Commentary

Mother Nature

November 6, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

I was watching a YouTube video a few years ago filmed by a bunch of college ‘frat boys’ in the US.

They were in Florida on vacation as a hurricane was approaching, and they were staying at a multi-level hotel near the beach.

Most local citizens with any common sense battened down the hatches at home, loaded up the car, and beat it out of there before the storm made landfall.

The frat boys, however, were looking forward to experiencing a full-blown hurricane. There was a lot of bravado among the fellas.

There was a lot of boasting like, “We’re going to ride out the storm, man!” And, “Yeah, man, we’re waiting for the hurricane dudes!”

The video then cut to the next day, when the storm was pounding the Florida coast.

Two of the frat boys were crying in their hotel room like three-year-old girls who had been stung by bees. The guy filming turned his camera on a stairwell where the storm surge was flooding the second floor of the hotel, and rising.

He didn’t say much – obviously, he was scared to death. However, he did make some kind of comment about them making a serious mistake by underestimating the power of a hurricane and by not evacuating when they had a chance.

The guys realized the hotel may be in danger of collapse due to the flood waters, and they were now all in danger of being swept out to sea and drowning.

Jamaica was recently hammered by Hurricane Melissa. You are in a serious situation when you are on an island, the airports have been closed, and a serious storm is approaching.

It was one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the region.

The island nation has been heavily damaged, but fortunately, there has not been a large loss of life.

When it comes to natural disasters, we are lucky to live in an area where catastrophic natural disasters are rare.

The wildfires of last summer were serious, but caused no loss of life.

Ontario has around 20 tornadoes every year. However, most of them occur in unpopulated areas with no loss of life. Although the Grand Valley–Barrie tornado of 1985 did cause loss of life and widespread damage.

Many people are still traumatized by what happened that day.

I have been involved in a few natural disasters.

During my final year in high school, our travel club went to Mexico City. The second night we were there, a powerful earthquake had our hotel swaying back and forth.

People were running through the halls and screaming. There were aftershocks for the rest of the week.  

In 1997, I was in my office in a large distribution centre in Toronto. A storm was raging outside.

I was speaking to someone on the phone when the storm suddenly became loud and sounded like it was blowing through the building.

A moment later, one of the guys from the floor burst into my office, yelling that we had lost the roof.

I stepped out of my office and looked up at the night sky. The roof had been ripped off, and it was now raining in the building.

Fortunately, there were no injuries.

A few years ago, we had pretty serious flooding in the local region. I drove my truck up a familiar concession road to take photos of the flooding. I knew the spot because I had been recording beavers building a dam in the creek.

The fields were flooded, and the road was covered in around six inches of water for about half a mile.

I took a chance and drove my truck through the water to a high point by the bridge.

I was surprised to see that the creek’s level had risen by eight to 10 feet. The water was close to flowing over the bridge.

As I was taking photos, a truck approached. It was a Town truck, and the driver asked if I lived on the road. I told him I was taking photos of the flooding.

He warned me that the river had just breached its banks near Highway 9, and all that water would be here in about 30 minutes.

I thanked him for the information and got out there really quickly.

Natural disasters can occur at any time.

It’s always best to make a plan and be prepared for any disaster.

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