, updated
One of the first sounds of an approaching hurricane isn’t the wind roar.
It’s the constant noise of drilling to fix plywood sheeting over vulnerable windows and doors of the homes and businesses in the path of destruction.
For me, the earliest sound of a neighbor’s desperate DIY mission to save their house in my small Tampa community happened as early as four days ago.
Because if Hurricane Helene – which claimed at least 230 lives across multiple states just two weeks ago – was a terrifying wake-up call to the power of nature, everyone here believes the current 160mph Category 5 Hurricane Milton is the inevitable apocalypse.