#hurricane Milton

#hurricane milton

Evacuate.

I'm breaking character to speak very seriously. If you're in Florida, do NOT ignore evacuation orders. If you have Floridian friends or family, tell THEM to get out too.

I'm begging you personally.

Back during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on the East Coast as a mere cyclone, my stupid ass did not evacuate. I watched it roll in, trapped on the upper floor by rising floodwaters. Vehicles became wrecking balls in the current. Pieces of houses were ripped clean off. The glass on the windows bent-- if the wind was any stronger, they might have shattered.

The storm outside painted the world pitch black. It was like nothing existed outside those bulging windows except rain and chaos. I could only hear the roar of the wind, interlaced by an irregular din of crunching, scraping, and crackling.

It was only when the surge subsided that I learned that those noises were the sounds of yachts and house boats that had been lifted out of the harbor. Unmanned on the current, they crashed into telephone poles, dug trenches in the roads, and ripped through the walls of houses as if they were cardboard. That could have been me.

It was one of the most terrifying ordeals of my life. I survived because I was lucky.

If you've been ordered to evacuate, get out NOW. If you're not scared of "a little rain," you will be terrified by the time it's too late. It will be because you're trapped by an inky black ocean of rising water, surrounded by broken glass and shrieking wind, your little island growing smaller and smaller until you're swallowed whole.

And, for the love of all that is good, IF you're trapped in that situation, DO NOT GO OUTSIDE. Stay where you are safe until you physically cannot. Treat the water with the same caution as if it is alive and wants to kill you.

Be well. Stay safe. Keep your loved ones assured of your wellbeing.