Watch Out for Those Old Lady Names!

We have our first hurricane of the 2008 hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin. Her name is BERTHA. Another Bertha visited us here in Eastern NC back in July 1996. I remember this well because my family was evacuated from our beach house in the middle of our vacation. I don't ever think I have ever seen my family move that fast to beat the crowd off of the island. We were pulling out of the driveway of our beach cottage during a voluntary evacuation and the police department was coming down the street with an intercom announcing the evacuation. Bertha was one of the first real hurricanes that I remember. Upon arriving home, we had 2 days to prepare for this hurricane, but I remember the winds roaring and the rain beating down. That same year, we had another hurricane visit us--Hurricane Fran. Hurricane Fran was more destructive than Bertha. It caused very bad flooding problems and uprooted many trees in our area. That year was the year of the old lady named hurricanes. Whenever old lady names pop up for the yearly hurricane name lists, my awareness goes up because I know they could be doozies.