I’ve lived through a hurricane. I went to bed in New Orleans with a category one storm in the Gulf. I woke up with a category three bearing down and no way out of the city. The eye wall missed by about 30 miles, eventually hitting Plaquemines Parish & Pascagoula to the east.
But, the city was shut down. There was no electricity. Downed trees were everywhere.
There was looting on my street. 30 or so folk were breaking into the neighborhood Mom & Pop store and were turned back by a sole, brave, police officer and his dog.
My wife was scared to death. I was scared my decision to stay in town had killed her. We were stuck in a hot, humid, boarded house with only a dying transistor radio for information. Eventually, we had to help the police get into a house where a neighbor had, as the ad says, Fallen and could not get up”. She lived. I do not think anyone in New Orleans proper died. But it was close enough to truly amp up a prolonged adrenaline charge.
As you can imagine from the description of the radio, that was a long time ago. Probably 25 years or so back. But...and the reason I write this, is I still have a mild post traumatic stress response whenever I see any news of hurricanes developing. Even if the hurricane is likely to be a thousand miles away, I get antsy. Bottom line, powerful natural events, like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wild fires, leave a permanent impact on a person.
This is, frankly, our opportunity. We can use the weather channel as a simple, non-threatening way to challenge the Trumpistas in our lives. Mind you, most who follow Trump still believe climate change is some sort of fake news conspiracy. We won’t change all minds. And given the late date, it is more important to focus on get out the vote activities.
But.
Millions of folks in the West have experienced fires. Millions in the Great Plains and the South have experienced tornadoes and floods. In the Gulf South and Southeast, hurricanes have hit, and continue to hit, repeatedly, and with ever greater force. There are a lot of folk in these states and a lot of these states are in play for the election.
See a Trump sign? Ask the owner, “Don’t you ever watch the Weather Channel?” If they ask why, just say, “Just follow the weather reports. You’ll see how things have already changed.” That’s it.
The weather has had an impact on more folk than the pandemic. Trump’s economic mess can be explained away by his followers who blame the pandemic. Racism is simply too hard for some folk to accept, and frankly too close to home for a lot of folks to face.
But the weather happens every day. The Weather Channel covers the changes quite matter-of-factly. “This is hottest year on record”. “This is the first year we have run our of names for tropical storms.” “That is a record high water mark”. Trump drawing on a hurricane projection map did NOT change the hurricane’s path. Facts is facts.
There are lots of possible chinks in the armor of Trump supporters. That makes no difference if those supporters continue to believe everything he says. Weather is the one area that is likely to have the widest impact. More importantly, those who have experienced a traumatic weather event will have an emotional response. It may be the chink that breaks their self-reinforcing information- selection chain.
I tuned in the Weather Channel this morning primarily to see how much rain the remnants of Hurricane Laura would drop on Maryland today. A good bit, it turns out. But what caught my eye was the hurricane tracking map. Storms and potential storms are lined up all across the Atlantic. They are, in fact, running out of storm names.
We are now in the peak of hurricane season. It is also the peak season for election information. I suspect we can count on the weather to continue to send us scary news. We might as well use it to our advantage.
