T
here’s nothing wrong with playing it safe around this time of year.
I know we weren’t anywhere near Hurricane Irma’s path of destruction on Friday and probably could have had our football and other sports either that night or Thursday, but Hillsborough County’s decision to halt everything until further notice was the right call. I know that probably bummed some of our athletes out but hear me out: you may not be able to get those games back, but you’ve got plenty of time to play more in the future.
Hurricanes used to not bother me much at all when I was a kid, which is funny because I moved here just a few weeks before Charley passed right over my parents’ house in 2004. The storms came and went and, once they were over, I’d go outside and hang out with my cousin and our friends. We were always lucky enough to not sustain any major damage, and we were never without power for terribly long. I bought in to all those memes you’ll see on Facebook depicting native Floridians’ casual approach to storms — anything at category 2 and below means someone near you is having a “hurricane party.”
When you’re just a kid, you don’t have as much to worry about. Then you get older.
I own a home and a car now. I’ve got bills to pay every month and I’m not sure the corporations that get my money care more about someone’s well-being during a serious storm than getting payments in on time. I work for a company headquartered in a flood zone in Sarasota. I don’t have pets or a significant other to worry about, but taking care of myself through a hurricane is enough of a burden. I haven’t really changed my stance on tropical storms and depressions but a real, nasty hurricane isn’t something I’m totally chill about anymore — especially not the nastiest Atlantic storm ever recorded.
I lost the bay window at the front of my house when Irma’s air pressure caused a seal to break internally, popping the entire window out onto my sidewalk, but was fortunate the winds blew all the rain away from the empty hole. My car had to weather the storm’s fury outside but was unharmed. All things considered, I got lucky. But not everyone else did.
As much as I wanted to be at Newsome on Friday night for the Alafia River Rivalry game, on which I had written a preview about before Wednesday’s announcement, I can live without it. Athletes are better off for having had last Thursday and Friday to prepare with their families. As much as I wanted to be at Strawberry Crest this Friday, teams and families in the Tampa Bay area need to regroup and rebuild after taking damage.
Even if you were fortunate enough to not be badly affected by Irma, we’re not out of the woods just yet. Hurricane Jose’s path, which looked favorable for Florida last week, is not completely certain yet. There will likely be more activity in the Atlantic if there already isn’t. After a storm like Irma, we can’t afford to be caught off-guard.
Like you, I can’t wait for hurricane season to officially die down and leave our local sports uninterrupted. Let’s all stay safe out there so we can live to play another day.