YATW #1: People aren't ready for a major storm. Here's why.

Posted by Liam Hart in English 1 - Dunn - X on

Hurricane Sandy caused more than 4.6 billion dollars in damage. That’s 217 thousand years of work for somebody making minimum wage and working 8-hour days and weekends. That’s just what FEMA paid out in insurance money and aid to states. That doesn't count the losses in property, medical bills, and productivity from states Vermont to North Carolina having declared states of emergency. All in all, Sandy was one of the three most expensive hurricanes in recorded US history, said CNBC.


It’s okay if hurricanes aren’t exactly on your mind right now.What you might not realize is that Sandy had its 1-year anniversary in late October. And yet, a quick google search yields results mostly for the similarly-named Sandy Hook shooting at time of writing. Why is this so? My personal guess is that while gun control will always be a hot-button issue, no hurricanes have nailed the mid-atlantic in the past year. Despite this, the risk of further hurricanes will only grow as the sea level rises, which poses a hazard for people living from the Caribbean to Cape Cod.


Although there is a storm survival kit available on NOAA subsidiary ready.org, I had not heard of it despite the fact that I’ve been riding out storms in Sea Isle since I was very young. While I can only assume that some people were prompted to collect the things on the list by Sandy’s arrival, many probably did not go through the hassle of collecting all of the items. It also doesn’t help that I had to follow three links in order to get to the list. One must want to know how many people could jump through those hoops to get the list, and how many of those who did actually obtained the contents of the list.


It’s a simple chain. News outlets don’t report on the hurricanes after they’ve happened. People forget about the disasters, and stop being prepared. Then, the next hurricane comes and people have only a few days to prepare. With so few people and properties ready, the hurricane arrives and causes millions of dollars in damage. An amazing fact you may not realize is that 2013 was the first year this decade in which a major hurricane did not hit the mid-atlantic region.


Hurricanes can and have caused billions of dollars in damage all over the Eastern Seaboard. This even though the media don’t report on the phenomenon of extreme storms outside of directly when they’re happening. This, combined with the hassle of getting the recommended items, can cause people to not be ready for the storms. This contributes to the damage storms deal, which makes the media hype up storms more, making them not good stories for later. That is why people aren’t ready for the storms, and why that is a bad thing.


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Comments (16)

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Harrison Freed (Student 2017)
Harrison Freed

We are all desperately unprepared for hurricanes. I think that's incredibly important (and you obviously do too), but you seemed to not pay as much attention to it as you did to how much the media underplays it. Still quality, but I personally would've preferred seeing more on awareness. A picture would've been helpful too.

Breanne Lucy (Staff)
Breanne Lucy

I like your combination of personal experience/commentary and sources. I wonder if you could make it more clear where you got the information you included in the 4th paragraph.