Hurricane Ian Update: The Calm After the Storm
Hurricane Ian has just passed through Florida and is making its way up the coast. Here's what it means for The Science of Sex.
I’ve seen a lot of hurricanes since 1992. Floating back and forth from my hometown of Los Angeles, California, and Florida, I’ve seen hurricanes from Andrew to Irma. Irma was particularly devastating, even inland. As anyone who has ever seen a hurricane knows, the storm surge is the worst.
Beachfront property has both perks and drawbacks.
Fort Meyers and Fort Meyers Beach, Florida, are two cities underwater right now.
But never do storms really do much damage inland, at least not as far inland as the Greater Orlando Area. Hurricane Irma in 2017 was the exception, with rapid, unrelenting winds. Still, I was fortunate enough to get by unscathed.
Hurricane Irma was a category 5 storm that covered the entire state of Florida.
Hurricane Ian was a category 4 and was nowhere near as large (though it still covered most of the state).
Still, size isn’t everything.
Ian is panning out to be one of the deadliest hurricanes we’ve had in a long time. At least since the advent of modern technological meteorology and the understanding of weather we have today (thank you, science!)
Hurricane Ian just ripped through and snapped trees in half like toothpicks. It’s flooded cities along the coast and destroyed an unfathomable amount of property along the way.
Honestly, I’ve had to slow down my output this past week in preparation for the storm. And now that the storm has passed, the immense task of cleaning up begins. One of the beautiful things about Florida is the way that, for all of our craziness and escapades, Floridians always managed to come together, help their neighbors rebuild, and support one another every time one of these storms comes through.
We’ve had it easy. Since Irma, we haven’t had a big storm (I don’t think any storms have hit Florida, which is unusual). Until now.
Fortunately, I create a lot of my content in advance. The Science of Sex requires a ton of research. It’s not just writing a shoddy third-grade book report to churn out content. I want to bring you the most fascinating science that helps you understand yourself and the world around you.
Most of all, if I can help you relate to people and understand a bit more about the human condition, I would be overjoyed.
This world needs to do more relating, more understanding, and less separating, dividing, and individuating.
This process means I often prepare pieces months before they’re released, so there shouldn’t be too much disruption in the content from the storm.
Nonetheless, it will be a lot of work to manage this cleanup. Usually, we’re pretty safe this far inland. But a quick glance at the videos and photos coming out of my city tells the story of a hurricane that didn’t care where you lived in the State of Florida—it was out to destroy property and take lives, unlike anything I’ve seen in my life.
167 miles from where Hurricane Ian made landfall, and you can see our streets are flooded. It’s hard for anyone to get around town, even here, so far from the ocean.
Anyways, I hope this doesn’t cause too much of a disruption in bringing you the best content around.
There are also a lot of questions surrounding whether we’ll receive any relief or not, but those questions will be answered in due course.
If you feel like donating to help with the costly cleanup, my Kofi page is here, or free subscribers can consider signing up for a paid subscription (it’s only $5 per month).
Every few dollars helps. But if you can’t afford it, no worries. I’m just unbelievably thankful to have you as a loyal subscriber.
Brand new content is coming shortly. I can’t wait to see what you all think of it.
As usual, smash that “like” button and drop a comment on future articles.
Thank you for being a valued subscriber to The Science of Sex.