Hurricane Me

You should be proud of me. The day LAC's regional conference ended, I unlinked my work email account from my phone so I wouldn't be taunted by a little red bubble with a number in it all week. For the most part I was unplugged from what was happening back home, but I couldn't escape a flurry of WhatsApps and Instagram messages related to "my" Hurricane. 

I'd started keeping an eye on Hurricane Erin in the Hurricane Tracker app before Josh & I left St. Louis. My mom & I reminisced about the family vacation to Daytona Beach that was marked by 1995's same-named storm. I remember sitting in a hotel room playing cards all day and helping clear palm branches and shingles from the pool the next morning. 

By the time I was basking in the southern sun and Blue Ridge Mountain vistas, though, Erin had become a bona fide hurricane - the season's first Cat 5, even. The news reported on its harmless progress daily (top left), while no less than eight people sent me screenshots or messages like "I protest the name of the current tropical storm! There isn’t anything stormy about you!!" 

A coworker in the DR even shared this reflection written by NYT reporter Erin McCann:

I’m watching this storm a little more closely than usual.

I like to think I’m not a destructive person. A little clumsy, maybe. Not terribly tidy. But not a menace.

Yet a storm bearing my name is the year’s first Atlantic hurricane; it may even become a Category 4. Storms get names, so this isn’t that odd — except that my job is to assign and edit stories about coming storms.

My colleagues have started referring to Human Erin and Storm Erin to keep things straight. “Erin’s raging,” one joked yesterday. “I’m updating Erin,” said another. Wait — the story or the editor?

We Erins have been here before. We got added to the list of names used for tropical cyclones in 1989. Ours comes up every six years. So the fifth storm this year, for E, means I’m in the news again. No Erin has been destructive enough to make officials retire the name. That’s good: I don’t want my name to strike fear. (Except when reporters miss deadline!)

This time, Hurricane Erin is likely to turn away from land by next week, so even if it musters some menace, it will do so at sea. More sound than fury. (Also, same.)

It was just the novelty of it: Erin's harmless path through the open waters of the Atlantic meant no one was genuinely concerned for my safety. 

I was mildly worried the location of the eye by Tuesday afternoon would interrupt our JFK > STI flight path, but we wouldn't have been any the wiser if it weren't for multiple turbulent stretches. Colleagues in the Caribbean reported a middling amount of rain and some low-grade wind gusts - nothing more. Praise be to God for His Divine protection. Join me in praying, together with all who live in the tropics, that the remainder of hurricane season (through 11/30) would be likewise. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!