IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN! (A WCHL Commentary)

It’s September again and you know this is the month that those government named big storms that come in alphabetical order love to visit us. If you watched any of the recent coverage of the Hurricane Katrina five year anniversary, maybe you were struck as I was with the number of people who said that they now regret their decision not to comply with the evacuation order and how they will never refuse to evacuate again. Maybe, maybe not.

The government mandates, requires, and directs many things, but we all know that some people are just not the complying types. Here in North Carolina the Governor has started a push to call attention to the need to be prepared for this busy and potentially dangerous storm season. Gov. Perdue has proclaimed September as Emergency Preparedness Month to encourage everyone to be disaster-ready at all times. Since I’ve lived here, hurricanes in 1996, 1999 and 2004 stand out as reminders of how devastating these things can be.

Yet in spite of all of the pleas to get prepared, some just won’t. I guess they believe that it just can’t happen here again or it won’t affect them. We all need an emergency plan, and an emergency kit. The state has a site up to help, www.readync.org. Lots of good emergency prep info is there, as well as several useful links. Hope is not a strategy, and as much as we might hope for no storms, we all still need to be ready if one does comes. Trite as is sounds, it’s still true that failing to plan is planning to fail.