Taking a look back at a wild week for the state of North Carolina and how events like Hurricane Florence help define the state.
Perhaps a better title for this would be: Where Have I Been?
But I don’t really want to spend too much time talking about myself, but rather, I would like to use this recent natural disaster to consider for a moment the sporting tradition of adopting a hurricane as your identity—a long held practice in North Carolina—and the somewhat ironic implications of doing such when your very identify threatens your livelihood.
NHL Carolina Hurricanes
Anyone who knows even a little bit about North Carolina is probably aware the state is not unfamiliar with hurricanes. As a southern coastal state, of course it is always susceptible to hurricanes, so when it comes to adopting a mascot to reflect the history of the region, what better mascot could you get than a hurricane.
Of the sporting mascots that use hurricanes as their identity, there is none bigger and more well-known than the Carolina Hurricane NHL team. Previously, the team had bounced around in several different cities under several different names before finally landing in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997 as the Hurricanes.
Since then the team has continued to be a cornerstone for the city, playing their home games in the PNC Arena. When I lived in the city of Raleigh, my apartment was only a block away from the stadium. The sports complex also hosts the North Carolina State University basketball team as well.
Cape Hatteras Hurricanes High School
It’s not just multi-million dollar sport franchises that have adopted the monogram of the hurricanes. Hidden at the very tip of the North Carolina Outer Banks is a tiny little island called Cape Hatteras, and on that island is a very small high school called Cape Hatteras High School. And wouldn’t you guess, the high school calls themselves the Hurricanes.
When I say this school is small, I mean it is really small. From 6th grade to 12th grade, there is only 356 students combined. But despite this small student body, the school still has basketball, football and soccer teams, where they compete against other schools located in the Outer Banks and on the mainland.
Just days before Hurricane Florence, my wife's family and I were on a 2 week trip to Cape Hatteras. While there, we were issued a mandatory evacuation off the island. Once leaving there, we traveled back home to our house. From there, we gathered some belongings, prepared our house, and then evacuated our home.
Hurricane Florence & Where I’ve Been
As many of you do know, I currently live on the East Coast in North Carolina. This previous weekend the state was hit by Hurricane Florence—the largest in the State’s history. Although the damage and death toll is still rising, in the end we were very fortunate in comparison of what it could have been. Many feared Hurricane Florence would hit as a Cat 4 or even 5, but just hours before making landfall, the storm curved south instead of north, and in doing so, slowed down and lost some of its power.
Despite this, the hurricane was still very deadly, taking lives and destroying many, many people’s homes. My wife and I evacuated with our two cats and traveled 400 miles to southern Ohio, seeking refuge in a hotel with others who had evacuated until the storm passed. As of yesterday, we were finally able to return home. We were extremely fortunate. Other than some exterior storm damage and trees down on our property, our house was not destroyed. We were extremely scared of our house being flooded and it wasn't. So in the end, we count ourselves very lucky.
Hurricanes as a Sporting Identity
There is certainly a sense of irony when adopting a natural disaster as a sports mascot. Tempting fate, you try to make a claim over the storm as if it is yours to own and to be made into a sports brand. Of course, this is all done is jest because no one but Mother Nature owns the earth’s natural forces.
Perhaps it is more of a claim of defiance when you call yourselves the hurricanes. To draw a line in the proverbial sand and say we aren’t scared of you. Bring it.
Or even better yet, maybe it is the resilience of the people of North Carolina who find a sense of pride in calling themselves the hurricanes. To say, yeah we’ve been hit by them before, and we are still here. We’ve been here for so long we are the hurricanes.
And that’s where I will leave it because Hurricane Florence has now come and gone. In its path, a lot of destruction. But despite the record breaking rain, storm surges, flooding and winds, we are still standing.
Cleaning up, yes. But still here.
Persistent and resilient.
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