Crisis Mismanagement

, I admitted to being horrible in crisis situations. So you’d think that when we were facing our second natural disaster in less than a week, that I would have either a) fled to Canada or b) stocked up on 90 days’ worth of rations like every single other person in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

And yet, I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a planner. At any given time, we have a six-month supply of toilet paper in our linen closet. When we were first married and my husband realized I required this toilet paper security blanket, he mocked me. Twelve years of marriage (and not one single incident of running out of TP later), he now understands this wisdom.

Even though we didn’t stock up on food or buy a generator, I hardly think we were cavalier about our respect for Mother Nature. We planned to stay close to home, and even tried to convince my mom and her husband, who live in Virginia Beach, to come north and stay with us for the weekend. They declined, having weathered (heh) dozens of tropical storms in that area. They both felt that most of the media coverage was hype and instead of driving here, spent the time before the hurricane stocking up on wine (Costco offers a 20% senior discount on certain weekdays if you buy a case or more, you know.)

Thanks to YouTube, I learned quickly that other Virginia Beach natives also did not take the storm warnings too seriously. (I honestly don’t know what’s funnier – the guy who moons the camera, or the weatherman who is completely not amused.) I just know that I’ve never been prouder of my hometown.             

Farther south, in North Carolina, people seemed to be even more daring. I happened to be watching the storm coverage when I saw two surfers being interviewed in Kill Devil Hills. They had just come out of the roaring surf after countless warnings to stay out of the water had been issued. As one of the guys being interviewed starting talking (and I may have muttered under my breath, ”what a lunatic…he is going to get swept out to sea”), I slowly came to the realization that the crazy surfer being interviewed was, in fact, my stepbrother.

On one hand, my family’s insouciance in regard to the hurricane makes me a little embarrassed about instinctively fleeing any dangerous situation. On the other hand, I don’t think you’d want any of us on a crisis preparedness team.