EDITORIAL: When storms approach, safety first

We were fortunate to have escaped the full fury of Hurricane Hermine last week, with, for the most part, rain totals coming in below projections and winds no worse than expected. While there were isolated problems and power outages, as would be expected, the region came out in decent shape.

Some commented Friday, however, that the schools were too quick to cancel classes, costing students a day and forcing parents to make last-minute arrangements.

You may have heard similar comments to this: “Well, in my day, we just put on our raincoats, got out our bookbags and went right on to school anyway.”

Officials at the schools — as well as those at local colleges and universities — did the right thing. While the event wasn’t as hazardous as some expected it would be, there was enough of a threat and uncertainty to take a conservative approach that, if it did nothing help, kept schoolchildren and school buses off the road at a time when there was rain and windy conditions.

Tropical storms can be difficult to predict. While some follow projections closely, others can meander off course at any time. Had Hermine moved a few miles to the west in its approach from Florida, events could have been much more dangerous in metro Albany and other parts of Southwest Georgia that woke up to a collective feeling of relief Friday.

Assessing risk from bad weather is, in many ways, as much a guessing game as it is a science. Second guessing is much easier.

The fact is, we’ve been fortunate that tropical storm activity, which usually increases this time of year, has been fairly quiet in recent years. Hermine was the first hurricane to strike our neighbor to the south in a period that was just a few weeks short of 11 years. But if conditions are developing that are more conducive to tropical storms as some weather experts believe, we may be seeing more of these situations pop up. We hope that’s not the case, but if it is, we should be ready.

As we have learned in weather events from the flood of 1994 to the co-called Snowmageddon in north Georgia in 2014, it’s dangerous to underestimate the power of nature and to be too slow to react. It’s always best to prepare for the worst, which, fortunately, doesn’t always arrive. When the decision is weighing the inconvenience of a disruption of schedule against the safety of children (and adults, for that matter), if an error is to be made, it should be made, as it has been said, on the side of the angels.