Just over six months ago, we posted a blog during Hurricane Preparedness Week. Three months ago, we posted another one, at the beginning of Hurricane Week. Today will be our last reference to hurricanes this year, because it’s now Hurricane Over Week.
This season came to an end (officially) on November 30, as decreed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Back in May, NOAA was predicting this would be a bad hurricane year, perhaps rivaling 2005 and 1933, years in which there were 28 and 21 “named” storms.
As it turned out, NOAA was dead right. In 2010, there were 19 named storms, tying 1995 and 1887 for third place. Only two letters were left in the hurricane alphabet after Hurricane Tomas — only Virginie and Walter didn’t show up.
However, the good news in all of that is that the word “hurricane” preceded only 12 of the 19 named storms. The other seven were prefaced by “tropical storm.” The other piece of good news is that only one of the named storms made landfall in the U.S., the second one of the season. A weak tropical storm called Bonnie made it to American soil in South Florida. There is a meteorological explanation for why the storms stayed offshore, but all that really matters is that they did, and America dodged a bullet.
People who spend time on cruise ships in the Caribbean Sea, and the waters that stretch east and south into the Atlantic towards Colombia, also spend a lot of time worrying about hurricanes. The reality is that cruise ships are rarely endangered by hurricanes or tropical storms, because of the ability to track them and avoid them. Usually, all you’ll notice is rough water when near a tropical storm (or worse) and, as relatively placid as the final month of the hurricane season was this year, there was some chop in the Caribbean Sea, as we experienced even on a ship as large as the Norwegian Epic.
The real worry is for the islands that can track but not avoid the hurricanes the way cruise ships can. They suffer the physical damage when the hurricanes hit, and their people also suffer the economic damage if cruise ships are forced to change direction and skip their ports.
You may lose a port stop. They lose so much more.