Hurricanes Stir Fear
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.

For those who live on the coast, the hurricane season is a time of mixed emotions. Here's Weather Notebook commentator Jan DeBlieu from North Carolina:

"Late summer on the Outer Banks. We awoke this morning to a yellow light and a low, dull layer of clouds. Outside, the beach towels on the clothesline drip with humidity. A salty wind blows off the ocean, but the day is steamy hot, and the weight of the air presses against my senses. My thoughts are muddled, my nerves on edge. Four hundred miles out to sea, a circular tempest wobbles toward the East Coast. The first hurricane of the season.

Hurricanes are an integral part of life on the Outer Banks, a source of exhilaration and pioneer-like toughness. They bring us together; they slap us awake. We watch as each new incarnation wobbles along, and we fret about what will happen when it crosses the Gulf Stream, the hot northward flow that serves as a bloodline for tropical storms. Ultimately we must face the choice of evacuating or staying to see the fury of nature in its purest form.

As a hurricane becomes a palpable threat, men in the streets mention casually that they've got to go haul their boats out of the water. A damned nuisance, they say, but their tone of voice belies their excitement. Women, bright-eyed, stop each other in stores and schools to share what news they've heard. That, at least, is how hurricane season begins. When a major storm bears down on the banks, our minds grow numb. Someday the big one is going to hit us; we know in our hearts that it will."

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is supported by the National Science Foundation.