Hurricane Irma and the Importance of Taking Heed to Warnings

With Hurricane Irma, the most powerful hurricane ever to form in the Atlantic, bearing down on Florida this weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in southern Florida were given the warning to leave their homes and go somewhere where they would be safe from the storm. One police department told residents that they would not be able to help anyone who didn’t flee the storm and chose to remain behind. Those who take heed to the fair warnings stand a better chance of surviving the calamity. Those who don’t put their own lives at risk.

In our society, we value the benefits of a fair warning. We have tornado warning systems that sound off telling people that they need to get to shelter as quickly as possible. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center monitors the effects of earthquakes around the Ring of Fire and lets communities know when they need to warn people to move to higher ground. We rely on weather forecasts in order to determine how we need to prepare for the next day or the next week. If we take heed to the fair warnings that we receive, we can stay out of a lot of trouble and avoid many tragic situations.

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