Debris from one of the houses in Punta Gorda that was demolished by Hurricane Charley, the first of four hurricanes that hit Florida in six weeks in 2004, via Florida State Archives.
Here we go again — our second major hurricane in less than a month. Its climate change-fueled rapid intensification has been startling to watch. Its expected losses are staggering.
I hope you took this one seriously, despite the fact that it shares a name with a goofy character in the movie “Office Space.” One of my friends said hurricanes should have scarier names, like “Apocalypso,” “Catastrophia,” and “Insurance-Nightmaria.”
I’m writing this while evacuating before the storm. By the time you read this, we’ll know where Milton landed, how powerful it became and how much it messed up a Florida already reeling from horrible Helene .
If you’re like me, you’re having flashbacks to 20 years ago. They’re not the good kind of flashbacks , either. No groovy music or silly fashions.
In 2004, Florida was clobbered by a series of FOUR major hurricanes in just six weeks. One smart-alecky columnist (OK, it was me ) described it this way: “The storms stomped across our landscape like a flamenco dancer wired on Red Bull, leaving quite a trail of destruction.”