I grew up in a place with tornados and now live in a place with hurricanes. I'll take tornados over hurricanes any day. Not because of any difference in destruction, but because of the massive difference in inconvenience. With tornados, you know there is a system moving through a day or two before. There's no real prep to do. Once the storm gets to you you hunker down for a few hours and assuming you don't get hit you're done.
Hurricanes, especially the cape Verde ones, occupy you for what feels like weeks. Irma became a hurricane on August 31st. It didn't hit Florida until September 10th. And it felt even longer than that. You have to start getting food and water and fuel ready. You have to board up your house and help your friends and family put up their shutters. Everyone else is doing the same thing at the same time as you so there are shortages. You leave work in the middle of the day because your co-worker said they found bottled water at Publix. After work, you sit in a line of cars down the block to get gas. You have to make a decision about staying or going. Then after the storm, even if you didn't get a direct hit from the core of the storm, there is tons of cleanup. You often are without power for a long time. My friends who are from here speak nostalgically about hurricane parties. I think they're crazy.
I absolutely hated hurricanes growing up as a child (aside from getting to miss school) but I once got to experience the eye and it was incredible. The calmness feels extra calm after days of storm.
Hurricanes, especially the cape Verde ones, occupy you for what feels like weeks. Irma became a hurricane on August 31st. It didn't hit Florida until September 10th. And it felt even longer than that. You have to start getting food and water and fuel ready. You have to board up your house and help your friends and family put up their shutters. Everyone else is doing the same thing at the same time as you so there are shortages. You leave work in the middle of the day because your co-worker said they found bottled water at Publix. After work, you sit in a line of cars down the block to get gas. You have to make a decision about staying or going. Then after the storm, even if you didn't get a direct hit from the core of the storm, there is tons of cleanup. You often are without power for a long time. My friends who are from here speak nostalgically about hurricane parties. I think they're crazy.