Hurricane Matthew didn’t really hit South Florida. At almost the last second, it swerved slightly east, resulting in conditions not even reminiscent of a tropical storm for NSU and Broward County. And, despite the fact that almost 1,000 people died as a result of this storm, I’ve heard an overwhelming number of people complaining in real life and on social media about the fact that Hurricane Matthew didn’t hit South Florida with any real impact. Hurricane Matthew could have destroyed our community, but it didn’t, and instead of being thankful, some feel let down.
This attitude is not only childish and ignorant, it lacks compassion. Instead of complaining about the classes and tests that were cancelled, the money we spent on food, water and gas and the time we spent boarding up our houses, we should be grateful. News anchors weren’t exaggerating the danger, as indicated by the enormous death toll. We didn’t do all the work for nothing. We did the work because it’s best to be prepared and because we didn’t know what was going to happen. At the very least, after an 11-year-hiatus from hurricanes, we know how to be ready again.
Disappointment that the hurricane wasn’t “exciting” and joking about how you think the media was making a hurricane out of a raincloud is immature and disrespectful. When I was a kid, growing up in South Florida, I thought everything about hurricanes was exciting. I thought it was exciting for the house to be dark all the time, to have to use flashlights during blackouts and to watch the winds destroying the trees in my backyard. But now I’m older, and I understand those feelings for what they really were. I didn’t really understand then the seriousness of a natural disaster like a hurricane.
There are likely thousands of people who wish very badly right now that the hurricane had missed them like it missed us. Instead of being grateful, some residents are actually disappointed and feel cheated. Cheated of what? Destruction of property? Days without electricity? Massive flooding? Death? So many people right now in Haiti and other states would give anything to have been cheated of Hurricane Matthew.
Hurricane Matthew was a serious natural disaster, and it needs to be taken seriously. A storm that merely inconvenienced this community devastated other parts of the world. Thankfully, it didn’t hit South Florida, but that doesn’t give anyone license to treat the cause of the death of hundreds as a punch line.
