Earthquakes, tornadoes and
hurricanes are each natural disasters
that you will never see in
the Lower Bucks area right?
Wrong.
On the night of Aug. 27,
havoc struck the East Coast
and her name was Irene.
Hurricane Irene. This nasty
category 4 hurricane touched
down in places that have never
experienced anything like it,
such as Pennsylvania, New
York, and even as far North as
New England.
The storm brought with it
high winds, rain, power outages,
flooding, damage to
homes and even one reported
death in our area.
Warnings came from local
news, the weather channel, and
even Mayor Michael Nutter of
Philadelphia, but were citizens
in denial? Did these people
really think that a hurricane
could hit us up here in our little
protective bubble that we call
Pennsylvania?
Many people didn’t think
that we could be affected,
because most hurricanes are
downgraded before they hit
the Carolinas. I put my nose to
the grindstone to find out what
some of the students at Bucks
felt about this bizarre storm.
Dan Welch, 18, education
major from Yardley, was at his
house watching the television
when the obnoxious weather
alert warning sounded. He
looked to find a tornado warning
flashing on the screen. He
didn’t think anything of it, and
having to wake up for work the
next day, he had to get some
sleep.
Welch woke up to no power
in his house. On his way to
work he came up to a powerless
4 way stoplight. He knew
what to do in this situation, and
stopped to look around him
before he went through the
intersection.
“Some lady decided she
wanted to go too and hit the
back of my car” he said.
People get panicky in those situations
and don’t remember
that they should treat this situation
like a 4 way stop sign.
Spencer Corrigan, 18, a student
from Yardley, was also
faced with some problems that
night because his house is
between the river and canal.
He was at a friend’s house and
already knew what can happen
when it floods. He stated that
the warnings were very helpful
and not overdone at all.
It did flood in his home and
he was unable to return for two
days. “It sucked,” he said, but
felt it wasn’t as bad as he
thought it would be.
There were some more fortunate
people who didn’t have to
deal with flooding, or damage.
Vinny Tenaglia, 18, a business
major from Bristol said that his
power had been out since 10
a.m. on Sunday morning. He
still felt that the warnings were
overdone.
Even though Hurricane Irene
was not the end of the world,
power outages crippled many
of us because we rely on it for
our entertainment and comfort.
Many think that we need to be
thankful that we escaped it relatively
unscathed.