One can only marvel now, looking back at the radar image of Hurricane Irma whirling and jerking north between Tampa and Orlando and leaving two of Florida's major population centers with only scattered damage from its high winds.
There was only fear and anguish at the time, of course, as the storm approached and passed. People in the Tampa area went to sleep, if they could, on a Sunday night not knowing what they'd wake up to Monday morning.
Then came the sighs of relief as a dull sun rose on a panorama of curiosities — water and branches and wires out of place — but no devastation. The storm that threatened calamity for Miami then Naples then Tampa Bay had lost much of its punch along the way.
The post-mortems are underway on how well the community prepared for the storm — sewage pumps need backup power, it turns out, and leaders might consider speaking with one voice when they issue evacuation orders — but the most important lessons may be individual ones.
IRMA FATIGUE: It's real and there may be ways to deal with it.
HURRICANE IRMA: Read the latest coverage from the Tampa Bay Times.
All of us who endured Irma would be wise to hold on a little while longer to the memories of that fear and anguish so we can turn them toward the action that will prepare us better for the next time.
How many people promised themselves as the winds screamed passed their bare glass windows to pick up some plywood as soon as it's available again? Or to scour the house for all those important documents and shove them in a single, grab-and-go, waterproof container? Or to spend as much time as they do on a Netflix movie, at least, studying their home insurance policies, their evacuation zone, the route to a few nearby shelters, knowing that the closest one might fill up before they get there?
A lot of people did. But as the days turn into weeks, many of those promises will go unfulfilled — even with two full months left in hurricane season. You can get a quick measure of the urgency by comparing the lines at the supermarkets and the home improvement stores before and after the storm.
Hurricane amnesia sets in quickly.
So here's a quick reminder of how bad things looked just two weeks ago, on Sunday, Sept. 10:
At 4:40 p.m., according to a tweet from Richard Danielson of the Tampa Bay Times, you couldn't travel by bridge any more between Tampa and the other side of the bay: "Tampa police now closing westbound lanes on Gandy Bridge and Courtney Campbell causeway."
At 9:30 p.m., first responders quit responding: "Sustained winds are 50 mph or stronger, and it is no longer safe for law enforcement, fire, and rescue vehicles to be on the road," a Hillsborough County news release said.
As Sunday turned to Monday, Hillsborough County was sheltering 29,000 people in 42 emergency evacuation centers — roughly the population of Temple Terrace.
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Explore all your optionsAs fate would have it, by the time its land-sapped easterly winds hit the Tampa Bay area, the eye of Hurricane Irma caused no more than a 2 foot surge above the regular water level, Craig Pittman of the Times has reported.
Whew.
So now, finally, is a perfect time to work through that hurricane checklist, with the panic behind us — and maybe ahead — and the critical needs fresh in our minds. It is at least a time to update the checklist with the benefit of new information.
The temptation is to wallow in relief, to celebrate even. Hillsborough County, after all, dodged not a bullet but a bomb, County Commissioner Pat Kemp noted last week.
And in an article that must have the region nodding its collective head, Laura Reiley of the Times reported on the health benefits of finding some way to tamp down those days of fear and anguish — and just plain noise — that a hurricane spawns.
It is excellent advice.
It is also true that nothing brings relief like feeling that you're really and truly as ready as you can be for the next meteorological monster.
So have another look at that radar image of Irma, presented at tampabay.com with chilling clarity by the Times' Nathaniel Lash and Neil Bedi, then channel those feelings from that fateful Sunday night toward productivity, and consider — when you're ready, but soon — preparing for the next storm.