“Cause a pressure drop, oh pressure oh yeah pressure drop a drop on you. I say a pressure drop, oh pressure oh yeah pressure drop a drop on you. I say when it drops, oh you gonna feel it, know that you were doing wrong.”
– Toots and The Maytals
Tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew striking South Florida.
While celebrating anniversaries of this type borders on the morbid, it is for most of us here a pretty poignant moment in our lives. It’s kinda like when grandparents recall where they were when Kennedy was shot, or when the bomb was dropped. The natives who lived through the storm and the subsequent weeks afterward will never forget the experience.
I was about to turn twenty, living on my own with roommates, working my ass off and trying to go to school full time. It was, to borrow from Dickens, truly the best of times and the worst of times.
In the aftermath of Andrew, I had an opportunity to see firsthand how business capitalized on the government’s inability to get stuff done, the inefficiencies of large federal disaster agencies, and random strangers depths of kindness and selfishness.
Today is a tough day for some people pretty close to me. It’s as if the ghosts of Andrew have decided to resurface and kick around some drama. It seems as if the pressure in the barometer is dropping.
The good thing about pressure drops, is that they can’t last forever. Eventually things stabilize and get back to normal.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to crank up some Toots and keep my eye on a little cyclone down south…
Many thanks to Rick at the South Florida Daily Blog for reminding me that Andrew hit us on August 24th. Seems the days are running together and I pushed publish a bit too fast. Cheers!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
August 24th, 1992, is the day that Andrew hit South Florida.
.