and I were on vacation in Jamaica and had to watch that monster storm creep toward Savannah via satellite. A friend was watching our house, and we were able to contact him. As it turned out, Hugo missed us and slammed into Charleston causing massive damage as a CAT 4 storm. Again, no significant rise in crime was noted. As a side note … The unit I was working with at the time was commanded by a ‘Gung Ho’ captain. When we contacted our friend he said the captain had the unit out during the storm jumping corners looking for bad guys! That did not surprise me in the least.

On September 14, 1999, Hurricane Floyd paid us a visit. Thousands of Savannah residents evacuated up I-16 to parts west. Many left on buses that departed from the Civic Center when they were able to get some "traveling food" (snacks and water) before they left. Many arrived at the Civic center in their own cars and then got on the buses. The process was reversed upon their return. The difference with Floyd was there were many instances of property crime. Since many of the neighborhoods were basically empty mine was … my wife and I were the only ones out of about 80 houses that stayed – she was working at the hospital, and I was on the PD, so we weren’t going anywhere! I remember hearing about our guys catching many miscreants breaking into houses, ripping off tv’s, etc. and just walking down the street with them. Many used the reason they were in the house was that the owners asked them to keep an eye out. Yeah, right.

So, where is all this going? The bottom line is, you must be prepared - for the big storms, hurricanes, etc. and the smaller ones. These include flat tires, losing electric power, and protecting yourself and your family. The use of checklists is a good way to personalize your needs and, when needed, not to miss something important.

Your day-to-day safety and security is just as important as any preparations you can make for a hurricane. Quite often we take our daily comings and goings for granted because we kind of fall into a rut. Then, when something out of the ordinary occurs, we hesitate, flinch, deny or otherwise react inappropriately. You need to be constantly aware of your surroundings and circumstances. You need to pay attention to your ’spidey sense’ when you have that ‘feeling’. You need to act decisively when the need arises. You need to cultivate the ‘warrior mindset’ and train accordingly.

I believe there are many people out there who want to train and improve their skills, or even just get started, but are fearful they will be unable to keep up or not perform well. I spoke to a friend of mine just yesterday and he was saying at his age (65), even though he was still training, he wasn’t making the gains and showing the improvement he wanted. I told him that I understood what he was gong through and offered him two words of advice – “It’s okay.” At my “advanced age’ (70) I can’t do the things I used to do when I was 25. HELL! I can’t do the things I was doing when I was 50! But … “It’s okay.” I only need to be better than I was yesterday.

So … Get out there and prepare!!

BE SAFE. BE EFFECTIVE. BE READY.