For those of you who have never been in a hurricane, I'll explain it to you.

First, all the news outlets talk about it.  If it's expected to get real bad, you can tell when the weather man has moved into the weather station so he can update you around the clock.  Actually, weather anchors in Florida tend to be held very highly as thee go to person.  It's strange, the weather guy talks and everyone listens.

Second, you can feel panic and the barometric pressure in the air.  I believe it exacerbates everyone's crazy impulses to buy up all the water, gasoline, beer, canned food, batteries, sandbags, and chocolate.   You gotta have essentials and those items that make you feel warm and fuzzy.  :-)

Next, the hurricane is coming, maybe it's one to two hours away.  When this happens it's usually abnormally calm, somewhat creepy.  It literally is the calm before the storm.

Then the hurricane hits!  The power usually goes out and hell on earth comes through your neighborhood.  Sometimes you'll see a sweet lightning storm, then there's some hail, then a tree falls down, then there's a flood, then a tornado, high winds, REPEAT!

I believe that most Floridians deep down love the excitement of a hurricane.  It's sick, I know.  It's all fun and games till your own home or family gets hit.  I guess the excitement comes from the Russian Rullet-ness of it.  Maybe it misses you once, but maybe not next time.

Oh, I almost forgot the "Eye of the Hurricane."  It exists and it's very calm.  I've felt it pass by.  Inside the eye is calm weather, but just outside the eye is thee most intense weather.  It's pretty crazy.

OK now that you know what it's like to be in a hurricane, check out what Hurricane Irene looks like from space:

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