Attitude must be stormproof

The Boston Herald

Beverly Beckham

My grandmother, Viola, used to work at the Shamrock Cafe in Inman Square in Somerville. It was a barroom and she worked late into the night.

For years, she lived above the cafe, but then she moved down the street. After work, she walked home. My mother begged her to take a cab. My grandmother refused. During the 1960s, the Boston Strangler was killing women her age. We worried that she would be found dead somewhere on Hampshire Street.

She wasn't. She lived a long and stubborn life and died of cancer in a hospital bed years later.

My other grandmother, Kay, died in a fire. She fell asleep with a cigarette in her hand. We never worried about her. She lived in the suburbs just a few miles from us. She didn't walk at night. She was careful. She was safe.

But she was the one who died suddenly and tragically.

It happens this way. You're looking in one direction and surprise, surprise; you get knocked over by something you never saw coming.

"You need to keep an eye on Isabel," my friend Mark, a Weather Channel addict, said a week ago. "You need to put away the lawn furniture and bring in the plants. Isabel is a Category 5 storm," he said, citing Cape Hatteras and miles per hour and wind trajectories and tides and the steady pull of the moon. "The National Hurricane Center in Miami is predicting that Isabel will hit Florida on Friday and then make its way up the East Coast and batter us."

That was LASTFriday when Isabel was supposed to "wreak havoc" (the weatherman's words) on this part of the free world. But it didn't. Florida is still on the map, not under water and Isabel was knocked down to Category 3, then 2.

Still, Isabel is what everyone continues to talk about, never mind that it is just a hurricane and this is hurricane season and we have lived through hurricanes before. This one COULDbe deadly. This one COULDbe huge, and according to headlines is "ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH THE U.S."

It isn't just real news that is hyped these days. It's might and could be and if.

Isabel is a "potentially deadly storm." "If it stays on track, New England would be spared, but if it takes a northward jog and comes in around New Jersey, southern New England would be more affected," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart told Herald reporters.

People should remain on guard, said meteorologist Eric Blake (remember when they were called weathermen?). "Hurricanes are notorious for gaining strength as they cross the Gulf Stream. Even if it weakens to a Category 2 hurricane (as happened yesterday), there's still a lot of potential for danger. People need to be prepared."

My parents prepared for a hurricane in 1954. We taped the windows. Moved stuff from the cellar. Found candles and batteries. The hurricane tore down the trellis and uprooted two weeping willows. It rained and rained and the things we'd left in the cellar - a crib and a high chair - we watched float by.

Sometimes, even when you prepare, a hurricane can knock you flat. Sometimes taping windows and taking in furniture isn't enough.

But sometimes it is. Sometimes you prepare and what do you know? The storm passes by. And you feel relieved and lucky.

Maybe the hype serves a purpose after all. We dodge a bullet and think life isn't so bad. A hurricane blows out to sea and we count our blessings.

"Isabel is the first major hurricane to threaten the mid-Atlantic since Floyd wreaked havoc on the East Coast in September 1999, leading to 56 deaths."

That's the news. The speculation is that Isabel "might," "possibly" and "could be" as deadly.

"It doesn't look good," the headlines scream. But we'll have to wait and see.