THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180648
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
The blue sky over Chesapeake Thursday morning was not what anyone expected.
Satellite pictures on TV of a hurricane as big as Texas barreling down on our homes made us all fear the worst. Even natives, who tend to be more blase about the threat of coastal storms than newcomers, believed Felix would bring big, big trouble.
When the hurricane turned tail at the last minute, there was a palpable sense of relief. Many a prayer whispered during the storm's dramatic approach was answered. We're thankful for that.
But after frantically taping up windows, packing away emergency supplies and fleeing to safe havens, the storm's wimpy blow had an anticlimactic quality, too. All the hullabaloo, all the precautions, all the anxiety, seemed a little overblown.
If that kind of thinking is Felix' legacy, the storm could turn out to be a killer yet. The fact that this hurricane wasn't the threat to life and property that we feared it would be, doesn't mean that the next one, or the one after that, won't be.
We can't afford to become complacent about hurricanes. The danger is real. Sooner or later, a big storm will come at us again and we must be as ready for it was we were for Felix.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FELIX by CNB